Gossip columnist 1930s through the 1950s, the two best-known - and competing - Hollywood gossip columnists were Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons. Well-timed leaks about a star's purported romantic adventures helped the studios to create and sustain the public's interest in the studios' star actors. As well, the movie studios' publicity agents acted as unnamed "well-informed inside sources" who provided misinformation and rumors to counteract whispers about celebrity secrets — such as homosexuality or an out-of-wedlock child — that could have severely damaged not only the reputation of the movie star in question, but the movie star's box office viability. Having fallen
Ray Milland was nominated for a Golden Globe. He starred opposite Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings in Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder" (1954), originally shot in three dimensions. Although never admitted by either, rumours were rife at the time that Kelly and Milland were engaged in an affair, fuelled by notorious gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. After leaving Paramount, Milland concentrated on directing. His first, a Western entitled "A Man Alone" (1955) centres around the aftermath of a stagecoach robbery. This was followed by "Lisbon", a crime drama starring Maureen O'Hara and Claude Rains. Both films were distributed by Republic Pictures. Due