PHONY JOANNE

Facebook, according to a Huffington Post analysis, published on August 2, 2012 has a whopping 83 million fake accounts. The fakes are compromised of bots, alias and imposters.

This morning, sadly, Facebook has one less of them.

The phony Joanne Woodward is no more.

Phony Joanne had 5,328 facebook friends when her Facebook and Twitter accounts were closed yesterday. Many of those friends were actors, directors, casting agents, and media moguls.

THE REAL JOANNE

The real Joanne Woodward is a celebrated stage and screen actress. I had always admired Ms. Woodward for being consistently great for 6 decades as a working actress. That’s an accomplishment.

Like many, I also respected her living in Connecticut and staying clear of the Hollywood hoopla, especially raising a family while married to another star, Paul Newman.

Facebook weekends with Woodward were cool. I always found time looking at the latest postings from the Connecticut star, now widowed, now 81, recalling her storied life, no doubt from her Connecticut country estate.

For many of us who were her Facebook ” friends”, the pictures and recollections with comforting and charming…



How could you not smile at the pictures of sunny weekends with the Newmans?

THEY DIDN’T SWEAT THE SMALL THINGS — LIKE ACADEMY AWARDS!

They even could joke about who had one and who didn’t. Joanne won for Three Faces of Eve. Paul finally won for The Color Of Money.

THEY WENT TO BED WITH THEIR CLOTHES ON!

I believe this was a photo-shoot for Vogue, but I could be mistaken. It’s a very Don Draper shot.

AND THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITES…A CASUAL SATURDAY, PERHAPS?

It’s provocative in that so much of the scene is blocked; but also exhilarating for it revealed such laughter and respect for one another.

OTHERS WOULD SEND ALONG PICS….

And we would be treated with an inside look at the actress’ life.

SOMETIMES THE CAPTIONS READ WRONG…

In interviews, Joanne was always rather witty regarding Paul Newman, kinda- like “yes, he’s a movie star but he has hang-ups like all of us.” “Beautiful man” did not sit right with me, even if Ms. Woodward was being particularly nostalgic. Hmmmmm….

I started checking into the other rooms of Joanne and Paul’s home…

THERE WAS NORMAN BATES!

With all the talk on Hitchcock lately( with two new biopics coming out ), I could not think help thinking of Tony Perkin’s famous portrayal of Norman Bates in Psycho.

Norman impersonated a woman, his own mother.

I started to investigate further and found that there were too many postings between Joanne Woodward and Julie Christie , another actress (who turned out to be a phony Julie) regarding a certain film and stage historian’s upcoming book.

I confronted the author, who’s writing I admire, for pimping the likeness and name of Joanne Woodward for his own ends.

He denied it but, surprise, within 24 hours, both Phony Joanne’s Twitter and Facebook account were closed….

I did not even have to turn him in to Facebook jail…

THERE WILL ALWAYS BE VINTAGE LOS ANGELES

Of course, the old Hollywood that Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman represented is largely gone, so it is cheerfully nostalgic to be reminded of a different era of Movie Stars.

For those of you who are kvelling the loss of Phony Joanne, there is Vintage Los Angeles which is a great facebook site, run by documentary television producer and writer, Allison Martino

The fanbase for Vintage is growing so fast on facebook. Laura is also planning to create a robust new website.

The problem with Phony Joanne, is that it was not her site or an authorized fan site.

The author was using her likeness, her very soul to pimp his book.

There are no real laws for this currently, (well, there’s facebook jail) so we need to be discerning in how we take on friends.

Hopefully, a fan page will be created of Joanne Woodward’s where many of us can continue to enjoy her life.