Popular Actress Phyllis Avery
Dies at Her Brentwood Home
Private services in early June marked the passing of stage, screen and television star Phyllis Taylor, who had been divorced years ago from actor, Don Taylor. They met during World War II, when both had leads in Moss Hart’s “Winged Victory†. She also scored a major hit acting with her lifelong friend, Toddy Glover Findley, in one of Broadway’s most famous stage plays, “Charley’s Aunt†, with Jose Ferrar. After she retired from acting, Phyllis became a very successful real estate agent selling some of the most prestigious estates on the Westside. Her daughters, Anne Taylor Fleming and Avery Taylor Moore, were at her bedside when she died after a brief illness.
Anna Nicole Smith Comes
Alive at the Royal Opera
Blonde teenager, Anna Nicole Smit
h, wandered around Santa Monica beach and the Westside for years unsuccessfully seeking show business opportunities. She got a few minor tabloid breaks but by the time she turned forty in 2007, she was dead from a prolonged drug overdose. While her career was largely a flop, her character is now the center piece of a new opera entitled “Anna Nicole†playing at the Royal Opera House in London. Anna is played by Eva-Maria Westboek.
New Book, “Chasing Aphrodite†,
Embarrasses the Getty Museum
The Getty Museum in Brentwood was already red-faced over the theft and forced return of the Aphrodite statue to Europe. Getty paid $18 million for the stolen statue. James Cano, the new president of the J. Paul Getty Trust, has emphatically promised to play by the rules. Cano came highly recommended from the Chicago Institute of Art.
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MGM Actress and Singer
With Cugat Band Dead at 91
Lina Romay, singer with the old Xavier Cugat orchestra which popularized Latin music in the U.S., is dead at 91. She also did Spanish language announcements at Hollywood Park and made 15 films at MGM, where she co-starred with Clark Gable, Esther Williams, Mickey Rooney and others. On a hayride in Brentwood in 1953, she met her husband-to-be, Jay Gould III, grandson of the great railroad baron. Gould died in 1987 and Linda retired to Bel Air, where she reared their three children.
Brentwood is the Home of
a New Movie Studio
Open Road Films, a new motion picture studio founded by Regal Entertainment and AMC Entertainment, is headed by Tom Ortenberg, who once ran the Lionsgate Entertainment Group. The new company will occupy 9,000 square feet at the top of a recently refurbished building in Brentwood.
