Motion Picture Magazine (Aug 1928-Jan 1929)

tiquette By DOROTHY SPENSLEY and panting, a permanent REALLY, it's got me all pink Me, who was going to have tomorrow. And maybe a manicure I wish Mrs. Emily Post would do something about it. Or that Mr. Godey was alive. He who wrote Godey's Lady Book. Here I am giving a dinner party next week for the Prime Minister of Venezuela: — or was it Archipelago? Or is there a country called Archipelago? Maybe I'm thinking of Buenos Aires. But he is a Prime Minister, or maybe it was a Duke. Anyway, he has letters to Mr. Lasky and Mr. Thalberg, so he must be bona fide. And isn't it nice to be able to chatter French? But here I am all ready to give a dinner for the Archbishop of Mazatlan, or whoever he is, and here I have all this worry. I wish Mrs. Post would write a book solely for Hollywood and call it "Etiquette for Ex's." Better still, I wish Madame Glyn was in town instead of Washington, D. C. She at least would know how to handle this delicate situation. How do I know which one to invite? Should I ask Mrs. Humpeldinck, the First, if I 'm going to ask Mr. Humpeldinck and Mrs. Humpeldinck, the. Third. I never did like Mrs. Humpeldinck, the Second, since she came to the bridge tea with a copy of the hat that Celeste had sold me as exclusive, so that settles that problem. PAGE MRS. POST a fine actor?" And Jack would probably whisper to Greta Garbo,whom he had squired, "There's a splendid woman," not pointing a finger or a thumb, of course, because Mrs. Post or not, we all know that's not done. But if I ask Edwin Carewe and Dolores del Rio, I can't invite Mary Akin Carewe. That simply wouldn't be politic. But if I don't invite Mary Akin Carewe, who is really one of our local charmers, at least a dozen gentlemen— one at a time, of course — will get me behind a palm and ask, tearfully, why she wasn't included. With Marie Prevost and Kenneth Harlan it is different, now that they have tossed the bone they were picking to their Cairn terriers and are enjoying a second honeymoon. But, gosh, I don't know what to do about Mr. and Mrs. Robert Z. Leonard if the Prelate from Peru asks to meet Prince David M'Divani and Princess May and the baby. Of course, I'm safe in inviting Marian Nixon and Ben Lyon, and Bebe Daniels and Jack Pickford, because even when the Marilyn MillerBen Lyon romance was at its height, Jack, once consort to Marilyn, was very friendly with Ben, even to the point of chatting on the beach and occasionally playing a little squash at the club. N AND if I ask Mr. Gary Cooper and l Miss Evelyn Brent, should I ask Mr. Bernie Fineman, because he was once Miss Brent's husband. And besides, he might bring blonde Miss Greta Nissen, proving that he's a gentleman, and that might complicate matters. And I understand that Charles Chaplin and his former helpmeet, Lita Grey Chaplin, don't even indulge in nods when they meet, so really should' they sit at the same table? Of course, with Jack Gilbert and Leatrice loy things are different, because Leatrice would ^t-«^ probably say to the gentle |^ ^^ Tsn't Jack THE VEIDTS ARE INVITABLE ND, my dear, draw your chair a little closer! In Paris the three of them had the whole town talking at the way they used to do the supper clubs together. I'm a little puzzled about asking Louise Brooks and Eddie Sutherland, now that they have abandoned the mutual abode. And I 'd not think of asking Margery Daw Sutherland to the same party. There are times when a hostess does need tact. But it is with perfect equanimity that I put Virginia Valli's place card opposite that of Demmy Lamson. A girl who retains her former husband as manager is not likely to blush over the bouillon when she sees him sitting opposite her. And I would not have the slightest qualms about including Mr. and Mrs. Emil Jannings and Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Veidt, although over in the old country Mrs. Emil Jannings was Mrs. Conrad Veidt until she divorced one distinguished Gernian actor and married another. Besides they are always sharing the swimming pool and dinners, and when the Janningses arrived in Hollywood, the first persons to greet them at the station, after the theater ushers had paraded, the news photographers had been appeased and the bouquet of purple dahlias or^ something presented, were Mrs. Jannings' former hus man on her left 52