Elizabeth Kerri Mahon

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for their warm wishes on Scandalous Women's 3rd Blogiversary.  It means a lot to mean that you guys love the blog and these wonderfully Scandalous Women that I keep finding. And I also want to thank everyone for entering.  Please stay turned for more giveaways, particularly November when Scandalous Women will be celebrating Marie Antoinette's birthday (and mine!). But now drumroll please,  The winner of THE COUNTESS AND THE KING is Pen and Paper & The winner of the Plethora of Plaidy is: Shelli I will be emailing you guys shortly to get your addresses.

Cast: Doris Day - Calamity Jane Howard Keel - Wild Bill Hickok Allyn McLerie - Katie Brown Philip Carey - Lt. Danny Gilmartin Dick Wesson - Francis Fryer Paul Harvey - Henry Miller Chubby Johnson - Rattlesnake Gale Robbins - Adelaide Adams Francis McDonald - Hank Monte Montague - Pete   The Plot:  This film is loosely and I do mean loosely based on the life of Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Canary). In this movie musical Calamity is a loveable scamp of a tomboy.  When the film opens, Calamity rides into Deadwoodon the stagec oach. When she claims that she shot over 30 'Injuns' she threatens to fill the person who disbelieves her story full of lead! The owner of the local saloon and hotel sends for a beautiful woman to appear on the stage, the latest "woman" turns out to be a man named Francis Fryer, who reluctantly does a stage act in drag. When the ruse is discovered, the men are pissed off, but Calamity vows to get them the one woman they are all drooling ov

A typical industry party in the Hollywood Hills is filled with chattering actors and directors, and those who desperately want to break into the business. A beautiful brunette actress, 26,  is introduced by another guest to an avant-garde composer nicknamed "The Bad Boy of Music." Discovering that he is an expert on glands, the actress asks him how she can go about enlarging her breasts. They continue to chat, the subject eventually turning to the war in Europe, and the very real possibility that America will be drawn into the conflict. The composer is impressed that someone so beautiful should actually have a brain. The actress confesses that she has to work twice as hard to convince people that just because she has a pretty face, the upstairs is not empty. The two settle down at the piano inside the house. The composer is again surprised that the actress is also an accomplished musician, able to keep up as he constantly changes the key, turning their duet into a game. To t

Wow, I just checked the dates and today is the 3rd Anniversary of Scandalous Women! The time has just flown by. When I first started this blog, it was just for fun, wanting to write about some of these interesting women I was reading about. I was grateful if 2 people read my posts! In the three years since I started this blog, I've written almost 300 posts, had over 300,000 hits, reviewed countless books and films and written my first book which will be published next year.  In the next few weeks I will be reviewing the re-release of Desiree by Ann Marie Selinko, the movie musical Calamity Jane , and I have posts on Hedy Lamarr and a new series that I'm calling Poor Little Rich Girl, profiling women such as Brenda Frazier and Barbara Hutton. Also guest posts and interviews. I want to thank all my readers who have followed this blog from day one, and all my new readers.  You guys are awesome! In honor of my third anniversary, I'm giving away to one lucky winner 3 of my f

Scandalous Women is pleased to have Susan Holloway Scott back to talk about her newest release, THE COUNTESS AND THE KING.  I have been a huge fan of Susan for years, starting with her colonial set historical romances written by her alter-ego Miranda Jarrett. I loved her her first historical fiction novel THE DUCHESS, about Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, but I have to admit that my favorite is COUNTESS AND THE KING.  Katherine Sedley is a delightful heroine, the type of woman that you can see yourself having a good gossip with but who would also be a loyal friend. Welcome back to Scandalous Women, Susan! I can’t tell you how excited I was to read THE COUNTESS AND THE KING, about Katherine Sedley and James II. What led you to Katherine Sedley? I’m glad to be back! “Scandalous Women” seems like quite the proper place for my heroines. I’m not sure that I was led to Katherine Sedley, so much as she grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. She kept turning up in research for my earlier books –

THE WINNER OF RIVAL TO THE QUEEN is AMANDA Amanda, I will be emailing you to get your address. Thanks to everyone for entering.  Please stay tuned for the special 3rd Anniversary giveaway coming next week.

Cleopatra (1963) Twentieth Century Fox Written and directed by Joseph Mankiewicz Produced by Walter Wanger Cast Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra Richard Burton as Marc Antony Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar Carroll O'Connor as Servilius Casca Roddy McDowall as Octavian Martin Landau as Rufio Hume Cronyn as Sosigenes Andrew Keir as Agrippa Kenneth Haigh as Brutus George Cole as Flavius Pamela Brown as the High Priestess Cesare Danova as Apollodorus Francesca Annis as Eiras Richard O'Sullivan as Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII Gregoire Aslan as Pothinus Martin Benson as Ramos My thoughts:  Pretty everyone, even if they have no taste for celebrity gossip, knows the backstory to the filming of Cleopatra.  It's the film that not only took two years to make, and almost bankrupted the studio, but it is also the film that ended two marriages, and gave the world the love story of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton or Le Scandale as it was known at the time. By th

In honor of Elizabeth I's birthday today, I'm giving away a copy of Carolly Erickson's new novel RIVAL TO THE QUEEN which is due to be published by St. Martin's Press at the end of this month. From the Publisher:  Powerful, dramatic and full of the rich history that has made Carolly Erickson’s novels perennial bestsellers, this is the story of the only woman to ever stand up to the Virgin Queen— her own cousin, Lettie Knollys. Far more attractive than the queen, Lettie soon won the attention of the handsome and ambitious Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, a man so enamored of the queen and determined to share her throne that it was rumored he had murdered his own wife in order to become her royal consort. The enigmatic Elizabeth allowed Dudley into her heart, and relied on his devoted service, but shied away from the personal and political risks of marriage. When Elizabeth discovered that he had married her cousin Lettie in secret, Lettie would pay a terrible price, f

WHAT ALICE KNEW by Paula Marantz Cohen Publisher: Sourcebooks Pub Date: September 2010 From the back cover:  Under Certain Circumstances, No One Is More Suited to Solving a Crime than a Woman Confined to Her Bed An invalid for most her life, Alice James is quite used to people underestimating her. And she generally doesn't mind. But this time she is not about to let things alone. Yes, her brother Henry may be a famous author, and her other brother William a rising star in the new field of psychology. But when they all find themselves quite unusually involved in the chase for a most vile new murderer-one who goes by the chilling name of Jack the Ripper-Alice is certain of two things: No one could be more suited to gather evidence about the nature of the killer than her brothers. But if anyone is going to correctly examine the evidence and solve the case, it will have to be up to her. My thoughts: I was very intrigued with Sourcebooks offered me the chance to review WHAT ALI

In the 1850's Lola Montez decided to reinvent herself as a lecturer and her most popular lectures were about beauty. In 1859, Lola decided to capitalize on her success by publishing her beauty tips as THE ART AND SECRETS OF BEAUTY. The first New York edition sold 60,000 copies in it's first few months and it has been reprinted twice in America since 1970. French, British, and Canadian and French Canadian editions came out, and several translations done. The French Canadian version alone sold 45,000 copies. The volume, which is a slim 135 pages contains practical hints on beauty and hygiene, the advice remains remarkably undated. From the introduction, " My design in this volume is to discuss the various Arts employed by my sex in the pursuit of this paramount object of woman's life. I have aimed to make a useful as well as an entertaining and amusing book. The fortunes of life have given to my own experience, or observation, nearly all the materials of which it is co