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
Night World (1932 film) Night World (1932 film) Night World is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film featuring Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, and Boris Karloff. The supporting cast includes George Raft and Hedda Hopper (before she became a noted gossip columnist). The movie was directed by Hobart Henley and features an early Busby Berkeley music number, "Who's Your Little Who-Zis". Although Karloff is a villain, he plays a charming man, quite unlike most of the parts he was allowed to play at the time. On a cold winter's night outside Happy's Nightclub, Irish-American police officer Ryan (Robert Emmett O'Connor) chats with African-American doorman Tim