Please wait. Contacting image service... loading

Article text

RANDELL IN
TUG-O'-WAR
Hollywood
cable -
from
DICK
KISCH
AUSTRALIAN
stage and
screen actor
Ron Randell is in
the middle of
professional and
private tugs of
war.
British Romulus
Film Co. spent last
week yelling at him
Transatlantic to re-
turn to London im-
mediately to finish
off his part in the
f i l m, "I Am a
Camera."
They wanted him
promptly in the studio
at eight o'clock Sunday,
morning. January 9.
They spent consider-
able sums telephoning
and cabling Randell,
who found himself in-
volved in complications
at the other end.
Trouble was that Ran-
dell, tele - filming in
Hollywood, contracted to
finish on Friday, leaving
himself only the period
between Friday night
and Sunday morning to
fly from California to
England.
At the time of writing
there was a time lag of
four hours between
Randell's scheduled time
of arrival in London Air-
port around midday and
Romulus Studio's 8 a.m.
deadline.
Randell's private tug-
of-war climaxed unex-
pectedly for him during
his Hollywood visit when
his 38-year-old Austra-
lian-born wife, Marie
Keith Randel sued him
for divorce.
According to a close
friend of Randell in
London, his wife's div-
orce action took him by
surprise, as he hadn't
expected it when he left
London just before
Christmas.
There had been an ear-
lier institution of divorce
proceedings by Marie
Randell but at the last
minute she refused to
continue the action, de-
spite Randell's openly
professed desire for a
divorce,
BRITISH a c t r e s s
Elizabeth Sellars,
who returned from
Hollywood after playing
opposite two universally -
desired and seldom re-
sisted young actors—
Marlon Brando and
Richard Burton—has a
devastating under-state-
ment about them.
She says: "Both are
charming."
Miss Sellars, sensuous,
brilliant and beautiful, is
bored with playing other
star's elder sisters in
films.
In "Desiree" she play-
ed Jean Simmons' elder
sister.
Then she played op-
posite Richard Burton in
"The Prince of Players."
She also played Hum-
phry Bogart's wife in
Ava Gardner's "Bare-
footed Contessa."
It is now suggested
that Miss Sellars might
play Ava Gardner's el-
der sister in the latter's,
next film, but she has re-
jected it. Miss Sellars
says:
"Actually, believe it or
not, the part of Miss
Gardner's elder sister is
not very interesting,"
Instead she is consid-
ering a stage part, al-
though it means playing
someone 39. Not some-
body's elder sister, but
somebody's mother.
Miss Sellars says:
''But it's a good part."
Ava Gardner also
swept into London.
So did pert Audrey
Hepburn, with husband
Mel Ferrer.
Then respective publi-
city outfits hired large
reception rooms, respect-
ively, in London's two
most star-studded hotels
—the Dorchester and
the Savoy.
A b o u t 200 people
(mainly the same) were
present at both recep-
tions during which the
stars aimably answered
a series of pointless
questions, including (to
Gardner) : "Are you
planning to get mar-
ried? and to Hepburn:
"Do you regret marry-
Mel Ferrer?" (Answer:
"No. positively!").
Even little Miss Doro-
thy Tutin is relieved that
her converted barge
Ondine, broke its back at
Christmas, and she now
returns to more conven-
tional living quarters.
She says: "I've been
getting tired of reading
how tired everyone else
is of reading how tired
I am of living on a
boat."
Actually it was a con-
verted invasion barge,
long past its prime and
it met a merciful death.
Now she lies miserably
on the Thames mud, op-
posite artist Whistler's
house, at Chelsea.
Miss Tutin, who is now
ending an incredibly suc-
cessful stage run of "I
Am A Camera," hasn't
yet accepted any new
film offers and hasn't a
film contract.
She says: "There was
a Hollywood offer once,
sort of a starlet one. I
said 'No.' "
BBC Australian dance
band boss. Jim Davidson
is scratching his head to
find a better word to
please the culture vult-
ures, who think the BBC
should find a better title
for their forthcoming
festival of dance music.
In the old days, David-
son's concerts would
have been simply de-
scribed as "jazz" festival
but experts now give
such precise meanings to
terms like jazz, jive, and
swing, that no one yet
has found an adequate
description for the high-
powered, tricky, noisy,
and extremely versatile
arrangements which will
be heard at these con-
certs, which specifically
excluding strict tempo
dance and entertainment
bands like Victor Sylves-
ter, Geraldo or Billy
Cotton.
$