Diana McLellan

Hello, everyone!

You may not be aware, but Booktrope - the publisher which released both ‘Making Hay’ and re-released what Diana referred to as the Director’s Cut of ‘The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood’ - has gone out of business. Its titles will be pulled from Amazon by tomorrow or the day after.

If you would have been on the fence about purchasing a hard copy of these books, it would be a good idea to do so this evening. If you have friends who may be interested, please feel free to share this information!

http://www.amazon.com/Diana-McLellan/e/B001HD1Q5C/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

"Monday is the first day for Kate Bennett, Politico’s new gossip columnist. When Politico editor Susan Glasser announced Bennett’s hire earlier this month, she promised 'a great read multiple times a week' in the mold of Diana McLellan, whose column 'The Ear' was called a 'must-read' in her New York Times obituary."

Politico’s plan to launch a gossip column in the gossip-saturated capital | Poynter. Create. Inform. Engage. | Journalism training, media news & how to's

Henry's in the Early 1970s

SIMMONS: Washington’s witty ‘Ear’ Diana McLellan died Wednesday. Most Washingtonians did not know her by name, and to many of those who did, she was simply “The Ear,” the writer extraordinaire who gave respect to what otherwise would have been tagged as tabloid journalism or yellow journalism.

From the Archives: And Then She Said … "It’s like having been an ax murderer," Diana says gloomily. "No one ever forgets you were once a gossip columnist."

In memory of journalist Diana McLellan.
http://tinyurl.com/p8roc8a

Greta Garbo hated her dancing lessons for this number so much that that she hid up a cyprus tree in her yard when her coach approached, shouting "Go away, Rumba!" The movie - "Two-Faced Woman" - was the turkey that effectively ended her career. (The whole juicy story is in "The Girls," of course.) Thanx, Connie.

GRETA GARBO DANCING THE DIVINE IS DANCING "LA CHEECA CHOCA"

A new show "Cecil Beaton at Home" opens Friday in Wiltshire, England. The great designer/royal photographer had a crush on Garbo for years, and even proposed marriage. He was of course devoutly gay, and Garbo Sapphic - but they did get together. Here's a little taste from the later chapters of "The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood" http://bit.ly/1vO53U9

Of course, it's better if you know all that went before. And that's so easy on Kindle! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I4XAMB2

Thrive: Love her or hate her, Arianna Huffington is a miracle of personal evolution.

Here's what she was like when I lunched with her for Washingtonian magazine in May of 1994 - long before hubby Michael clambered from the closet and she persuaded a lot of fine journalists to work for nothing ...

See the full article here: http://bit.ly/Y7tKgu

Just found this old review of "The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood" from the Houston Chronicle. Never seen it before! The spanking-new Booktrope edition is on Amazon, in paperback, hardback and - dirt-cheap and instantaneous - for Kindle. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I4XAMB2

'The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood' by Diana McLellan Yes, there are prurient details, including topless snapshots of Greta Garbo taken by her lover Mercedes de Acosta in 1931, but in general The Girls reflects author Diana McLellan's exhaustive research into half a century of Hollywood history that has been buried, lost or covered up. If you are a fan…

The 1930s were different. Well, a bit ... http://youtu.be/rnySJxE_XQA

A "Sweet and Smoking" Production Number from 1934 Can you believe it? A Production Number like this from 1934? Well, Here it is. "Sweet Ma*****na" Sung by Gertrude Michael

Meet Nicky! The wildly chic and hilarious Nicky Haslam reviewed my book "The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood" when it first came out in England, for the Spectator. His view, under a very oo-la-la headline: "[F]ascinating, well-constructed and extremely funny ...[a] riveting book ... top-notch tales ... highly informative ... keeps the reader laughing all the way to Burbank..." He's as wonderful as ever. (And, of course, the new edition of "The Girls" is on Amazon - even on Kindle, dirt-cheap.) Here is The Man What Am, in today's New York Times "T" mag.

