Today's Blind Items - The Secret Condo
As far as blinds go, this one is unusual. It's proof that the most unexpected of people can hook up. Back in the day, this permanent A-list actor-who-does-everything was already reaching superstar status. He had just completed a film which made him an icon and also made the city where it was filmed even more famous than it already was. Our actor, who we'll call Mr. H, was having a love affair with this particular city at that time, for a lot of reasons. He was never really someone who enjoyed LA or the lifestyle all that much. He enjoyed this city because of it's laid back attitude and also because people there for the most part respected his privacy.
This was particularly important because Mr. H was not faithful to his wife at that time and wanted to be a free agent without the LA gossip mill repeating things back to her. These were also different times, and it was easier to get outside of LA without the Paps following you around and recording your every move. So anyway, Mr. H decided he liked this city so much that he purchased a condo there. This was in a newly built high rise building that had incredible views of the area's scenery. The condo was on the edge of the city, so our Actor had the privacy there that he wanted. Mr. H's wife also knew about the condo, but was told by our actor it was for him to stay in while working, since everyone knew his movie was going to be huge and would bring more and more interest to the area for other projects he wanted to be involved in. Condos were a relatively new thing during this time and this one was all about luxury.
All of Mr. H's wealthy neighbors knew he was living there but for the most part left him alone. Anyone who encountered him in the neighborhood remembered how nice he was. There were a lot of small businesses near his building and Mr. H befriended a local man who owned one of those businesses. They became good friends and would often have a beer and just hang out.
We'll call this business owner Mr. B. Mr. B. was a really nice guy who was also friends with this permanent A list public figure. I guess you could call her a celebrity, but maybe an infamous one at that time. Mr. B knew this young woman quite well, who we will call Ms. P. Ms. P is one of the most interesting people of the 20th century and for her own reasons, is also an icon. She came from a background of great adversity, but was recognized for her genius level abilities at a young age. By the time she found herself in the sphere of Mr B. (and our actor) she had traveled the world and was already a very famous (or, again, infamous) public figure in her own right. At some point in time, Mr B. introduced Ms. P to our actor.
Our actor became infatuated with her almost immediately. He was older than Ms. P, and their backgrounds could not have been more different. In spite of that, they really hit it off and became close very quickly. It wasn't long before Ms. P was seen leaving the condo at all hours. There were more than a few raised eyebrows from the neighbors. A few months after becoming involved with Mr. H, Ms. P found herself in a very, very serious situation. She had become involved with a scenario with would permanently alter her life and have serious ramifications going forward. She was in real trouble. Mr H was alerted to this trouble by Mr. B and stepped in to help Ms. H financially and in other ways.
Mr. H used Mr. B as an intermediary so that no one would be able to trace the financial and other help back to him. If the public had found out about Mr. H's involvement with Ms. P at that time, his career and marriage would have been over. Mr. H spent a lot of money and without his help, Ms. P's life would have been destroyed. Mr. H also used his connections to secure a career path for Ms. P that she has parlayed into good things to this day. Mr. H has also quietly supported Ms. P's other endeavors over the years which is ironic considering the way he likes to be portrayed.
88 comments:
This probably isn't about the Little Caesar's guy paying Rosa Parks' rent.
Damn this is a good one.... Sooo I take it that all the players involved are still alive or no?
Clint Eastwood\Patty Hearst?
Tom Hanks/Heidi Fleiss
The different backgrounds lends me to believe that this is a mixed couple during the height where a white man and a black woman would be a true scandal.
Could Ms. P be Josephine Baker?
Or
Eartha Kitt?
Hanks was filming Philadelphia at the time Fleiss was first busted.
Random but I just found out that JC Chasez and Casper Smart have the same address. Very weird. But Idk if it's a single family home or like apartment building.
+1 on Heidi
Sylvester Stallone, not sure about the woman
What good deeds is Heidi doing besides her bird busines and occasional speeches about domestic violence. I saw her in person and she still looks rancid. Angela Davis and someone? GLoria Steinman and someone....
Good guess Montana!
Don't know why but Monica Lewinsky popped into my mind first. But I can't really make any other part fit.
City with scenery - Seattle? Sleepless in Searle Tom Hanks. Woman he helped Courtney Love?
