The Corpse Came C.O.D. The Corpse Came C.O.D. The Corpse Came C.O.D. is a 1947 American film directed by Henry Levin, produced by Samuel Bischoff and starring George Brent and Joan Blondell. The comedic mystery is notable for featuring cameos by Hollywood gossip columnists appearing as themselves: Harrison Carroll, Jimmy Fidler, George Fisher, Hedda Hopper, Erskine Johnson, Louella Parsons, and Sidney Skolsky. The movie is based on a novel by columnist Jimmy Starr, who also appears in the movie. Two reporters who are in love (Brent and Blondell) compete with each other when covering the story about the discovery of a corpse found at
Gossip columnist who used political, entertainment, and social connections to mine information and rumors, which he then either published in his column "On Broadway", or used for trade or blackmail, to accumulate more power. He became "the most feared journalist" of his era. In Hollywood's "golden age" in the 1930s and 1940s, gossip columnists were courted by the movie studios, so that the studios could use gossip columns as a powerful publicity tool. During this period, the major film studios had "stables" of contractually obligated actors, and the studios controlled nearly all aspects of the lives of their movie stars. From the