Oona O'Neill and assistant, Harry Crocker. Crocker photographed the event for gossip columnist Louella Parsons, to whom Chaplin had given exclusive rights to publicize news of the marriage in the hopes that she would write a more positive article about it than her rival, Hedda Hopper, who strongly disliked him. The elopement received a large amount of media attention due to the 36-year age gap between O'Neill and Chaplin, and because his ex-girlfriend, Joan Barry, had filed a paternity suit against him only two weeks earlier. Although Agnes had given the union her blessing, it cemented O'Neill's estrangement from her father, who
Richard Johnson (columnist) Richard Johnson (columnist) Richard Johnson is an American gossip columnist with the "New York Post"s Page Six column, which he edited for 25 years. Described by the "New York Times" as "a journalistic descendant of Walter Winchell", in 1994 he was ranked the #1 New York City gossip columnist by "New York" magazine in a list that also included Liz Smith, Michael Musto, and Cindy Adams. Johnson was raised in Greenwich Village, New York, the son of a magazine editor father and a mother who worked in public relations. He attended the University of Colorado, Boulder, and later Empire State