My stomach’s churning, my voice’s raised, and I’m glaring at my husband across the dinner table, the spaghetti half-eaten and the wine half-drank. He’s talking about national politics, and all I hear is the word “brilliant.” I most vehemently disagreed.
I routinely analyze the current political scene because I write about historical women and power. “What goes around, comes around” is a cliché with lots of truth. Have we seen elements of political situation before in Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt? Absolutely.
Whatever your political views and media preference, we need to think for ourselves.
Luise Rainer was a premier actress in the mid-1930’s, the first person to win two Academy Awards in back-to-back years. In 1935, just two years before her first Oscar nomination, she had fled Germany, fearing the rise of Hitler.
She was supposed to be the next Greta Garbo. Despite her acting ability, studio head Louis B. Mayer wanted to make her into a glamour girl. He also didn’t like the politics of her left-wing playwright husband.
After her second Oscar win in 1938, Mayer still wouldn’t budge and began to bury her in non-notable films you and I have never heard of. “We made you, and we’re going to kill you,” he said after one bitter confrontation, according to the Los Angeles Times.
How do you fight a studio head, particularly in those days when movie stars were under contract? You don’t.
She did her own thinking. She moved back to Europe. Having divorced her playwright husband, she married a British publisher and had a daughter. She studied medicine and supported humanitarian causes. By all accounts, she had a great life.
My husband and I settled our misunderstanding. No, I don’t always think his way. I think for myself.