Confidential Confidential by Samantha Barbas

Author:Samantha Barbas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2018-09-08T16:00:00+00:00

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The libel suits remained an uphill battle. After taking Harrison’s depositions and becoming certain about the connection between Confidential and HRI, Giesler added the Meades as codefendants in the Scott, Duke, and Mitchum cases. In court, Hollywood attorney Arthur Crowley, representing the Meades, alleged that HRI was completely separate from Confidential and that his clients had nothing to do with the stories. Confidential was just one of the magazines serviced by HRI, he said, and HRI wasn’t the only source of Confidential’s material.18

In March 1956, Superior Court Judge Leon David quashed Lizabeth Scott’s libel suit because Confidential had no California representatives. Judge Rhodes granted the motion to quash in the Mitchum case. Giesler dismissed the Mitchum, Scott, and Duke lawsuits and said he would refile them in New York.19

As Giesler hoped, his efforts spurred Hollywood to take action against Confidential. By the end of 1955, Dore Schary had become vocal about the need for “an open declaration of war.” “Short of becoming involved in a conspiracy ourselves, I believe we should take every step toward ending these smears,” he told the press. “The trouble up to now . . . was we didn’t know what the hell to do. We felt a little lost. Thank God a few courageous individuals have shown us what can be done.” Lou Greenspan, executive secretary of the Motion Picture Industry Council, told the press that he was ready for “an open fight with the expose publishers. . . . My organization, 20,000 movie people from laborers to actors, wants the same thing.”20

“At first Hollywood tried to ignore the problem. We didn’t want to compound the publicity. But then we learned that silence isn’t golden anymore. Today if you don’t answer, you lose by default,” Greenspan said. “I’m a Biblical scholar. I have always believed you should turn the other cheek. So we turned the other cheek . . . and what happened? We got pasted right in the face. So now we’re back to the Mosaic law—an eye for an eye! That’s our stand. From now on we fight.”21

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