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
Joyce Haber Joyce Haber Joyce Haber (1931–1993) was an American gossip columnist who worked for the "Los Angeles Times". Haber was one of Hollywood's last powerful gossip columnists who "were capable of canonizing a film or destroying a star". She took over the old job of famed Hedda Hopper. Haber left the "Times" in 1976 to write a roman a clef titled "The Users". It was her only novel, rose to the top of the New York Times Bestseller List, and was made into a tele-film with the same name. Haber was instrumental in an FBI black-op that directly led to the