Bette Davis random trivia

Murdoch University (Western Australia) Communications Senior Lecturer Tara Brabazon, in her article "The Spectre of the Spinster: Bette Davis and the Epistemology of the Shelf," quotes the court testimony of first husband, Harmon Nelson, Jr., to show what a debacle her private life was. During divorce proceedings, Nelson was sucessful in sustaining his charge of mental cruelty by testifying that Davis had told him that her career was more important than her marriage. Brabazon writes that Bette Davis, claiming she was beaten by all four of her husbands, believed that she should have remained single. Was the first woman to be president of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences. Director Steven Spielberg won the Christie's auction of Bette Davis' 1938 Best Actress Oscar for Jezebel (1938) for $578,000. He then gave it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. [19 July 2001]