Mr. H sounds like Clint Eastwood the city being San Francisco the iconic role Dirty Harry the time being the early 1970's. Ms. P might be Patty Hearst but not sure about the growing up with adversity part though the later troubles because of the SLA kinda fit but I think it's someone more in the vein of an African American Civil rights figure. At the time an affair with a young black woman that was a left leaning civil rights fighter would be career ending for Clint. And if they still keep in touch her left leaning politics would be counter to his republicanism.
Christine Keeler and ?
Patty Hearst is a trust fund baby who has not done anything notable besides speak out about her forced paticpation in felony acts. She married her bodyguard, had those socialite kids.....seriously not an icon for anyone
Hanks and Lewinski!
While Tom Hanks fits the actor, Heidi Fleiss grew up the daughter of a prominent pediatrician, so that doesn't exactly match with adversity. She also is not a permanent A lister and has not done any good deeds that I can think of.
Stallone definitely made Philadelphia 'famous' as Rocky (I don't think the Hanks movie did anything for the city beyond the title)
Is anybody bothering to read the whole thing. "Condos were a relatively new thing" kicks out Lewinsky, Fleiss, etc, as does the line about genius level abilities. Enty is fudging his timeline just a bit, the great adversity comes mostly after the genius childhood, but this sounds like it's Clint Eastwood and Jodie Foster.
Ms. P could also be Joyce Maynard, but she's not Enty's idea of an icon, and after her first affair nothing short of Richard Nixon would be surprising.
Not Monica Lewinsky. She "grew up in an affluent family in southern California," according to Wikipedia. The woman in the blind "came from a background of great adversity."
Ditto Heidi Fleiss - her father was a doctor, and there's no indication that Heidi showed "genius level ability" at a young age.
I feel like this has to be the 70s or earlier if condos were still a new thing.
Vegas for the city
Some old-time crooner like Sinatra
no guesses for the woman, but I agree it had to be someone of a non-white race for it to be scandalous
JC Chasez has lived in the same home on Sunset Plaza Drive in West Hollywood for the better part of two decades, so unless Casper Smart has moved in with him (unlikely or it would have been reported), your info source is incorrect. Perhaps they are both represented by the same agent or talent agency and you're mistaking that business address for a shared home address.
Eva Peron? Marlon Brando? Streetcar? I could see that. However, Eva died shortly after that, so, pooh.
Robert Redford-Mr H/"Hubble" from The Way We Were
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance kid (filmed in Sundance or might have been parts of Aspen/Park City)/first wife who he was married to for 40 or more years
Can't be Mike Illitch since the BI says "permanent A-list actor-who-does-everything". I like the Clint Eastwood guess. He would certainly have spent lots of time there filming the "Dirty Harry" movies, and as an added bonus he was born in SF. I can sort of see Philly as an iconic city for Tom Hanks, but did he make any other movies there? And Mr. H = (Dirty) Harry?
Don't know, but this is intriguing. Hope it's revealed one day.
Could Ms P be Patricia Nixon(they would
Be strange bedfellows... adversity being dads Presidency--
Maybe Janis Joplin?("Piece of My Heart"?)
It doesn't say good deeds.
Tricia - that's where my head went. They divorced after 25 years in the mid 80s. He built the A Frame house but their children were educated in NYC. Could he have obtained the condo during Jeremiah Johnson / Downhill time frame? Newman could have been the one who introduced them?
I felt it was older, as well. Sometimes Enty thinks "old" is 1998, sometimes 1972, other times, 1947.
The condos thing is important. It might even be older than Eastwood/Foster.
The city is obviously San Francisco. The most beautiful city in the US. That said, haven't a clue who the couple were. I chuckled when I saw Ms. P because that was the name of the first upscale gay bar in Atlanta on Peachtree Street in the early 60s. Ms. P's was inside an old-time Italian restaurant in the back. I am sure that entire block disappeared 50 years ago. Haven't been home in a looooonnnggg while.
Or Newman could be Mr H. Stellar family man reputation.
Thanks at just reading. Saw the icon reference.... Can't stand Fleiss..
