Gossip Friday: Crawford vs. Shearer
From November 1936:
Interest in the alleged feud between Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer is revived by the announcement that Joan is to challenge direct comparison with her rival by starring in the new version of “The Last of Mrs Cheyney”. The Lonsdale story was one of Norma’s early talkie successes.
The assignment follows Miss Crawford’s relinquishment of her role in Parnell with Clark Gable. The star, it appears, did not approve of the plan to make the film more romantic fiction than political history.
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“The Last of Mrs. Cheyney” actually already had Myrna Loy starring in it when the swap was made and Myrna went to Parnell and Joan to “Cheyney”. After the film flopped, Clark was angry at Joan for “abandoning him.”
2 Comments
Russell Curl
Please research and post more about Norma Shearer. I know she made at least three movies with him; I think the last one was Idiot’s Delight, which, it is written, that Joan Crawford wanted the role and cried when it went to Shearer. I wonder how the movie would have been with Crawford in it, but I don’t think she could have mastered the Russian accent the way Shearer did.
DMGAdmin
I’ve actually done a lot of research on Norma Shearer. I’ve seen every film she made that’s still available. I did a Spotlight piece on her a while back: http://dearmrgable.com/?p=5685