HOLLYWOOD's CASTING COUCH Update 24 Feb,. 2020

Update 24 Feb,. 2020 - Weinstein was convicted and led away in handcuffs. 

Update 18 Oct., 2017 -
It appears that it was not all gossip about the existence of a casting couch. A new scandal broke out which accused Weinstein of having a casting couch. He denies it but famous actresses accuse him of it.

There always was a whisper about the infamous Hollywood casting couch. It existed as long as films were being made in Hollywood. The casting couch must be well worn by now but unbelievable it still exists. It is Hollywood’s guiltiest, dirtiest secret. Although everyone knows it exists but people who are eager to be a star would not speak about it.

Joan Collins was referring back to the sixties when she was trying to make a name for herself in Hollywood.  She was auditioning for Cleopatra’s part and front runner but when it finally came down to be named which actress she was asked to go to bed with the head of the studio. He asked her if she really wanted the part and she said yes. Then he told her that she would have to be nice to him. That was the sixties’ style of hinting. She walked out. Elizabeth Taylor got the part.

This practise continued right through all the decades and casting couches were well hidden in a nearby room but never spoken of.  Even right up to today when Myleene Klass mentioned the practise and therefore proved that it still exists. Most famous actresses would not take the chance of being dropped and therefore don’t speak openly about it. A few like Raquel Welch, which is a surprise after given out all the wrong signals, Helen Mirren, Lady Victoria Hervey and finally Megan Fox stated they were not on the casting couch.

Megan Fox explained further that she received invitations from Hollywood’s legends. She felt honoured to be asked to have a conversation with them. When she got there and after a while she realised that it was not the reason at all. She points out that some actors are very convinced about themselves and had many affairs and they think that all the rest are like that.

Apparently Marylin Monroe was a fine example in the earliest fifties. She managed to get herself from Norma Jane Mortenson to International fame because of the casting couch. She dismissed it easily with nobody ever got cancer from sex. However, when her career took off astronomically and she received the highest paid contract from 20^th Century Fox in 1955 she declared triumphantly that she would never suck-up to anyone again.

Monroe warned Collins about the “wolves” in Hollywood. She told her about an unpleasant experience with the notorious lecherous Harry Cohn. He was the original inventor of the casting couch and head of Colombia Pictures from 1919 to the fifties.

Cohn had the original casting couch in a secret room off his office.  His rival was Zanuck, head of the 20^th Century Fox from 1935.  His famous trick was “in conference” with a number of starlets between 4 pm and 4.30 pm every afternoon. One starlet admitted when she entered his office he was already half naked, from the waste down, and ready for action.

Howard Hughes had affairs with Ava Gardner, Katherine Hepburn, Bette Davies and Ginger Rogers. In spite of all his success he still had a “secret” house near his LA home where he “interviewed” Jane Russell.

However, how many starlets sat on the casting couch and many never made it. It is said the very top stars were the once who said no like Lauren Bacall refused Howard Hughes and Raquel Welsh never slept with anyone to get a part.

In 1991 Oscar winning film producer Julia Phillips wrote a book titled “You Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again” in which she mentioned that the casting couch is still alive and well.

Two years later Helen Mirren, Lauren Bacall, Jane Seymour and Bo Derek made documentary together titled “Sex For Jobs In Hollywood” and stated that the casting couch was thought it is a joke but sadly it was not. The actresses who were working in Hollywood did not find it funny.

Summoning it all up; if you obliged it might get your foot into the door but it also takes star quality and ability to reach the heights of Hollywood.


Source: Daily Express