Yesterday, I recommended The Pleasure Seekers as being one of Pamela Tiffin‘s best films of the 60s. Check out a great tribute with lots of photos to this movie on Marquise’s Corner at www.marquisescorner.blogspot.com.

Behind-the-scenes, it was no pleasure for Pamela making this movie. She actually seeked a way out of it but was contractually obliged to do it. Ann-Margret and Carol Lynley were aloof towards her (Shame on you Carol! I luv ya but you should have been nicer to our Pamela), Tony Franciosa (Pamela‘s love interest) acted like a maniac even threatening to punch out the director (70-year-old Jean Negulesco), Gardner McKay wouldn’t speak with anyone, and that Latin hottie Andre Lawrence made it known to all that he would do ANYTHING or ANYONE to further his ambitions to become a star. Only Brian Keith was a pleasure to work with, per Pamela.

When filming finally wrapped to Pamela’s pleasure, a billing war erupted among the seekers. Despite her husband’s prodding to fight back, Pamela refused to stoop that low as the egos took over and the stars battled it out through their agents. The outcome? Pamela received 5th billing behind Ann-Margret, Tony Franciosa, Carol Lynley and Gardner McKay! Well folks that was 60s Hollywood in a starlet-eat-starlet world.

Good news turned sad.

I was elated to get an email from the LA Times who contacted me to do an interview about Annette Funicello and the beach party movies. However, I felt sad when I learned that it is for a future tribute article on Annette as word is her health has deteriorated a lot. Here’s hoping that she somehow recovers.

Pamela Tiffin seems to be the It Girl these days. Forgot to write yesterday that there is a Pamela – Laurel Goodwin connection. Pamela turned down the lead opposite Elvis in Girls! Girls! Girls! (after Dolores Hart passed) and Goodwin got the part.

To you wanting me to recommend Pamela Tiffin movies my choices are Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three (1961) for Pamela at her comedic best in her Golden Globe nominated role as a ditzy Southern gal who marries a Communist; The Pleasure Seekers (1964) for Pamela at her virginal best as the naive tourist in Madrid who exclaims to Carol Lynley, “I know everything about Spain except Spanish”; and Harper (1966) for Pamela at her sexiest as the sex-starved heiress who tries unsuccessfully to seduce gumshoe Paul Newman. What was that straight boy thinking!?!

Check out my web site for more on Pamela and also the blog www.marquisescorner.blogspot.com for a tribute on this underrated starlet of the 60s.

Greetings from the Big Easy! I’m away on vacation in New Orleans but sixties starlet questions are coming in and must be addressed!

First to Marquise, yes Pamela Tiffin is still a blonde and as expected is still a beautiful, elegant woman albeit a bit on the heavy side. But living with an Italian husband since 1974 it is no surprise that she put on a few pounds. She resides in a fabulous townhouse in New York City. The last time I saw her was soon after Princess Diana was killed. Pamela shared with me a story of one of her run-ins with the rude, persistent paparazzi during her heyday in Italy. A secret renedevous with her lover in a out-of-the-way cafe was spoiled by the invasion of the paparazzi screaming “Pamela! Pamela!” as the flash bulbs kept popping.

Another poster asked about Laurel Goodwin who co-starred with Elvis in Girls! Girls! Girls! and was in the original pilot for Star Trek. The outspoken Laurel is featured in my book Drive-in Dream Girls where she gives a funny, no-holds barred interview trashing everyone from Stella Stevens to Jackie Gleason to Majel Barrett, the wife of Gene Roddenberry. She also offers an honest reflection of why she thinks she did not get further in her career, her sisterly love for Elvis and her disappointment with her firing from Star Trek.

Received an inquiry about Pamela Tiffin. Poster agreed with a previous blog where I voiced my opinion that I always found Stefanie Powers to be bland and one-note and not worthy of the “fame” that she achieved over some more worthy 60s starlets like Carol Lynley, Anjanette Comer and Pamela Tiffin.

As for the question regarding Pamela, you can read a lengthy interview with her in my first book Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema, but in a nutshell Pamela refused to dye her hair blonde despite pressure from Hollywood. However, when producer Carlo Ponti came a-calling with an offer to be the first American leading lady to star opposite Marcello Mastroianni, Pamela yelled “Si” even though there was a stipulation that she had to dye her hair. The film was called Oggi, domani, dopodomani (1966) but released in the US in 1968 as Kiss the Other Sheik. Pamela was so enthused with the attention she received and unhappy with her marriage to Esquire publisher Clay Felker who encouraged his wife to work much to her distress that she decided blondes really do have more fun and kept her hair that way. Returning to the states, she took a role on Broadway in the Jean Harlow part in the revival of Dinner at Eight and when the show closed so did her marriage. Pamela packed her bags and moved to Roma to act in films that were beneath her.