More Bitchy and Catty ... Goddess Knows I Love Bitchy and Catty

Bette Davis on Joan Crawford:

“Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it’s because I’m not a bitch. Maybe that’s why [Joan Crawford] always plays ladies.”

“The best time I ever had with Joan Crawford was when I pushed her down the stairs in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?”

“[Crawford] has slept with every male star at MGM except Lassie.”

“[on the death of Joan Crawford] You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good… Joan Crawford is dead. Good.”

Whitney Houston on Madonna: 

"She's the high priestess of tack"

Joan Crawford

“[In The Women] Norma Shearer made me change my costume sixteen times because every one was prettier than hers. I love to play bitches, and she helped me in this part.”

“I never go outside unless I look like Joan Crawford the movie star. If you want to see the girl next door, go next door.”

“I am just too much.”

 “Nobody can imitate me. You can always see impersonations of Katharine Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. But not me. Because I’ve always drawn on myself only.”

On Marilyn Monroe:

“It was the most shocking display of bad taste I have ever seen. Look, there’s nothing wrong with my tits, but I don’t go around throwing them in people’s faces.”

On Liz Taylor:

“She is a spoiled, indulgent girl, a blemish on public decency.”

On Bette Davis in The Star:

“Of course I had heard she was supposed to be playing me, but I didn’t believe it. Did you see the picture? It couldn’t possibly be me. Bette looked so old, and so dreadfully overweight.” 

Sterling Hayden on Joan Crawford:

“There’s is not enough money in Hollywood to lure me into making another picture with Joan Crawford. And I like money.”

Vivian Leigh on Bette Davis after Leigh turned down a role in Hush … Hush Sweet Charlotte:

“I could just stand the thought of facing Joan Crawford at seven in the morning, but I couldn’t stand the thought of facing Bette Davis at that or any hour.”

Carole Lombard on Vivien Leigh:

“That f–king English bitch.”

Naomi Campbell to Tyra Banks: 

"You'll never be me. Don't ever think you'll be me"

Joan Collins on Linda Evans: 

"It's quite off putting to have to look at that face"

Tallulah Bankhead

“Cocaine isn’t habit forming. I should know — I’ve been using it for years.”

“Fill what is empty, empty what is full, and scratch where it itches.”

“Here’s a rule I recommend: Never practice two vices at once.”

“I’ll come and make love to you at five o’clock. If I’m late, start without me.”

“I’m as pure as the driven slush.”

“I’m the foe of moderation, the champion of excess.”

 “It’s the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time.”

“I’ve had a man and I’ve had a woman, and there’s got to be something better.”

“My father warned me about men and booze, but he never mentioned a word about women and cocaine.”

“Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.”

“Say anything about me, darling, as long as it isn’t boring.”

“The less I behave like Whistler’s mother the night before, the more I look like her the morning after.”

“The only thing I regret about my past is the length of it. If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.”

“There’s less here than meets the eye.”

“They used to photograph Shirley Temple through gauze. They should photograph me through linoleum.”

Bankhead

Tallulah died 40 years ago today.

Tallulah Bankhead's acting career was never as successful on screen as it was on stage. After many attempts at a Hollywood hit she saw some of her most significant stage roles performed on screen by Bette Davis. Davis won an Oscar for her part in Jezebel and won an Academy Award for playing Regina Giddens in The Little Foxes, roles that Tallulah had originated.
Tallulah moved to London in 1923 and for the next several years she was the most popular actress in the West End. She took a lot of drugs, chain smoked and would even take her clothes off and chat in the nude. Her voracious sexual appetite included affairs with Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo and claims she slept with Barbara Stanwyck.
“My daddy warned me about men and booze but he didn’t say a word about women and cocaine!” she once famously said. In 1950 she became Mistress of Ceremonies for the radio programme The Big Show. Tallulah became the object of the show’s humour, often laughing at her fondness for bourbon, growing old and her diminishing sexual appeal.
On 12 December 1968 Tallulah died of pneumonia in New York leaving a legacy with her famous phrase, “Hello, Dahling”.

Here are some of my favorite Tallulah-isms:
I’m as pure as the driven slush.
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It's the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time.
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If I had to live my life again, I'd make the same mistakes, only sooner.
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I'll come and make love to you at five o'clock. If I'm late start without me.
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They used to photograph Shirley Temple through gauze. They should photograph me through linoleum.
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I have three phobias which, could I mute them, would make my life as slick as a sonnet, but as dull as ditch water: I hate to go to bed, I hate to get up, and I hate to be alone.
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The less I behave like Whistler's mother the night before, the more I look like her the morning after.
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Never practice two vices at once.