Davis is not the only movie star to be shown in a new light in the novel. A photograph of Clark Gable is circulating that would stir up a Twitter storm today. Is Ellroy prepared to take responsibility for leaving us with a revised image of the matinee idol? He laughs out loud. “My revised image of Clark Gable is him in love with Salvador Dali’s leopard,” he quips. The artist's pet ocelot, Babou, finds its way into Perfidia in a nightclub scene, but Ellroy is not buying the famous cuddly pictures of the pair together. "I can see some sort of zonked-out, sedated leopard... some people bring him in a van and hook him up to a leash and Dali gets him inside. But just walking this deadly jungle creature into the place seems untenable to me... But I like the idea," he adds.