Miss Anita Page

In the 1920's and early 1930's, Anita Page was second only to Garbo in the amount of fan mail she received. She was romanced by Clark Gable, and wooed via mail by Mussolini. But by 1933, at age 23, Page's career was over; her hard-loving, hard-drinking lifestyle, feisty nature and refusal to capitulate to the sexual overtures of Irving Thalberg all but spelled an end to her career at MGM. (The Mussolini business -- he wrote more than 100 letters to La Page -- was a convenient excuse to get rid of her.)

Her Hollywood career more or less finished, Page became a Navy wife; but you can't keep a good dame down -- by the 1990's, she was back before the cameras for a series of low-budget horror flicks, and making public appearances looking like the love child of Baby Jane Hudson and Truman Capote. A sad, poignant and hilarious account of her latter-day life can be found here.


BACKSTAGE AT SUNSET BLVD. WITH GLENN CLOSE

Still photos of Anita Page in her prime do her no justice; on screen, she was a ravishingly beautiful, potently sexual girl with enormous charisma. Today, at 97, surrounded by an entourage of hangers-on and sycophants, she apparently still thinks of herself that way.

And what's so wrong with that?