In 1936 the screen actress Mary Astor became involved in a highly sensationalized divorce proceeding filed against her by her husband, Dr. Franklyn Thorpe, after he had discovered in the actress's diary proof of her affair with playwright and critic George S. Kaufman; excerpts were published in the tabloids, embarrassing several of her fellow actors in Hollywood about whose private lives she had written in often crude and intimate detail.

In 1935 film actress Constance Bennett was taken to court by an artist whom she had commissioned to paint her portrait and had refused to pay his fee of thirty-five hundred dollars because she was dissatisfied. At trial Bennett complained that the portrait exaggerated the size of her thighs and that the painter had not done enough to make her image appear more flattering. The argument was not enough to win the sympathy of the jury but did convince the starstruck judge to direct the...