Can you imagine having all of your dirty laundry on display for all of the world to see? Well, Mary Astor, famed star of the 1941 film The Maltese Falcon, found herself in such a situation when she was at the center of a steamy Hollywood scandal so big that it pushed news about Hitler and the war off the front pages of the newspapers across the nation.
Divorce is never fun, but especially when you're a celebrity and the press haunts you like a ghost, documenting you're every move, action, and statement. Astor's disgruntled husband stole her private journal which eventually became known as the Purple Diary with the hopes of using its contents against her in a bitter custody battle that they were involved in at the time. Reportedly, Astor documented detailed accounts of her numerous love affairs in the journal's pages which could have been potentially disastrous to her reputation if they were made public.
The press was obsessed with learning new details from the stolen volumes while Astor's estranged husband's lawyer used it maliciously in court to try and prove that she was an unfit mother. People flooded the courthouse as if it were a professional sporting event or a theatrical venue. Vendors even sold refreshments, hot dogs, and ice cream outside to the crowds that had formed to get the latest inside scoop from the high-profile trial.
The contents of Astor's diary detailed one of the first major Hollywood sex scandals. Astor faced the possibility of losing everything; her career, daughter, and social status but she wasn't going to let that happened without a fight. She refused to be shamed by the media, so she fought back with everything that she had.
Inside Mary Astor's Infamous Sex Scandal Do you think you know a lot about TV? Try our quiz and enter to win $500! Click below to check the trivia question https://bit.ly/3rEeMxk
By: Facts Verse Title: The Sex Scandal That Destroyed Mary Astor's Career Sourced From: www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9fDYyGcHWI