Some might disagree about most beautiful city in US. ;-)
She's pretty gross. Was ALWAYS gross.
I'm sure Hanks/Fleiss doesn't fit, it's just stuck in my head.
Good one--possibly--I didn't think about the part too much certainly though.... the city was developing then and now is what we all know as a major destination spot(and beautiful)
Yep - could flip it. Reason why I picked RR was the H (Hubbel reference) but because both Sundance and Jeremiah Johnson were filmed at/scenes at Zion National Park in Utah. He also played Harold Beldon on Twilight Zone
Based on the line, "to secure a career path for Ms. P that she has parlayed into good things to this day" I am inclined to think the woman is still alive, although it COULD refer to a wonderful legacy she left behind.
My first thought on the city was Vegas.
Yep- I said RR was "H/Hubble" from the way were were- in my original post above guesses Aspen or Park City Utah(BCATSK)shot in a few places... wasn't sure who"bizness owner was"
JUSTREADING: Which city do you think is the most beautiful? Would love to know. Honest.
Mr. H- Robert Redford, the "H" standing for "Hollywood". (I believe he's a graduate of Hollywood High School, correct?)
The City- Sundance, Utah. Redford made it what it is by setting his film festival there. Previously, it was just one of a bunch of minor ski resorts, well behind Park City and Aspen when it came to trendiness.
Also, RR is known for being very nice in casual settings with civilians. William Goldman has written about this, as well as the difficulty in getting access to him, both personally and professionally, once he became a mega-star. (Goldman has a bit of an axe to grind, seeing as it was his script, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", that was Redford's first smash.)
Mr. B is Carl Bernstein, the Watergate reporter who not only stayed connected to Hollywood through the movie version of "All the President's Men" (Woodward and Bernstein's story of the investigation, screenplay by Goldman) but also through his marriage to Nora Ephron. Redford (playing Woodward) did a lot of research for the role, and (according to Goldman) strained their relationship by trying to push a version of the screenplay that Bernstein & Ephron were writing behind Goldman/the studio's backs. Goldman had to go to the top to keep his job. So Redford and Bernstein definitely had a relationship beyond what Dustin Hoffman (playing Bernstein) had with either reporter.
And thus Bernstein might well have facilitated a secret hookup between the married Redford and the harried but seen by many as a martyr Patty Hearst (OBVIOUSLY Ms. P), especially if it was in an quiet town when that was what Patty, awaiting trial, desperately needed. Bernstein was certainly not a big fan of marital fidelity, at least not according Ephron's post-divorce book, "Heartburn". (Later a movie with Jack Nicholson as Bernstein and Meryl Streep as Ephron.)
I have ZERO direct knowledge about this, but it just screams Redford/Bernstein/Hearst to me.
Correction, Redford went to Van Nuys HS, where he was classmates with future Dodgers star Don Drysdale. But there are certainly enough reasons to code him as "Mr H" even if my first guess there was wrong.
this is clint eastwood and san francisco. but by the description of the woman I don't think we're even warm. she is :
- a permanently a-list public figure
- one of the most interesting people of the 20th century
- an icon ("for her own reasons")
- from a background of great adversity
- showed genius-level talent at a young age
- was already a world-traveler and very famous/infamous when they met
- she had a problem that he saved her from financially and in other ways
- he directed her into a career path that she benefits from to this day
i'm guessing she got into trouble with the drug/crime world, hence the reason he couldn't be affiliated with her (aside from the fact he was married)
so she's a musician? a ballet dancer? what other careers would a young woman be recognized for having genius-level talent in the 70's/early 80's?
I think you are onto something. I am going to do some digging around the time of the first Dirty Harry movie.
I just can't buy the Patty Hearst guess. She's an heiress from an EXTREMELY wealthy family - why would she need financial help?
I also think it sounds like Ms. P is still alive, so I'm guessing this was the 60s or 70s.
(Incidentally, Patty Hearst is currently the owner of prize-winning French bulldogs. She regularly competes in dog shows including the Westminster Kennel Club show. I LOVE dogs, but I don't think Patty's kidnapping, her roles in John Waters movies, or her work with animals would make Enty say she has "genius level abilities.")
actually she probably first came into the public arena for her talent in the 60's. no indication that she was still a youth when they met, just younger than he was. he would have been in his 40's.
