Brown Derby is said to have proposed to Carole Lombard there. Rival gossip columnists Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper are recorded as regular patrons. In "L.A. at Last", the first of the Hollywood episodes of "I Love Lucy", Lucy (Lucille Ball), Ethel (Vivian Vance), and Fred (William Frawley) have lunch at the Brown Derby. During the misadventure, the trio dines in a booth with Eve Arden on one side and William Holden (who orders a Cobb Salad) on the other. This leads to the famous disaster scene in which Lucy inadvertently causes a waiter to hit Holden in the face with a
Hedda Hopper hired Trumbo to write the script for "Spartacus" (1960), Hopper denounced the film in her column, stating that "[the script is based on] a book written by a Commie and the screen script was written by a Commie, so don't go see it." Nonetheless the film was a critical and financial success. Charlie Chaplin was another target of Hedda Hopper's vitriol because of his alleged Communist sympathies and his penchant for much younger women, which she considered immoral. She also loathed him for remaining a British citizen and not becoming an American, which she considered an act of ingratitude towards