Was anyone as disturbed by Frank Langella's memoir as I was?

[ageorges3]

Really disturbed by his memoir.

We all know what a brilliant performer Langella is, and after I heard about the structure of his book (candid/matter-of-fact stories about his relationships with the biggest and brightest from a long gone era of Hollywood) I was really intrigued, but I'm deeply disturbed by his relationships with Rita Hayworth and Liz Taylor.

Rita Hayworth: She was developing and well on her way into the ravages of Alzheimer's when Langella had an affair with her. She was 20 years his senior, and it was clear as day that she wasn't of sound mind. She couldn't read/memorize lines, and hell, he and Robert Mitchum ended up riding to work in the same car as her, since she was having trouble getting in the car to go to the studio and making it to set on time.

She forgot his freaking name after a week of shooting. Langella wrote her passage with such tragic romance and gusto - you're swept up in the emotion and cathartic storytelling that you almost overlook the disgusting nature of this relationship. His description of her reaction to him leaving her (Hayworth ran out to the car and pleaded: "Don’t leave me. I gotta have a man with me") is crafted to read like some sort of powerful, cinematic ending to their relationship, but if you take away their fame, pedigree, and the mystique that surrounds Hollywood romances and pretend that they're normal everyday people, you see a woman on the brink of senility losing it. Langella makes a point of saying that very little was known of Alzheimer's at the time, but still, anyone could tell that she was obviously unwell, and the fact that he could have an affair with someone in such a state of mind is gross.

Liz Taylor - very upset that he was willing to have an affair with the broken and lonely Taylor. This is an excerpt from an article about Langella's book: [ Langella "recalls a desperately lonely Taylor who, after a second date in 2001, told him "Come on, baby, and put me to sleep." After helping the then 69-year-old actress upstairs by pushing her from behind he said he was shocked by the clutter in her room: pictures of dead ex-husbands, "dozens and dozens of bottles of witch hazel that she used to remove her makeup and a huge box of chocolates on her bed." ] She was obviously not well, and still he had no qualms bedding her. Again, Langella writes with such poetic and emotional gusto that you almost think it was a tragic romance from the plot of a 1950s movie. No. This is real freaking life. Disturbing as hell.

Pretty sure it's universally frowned upon for a person to behave like this. I don't fall for the BS allure and mystique of his movie star life. He's a human being like you or I, and a very troubled one at that.

[Leadingplayer]

He seems to love telling stories of how he bedded women. Almost as if he is overcompensating to prove something......

[PalJoey]

There's a thread going on about it on the Off-Topic board. We all seem to have be having similar reactions.

http://broadwayworld.com/board/readmessage.php?thread=1043475&boardname=off&dt=31&boardid=2

[TxTwoStep]

haven't read it yet, and active in the other thread....despite his apparent talent at writing, i am leaning away; he seems like such a mercenary, who has the talent to cloak his bucket list with this weird kind of Messiah complex too. Creepy, at least from the outside.

What a mix, as i said in the other thread, of him and Whoopi, who despite her whimsicality has always seemed a good soul.

[kevin5]

i thought he was gay

[Auggie27]

Please read the thread PalJoey noted. We've all thrashed through this. Who saw him on Charlie Rose last night?

[ageorges3]

Can someone confirm that it is reprehensible and disgusting to have an affair with broken, damaged, confused, and/or alcoholic women? That's what really disgusted me about Langella's memoir, hypocrisy aside. Poor Hayworth and Taylor.

I just realized this earlier today when I was re-reading the Hayworth passage - Langella says that she was the brunt of jokes he'd tell his friends! Actual quote: "At lunch, as she rests in her trailer, the jokes about her are lewd and cruel, and for years after, I too would be guilty of reenacting the scene for friends at her expense." Really, what kind of human being could climb into bed with a person in such a condition and not have overwhelming feelings of guilt, and moreover, what kind of person would have the gall to joke about someone so obviously unwell, even if she wasn't officially diagnosed with Alzheimer's yet?

[GoshGeeGolly]

Look, there are worse things he could have admitted to!