Oh, fudge, I missed the "local business owner" description for "Mr. B".
Never mind.
(And Bernstein fit the timeline so well! Oy…)
In a minor note, Enty's pal Amanda Peet had one of her early successes playing a Patty Hearst figure on an episode of Law & Order (ep 6.05, "Hot Pursuit"). So that might have been part of the appeal of this story…assuming I haven't botched the Hearst part as badly I've bungled the rest.
Grr, argh.
I did some more digging and almost fell off my chair. :o :o Dirty Harry was filmed/released in 1970/71 in SF. This was also the time that the Black Panthers were becoming very active. Angela Davis (!!!!!!!) of course was high profile and became a fugitive in 1970 after the courtroom takeover in Marin County involving the BPs. She was arrested, tried and eventually acquitted. AD was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama and was friends with the little girls killed in the church bombings there. Her parents were well educated but poor. AD got scholarships and also studied in Europe as a teenager and spoke several languages at a young age. She later went on to become a Professor at University of California Santa Cruz, which is just up the road from Carmel, which was CE's home base (or maybe still is). AD has been considered one of the foremost authorities on prison reform and the prison industrial complex. She's now supposedly retired. From what I've read online, CE was born in San Francisco and raised in Peidmont, near Oakland and went to Oakland Tech HS. The family later moved to Seattle. So he had DEFINITE ties to the "community" there.
From wiki: "Soon after, Davis became a fugitive and fled California. According to her autobiography, during this time she hid in friends' homes and moved at night. On October 13, 1970, FBI agents found her at a Howard Johnson Motor Lodge in New York City.[28] President Richard M. Nixon congratulated the FBI on its "capture of the dangerous terrorist, Angela Davis."
On January 5, 1971, Davis appeared at the Marin County Superior Court and declared her innocence before the court and nation: "I now declare publicly before the court, before the people of this country that I am innocent of all charges which have been leveled against me by the state of California." John Abt, general counsel of the Communist Party USA, was one of the first attorneys to represent Davis for her alleged involvement in the shootings.[29]
While being held in the Women's Detention Center, Davis was initially segregated from other prisoners, in what she referred to as solitary confinement. With the help of her legal team, she obtained a federal court order to get out of the segregated area.[30] Across the nation, thousands of people began organizing a movement to gain her release. In New York City, black writers formed a committee called the Black People in Defense of Angela Davis. By February 1971 more than 200 local committees in the United States, and 67 in foreign countries, worked to free Davis from prison. John Lennon and Yoko Ono contributed to this campaign with the song: "Angela".[31] In 1972, after a sixteen-month incarceration, the state allowed her release on bail from county jail.[24] On February 23, 1972, Rodger McAfee, a dairy farmer from Fresno, California, paid her $100,000 bail with the help of Steve Sparacino, a wealthy business owner. Portions of her legal defense expenses were paid for by the United Presbyterian Church.[24][32]
IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE!!!!?
Film of AD being bailed out by Sparacino Bail Bonds. Wonder if this is "Mr B" as IN BAIL?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1riU2HNqJpI
Interview with AD from Prison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sLIDscuc-M
it probably all fits, ryan, great work. i like it!
@Ryan,I think you nailed it, the business owners could be covers,her profession being a college professor, and the good deeds being prison reform. Enty does refer to her as infamous. The timeline fits with the condo boom.
That's probably the best guess I've seen so far - Ms. P as in Panther!
I still can't believe this is possible.. isn't CE uber conservative though?
also if i am right, then canuck gets credit, i only started looking after reading his/her post with some theories
It sounds like all the people involved are still alive. I really hope Enty reveals this. Here are my guesses:
Mr. H - Robert Redford
City: Sundance or Park City, UT
Miss P - Gloria Steinhem
I'm not sure about Gloria Steinhem. Enty wrote that Miss P was younger than Mr. H. I think Redford and Steinhem are around the same age.
@ryan, I think that's the point of this story, Clint was always pro civil rights though,and one of his ex wife's is mixed race.
+1@canuck, I think this is solved. Some red herrings , but less than others.
i had no idea!!!
agree. canuck got it! i just helped a little bit
well done, team canuck-ryan!!!
