The Original Hollywood Bad Girl

Ava Gardner is a screen legend, but what you don't know about her may shock you. The Guardian reports on the lastest biography of the big star, cover girl, and tabloid sensation with intimate detail: "Asked by a reporter what she saw in Sinatra - a 119lb has-been - she replied demurely that 19lb of it was cock."

"As a starlet she set the social pace: boozing, swearing, taking her pick of men; ahead of her time. Her acting break came in 1946 with The Killers with Burt Lancaster. Rarely has anyone been more sexual on screen doing so little; she gave Lancaster an erection during a screen kiss, to the hilarity of the crew."

Later, she was doted on by "macho, dangerously sentimental drunks" the likes of Ernest Hemingway, John Ford, and John Huston.

"Before boredom set in she was sustained by the banter and loose intimacy of movie sets. MGM loaned her out for too many bad films and her studio contract meant she earned less than contemporaries. She chose European exile over Hollywood and, in spite of her liberal values and lack of racial prejudice, moved to Franco's Spain (with its advantages of a muzzled press). She was barred from Madrid's Hotel Ritz for peeing in the lobby. By then life was an exhausting round of insomnia, booze, forced gaiety, mood swings, tantrums, and being driven around by a chauffeur while consuming an entire thermos of gin in the back of the car. "

Unsurprisingly, this Virginia tobacco farm girl's life ended sadly as she tried to come "to terms with the illusion of her independence as it turned to loneliness" while living her last days in London childless.

Yet, she could probably still boast: "I haven't taken an overdose of sleeping pills and called my agent. I haven't been in jail, and I don't go running to the psychiatrist every two minutes. That's something of an accomplishment these days."

And, even today.