The Importance of Being Nicky The prolific decorator Nicky Haslam takes the opportunity to play up his extroverted personality in his new home.

Save the date! On Sunday, May 4th, I'll be reading a coupla my "Making Hay" poems, hit-and-run, along with other Hill poets, around lunchtime, as part of the Literary Hill Bookfest.

Join us in the North Hall of Eastern Market! It's a hip and jazzy occasion. (And Riverby will be selling few signed copies of "The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood.")

http://www.literaryhillbookfest.org/

ICYMI: 'The Girls' is topping the charts on Amazon. If you missed your chance yesterday, take advantage of the last few hours that this title will be 99¢!

Amazon: http://amzn.to/OBVqWX

B&N: http://bit.ly/1nE0Y3a

iTunes: http://bit.ly/1qV5sSg

Here's an unusually politically-sophisticated review of my book "The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood," from the Baltimore Sun. The spanking-new edition from Booktrope is now available in paperback, hardback or on your Kindle.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I4XAMB2

( Find a larger print version here: http://bit.ly/1krLLh8 )

Are you an Owl or a Lark? Circadian rhythms were hot stuff in 1975, when I wrote a regular Sunday column, on anything at all, for The Washington Star's "Portfolio" section. (This was pre-Ear.) New baby-names, the uses of duct tape, pop science - all were grist for my scribbler's mill. Just dug this one up. Simply poke the link ...

http://bit.ly/1kjCVlq

So sudden! The National Gallery in Washington will acquire the multi-billion-dollar 17,000-piece collection of the glorious old Corcoran Gallery here, including a dazzling Degas and Gilbert Stuart. The National's debonair director, Rusty Powell, has always had Crazy Glue fingers for picking up prime pieces. Here's what we chewed over with the salad during our tete-a-tete in 1998, when I was Washington editor of Washingtonian magazine.

http://bit.ly/1okATBl

Photo Credit: Bret Littlehales

The most brilliant and chic caricaturist of the 20th and 21st century - the man who gave Andy Warhol's Interview magazine its dazzle, and amazes his fans every day - is actually fondling my book. Oh joy. PS: He's right about how it feels! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOgG=1Y-fKso&feature=youtu.be

Sappho Goes To Hollywood by Diana McLellan Robert Risko recommends Sappho Goes To Hollywood by Diana McLellan

She was lover to the 20th century's greatest stars. How? Why? What did she have to offer? Here beginneth the Lesson - a snippet of Chapter 2 of "The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood." Sparkling new edition now on Amazon in hardback, paperback and on Kindle. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I4XAMB2

Perfect timing.

Awesome Norwegian commercial during the Olympics – Wait for it! vidcy.com

LOVE, MOVIE-STAR STYLE ... Mercedes de Acosta, lover to the stars, liked to memorialize her passion with romantic poems. For Valentine's day, here are two from my book "The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood." Both date from the early 1930s.

Tenderly, she inscribed the book of her poems she presented to the still-besotted Greta Garbo, after their vacation-for-two on Wallace Beery's deserted island on Silver Lake:

" ...for the sake of a house on a lake, your laughter,your sighs,
And for the Heaven and Hell I have seen in your eyes.
For the sake of Love, strong as Truth, deep as the sea,
And for the White Flame in you that reaching out lit me ..."

(Original at the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia.)

For Marlene Dietrich, after the latter purposefully seduced her (for a change!) she celebrated the German star's luminous beauty after a few transcendant nights of love:

"Your face is lit by moonlight
Breaking through your skin
Soft, pale, radiant.
No suntan for moonglow -
You are the essence of the stars
and moon and the mystery of the night."

(Original among Special Collections, Georgetown University Library.)

News! The gorgeous 19th-century Franklin School at 13th and K Streets in Washington is to be a center for contemporary art. It was always cutting-edge: Those blockbuster corner bell-towers concealed state-of-the-art infrastructure. Thanks to my Marx-scholar Ph.D. husband, Richard McLellan, my 1975 article in The Washington Star was a shocker: It first publicly connected the brilliant architect, Adolph Cluss, to his youthful chum and guru, Karl Marx.

http://bit.ly/1kAmSSF

ICYMI: THE GIRLS is being featured featured in Hill Rag this month!