ETA: Oops, beaten by Ryan on the research! Guess it's easier to copy-paste than to put it in my own words. Oh, well.
Good job, Ryan and Canuck!
Ms. P: Eva Peron
Mr. H: Don Ameche (??) from Down Argentine Way, first movie featuring Carmen Miranda and filmed in Buenos Aires. Followed up with That Night in Rio. He had just come off the film "The Story of Alexander Graham Bell." Maybe the anti-communism fervor of the 40s and 50s in Hollywood would have made any involvement in Argentinian politics a scandal?
All of these people are deceased, so I am probably way off track.
Clint Eastwood / Angela Davis /San Francisco best guess by far here.
Good job Ryan. I remember when this all happened and she was the 1st one to pop into my mind. She was a highly regarded Professor in the UC University system. Thats nice that Eastwood helped her out despite her being trashed in media at the time.
My thought as well. Only problem is, condos were commonplace in 1993.
That's confusing me too. My mom's dad was not an entertainer but one of his lines of business brought him around entertainers and ski areas. I'm two degrees away. Can't figure out the other players but was happy to see your Hubbel guess. It's Redford but the business owner wasn't my grandpa. La Jolla, LA, Lake Tahoe, Nevada and ski resorts. So who was it? Let me see if my mom has some names of her dad's peers from the 50' through 70s. They were friendly competitors. I wish when I met Redford I "knew him". Audrey Hepburn I I "knew" at 7 but not RR.
your research is waaaay better than mine jess! fascinating!!!
canuck get the credit for the theory! i just did a bit of wikipedia reading! also jess's synopisis seems to really line up
canuck where are you? you nailed it!
Yeah, I like the Clint Eastwood/Angela Davis guess.
LOL. Why did I think Mata Hari (the exotic dancer) about this? Wrong era.
This is obviously something racial, isn't it? Back when interracial marriages were illegal in the US?
Well, what do you think is the most beautiful, then?
Me, I love the Bay Area!
I'm usually just a lurker on CDAN, unless I know something for sure... but on this one, I've got to comment. Y'all are AMAZING with your research! Absolutely fascinating. My hat is off to you!
Tom Hanks/Courtney Love: sleepless in Seattle
Savannah, GA
i don't think enty would call tom hanks 'mr.h', way too easy. and i don't think anyone would call courtney love a genius and what "good things" has she done?
this is something that puzzles me, "Mr. H has also quietly supported Ms. P’s other endeavors over the years which is ironic considering the way he likes to be portrayed."
what is ironic and how does he like to be portrayed?
the guesses above are really good and i am in awe of the research everyone did.......but the last sentence seems to negate the above conclusions to me.
Wow on the Angela Davis guess but not sure about the affair part...
Traci Lords as Miss P (Porn). Comes from a piss poor background, did porn secretly while underage, exposed the porn industry, smart, moved into legitimate film writing/producing, also did acting and directing. That's all I know about her. Maybe her troubles were drugs and pissing off the porno people?
I know she lived in London for a few years...but who made London more famous than it already is? Impossible, my city fucking rocks this planet!
Confusing but interesting blind..
oh never mind, I suppose it's CE and AD, makes more sense
Incredible work,you should be a journalist
I like the Angela Davis guess, but just in case... Danielle Steele was also living in SF around that time. And it turns out she had some shady involvements around that time (marrying a convict) and lived abroad in her youth (though little contact with her mother). I wouldn't call her a genius, but I'm sure someone would.
Wow, good digging @ryan!
thanx cola! but canuck get the credit, i just dug around and did some reading
@canuk, good digging!
:-)
The Fontana Towers on North Point Street overlooking San Francisco's Aquatic Park were constructed in the late 1960s and sold as condos. Because of the way they were designed, every apartment had a view of the bay (to the north) and also a southern view. They're also directly across the street from the football field of Galileo HS where OJ Simpson got his start.
Each floor has multiple elevators and each elevator serviced only two apartments per floor so maybe there was more privacy.
I think they were considered luxury condos when they were built. I'll see if the ownership records go back that far. Though CH didn't necessarily buy it under his own name.
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