Read the full write up here: http://bit.ly/1ixyVgk

Just found an ancient story (1985) from the Wash Times, literally lining a drawer. Pew! Mothballs! And a whiff of my old weird Power as a Washington gossip. I quit soon after this ball, by the way - for less money, more time, and, I thought, Real Life. But loved wonderful Maria. And Jim - who was shot with Ronald Reagan - was a prince.

Lovely and kind little piece about my book "The Girls." It's written by Diane Brockett, a colleague at the late beloved Washington Star, and graces the February Capitol Hill Village publication. (And in that selfie, by the way, I'm clutching a copy of "Making Hay," last year's book of my poems.)

Goodbye, Max. So great in "Judgment," with Dietrich. At Marlene's funeral, in May of '92, he read aloud (in a far softer voice) Marlene's poem/anthem: "Oh love while love is yours to give!/Love now, when you have love to share./The time will come, the time will come,/For graveside tears and dark despair./ If someone offers you his heart,/Then show him all the love you own. Make every moment sing with joy.And never let him walk alone. (By Ferdinand Freiligrath. My own translation for "The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood.")

Maximilian Schell maximillian schell , maximilian schell ehefrau maximilian schell tochter , maximilian schell marlene dietrich judgment at nuremberg 1961 , actor academy maxi...

So exciting. I read every extant version of Sappho's fragments at the Library of Congress, and bought a few slim volumes, while researching "The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood." The vast variations in translation, by the way, convinced me even I could translate Marlene's passionate life-shaping poem about love, by Ferdinand Freiligrath, for "The Girls." (On p. 135 in the new Booktrope edition.)

New Sappho poems set classical world reeling It’s a kind of literary miracle. Fragments of two new poems by Ancient Greek poet Sappho have been discovered, making it possible for us to be among the first people to read these texts for more than a…

Are you stiff 'n' stuffy when talking to kings 'n' things? Here's my advice on the Art of Small Talk, from a sweet little book edited by Jim Brosseau for Town & Country back in 2002.

http://bit.ly/1aLcBQy

Got a Kindle? Hooray! You can get my pride and joy, "The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood" at your trembling fingertips RIGHT NOW - dirt cheap! It'll take Amazon a couple of days to hitch Kindle and paper onto the same online do-dah, but if you're huddled at home a-Kindlin' these cold days, here's your immediate link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I4XAMB2

The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood Diana McLellan reveals the complex and intimate connections that roiled behind the public personae of Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, and the women who loved them. Private correspondence, long-secret FBI files, and troves of unpublished documents reveal a chain of le***an affair...

My Facelift story sold better than any issue of Washingtonian magazine, where I was Washington editor, to that date, October of '89. It was the first first-person facelift mag story anywhere, I believe, and was snapped up by both Good Housekeeping (?) and the London Daily Mail's flashy Sunday mag, YOU. (Which spelled my name wrong throughout, by the way, but paid quite well.)

http://bit.ly/M1pMkk

S*x and the superstar! Divine Tallulah Bankhead's in her great triumph "Lifeboat," Saturday night on TCM. This backstage dish, bizarrely, includes the real beginning of the end of Greta Garbo's film career. From my book "The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood." Press the little link for the wet, wild scoop ...

http://bit.ly/14QPKQ5

http://youtu.be/fUhl5o8cJ5g

Grand Hotel Official Trailer #1 - Lionel Barrymore Movie (1932) HD Grand Hotel Trailer - Directed by Edmund Goulding and starring John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, Jean Hersholt. Guests at a posh ...

Happy New Year- circa 1984! For ten years, as "The Ear," I let loose a corny rhymed greeting on my readers and their hangovers. Some of you are still around! Here we go again ...

Full size image here: http://bit.ly/1dTRWWu