Saturday [8]

This is a tale of four flawed people, plus us

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrid_Bergman

As with Grace Kelly, she was personally a tramp, putting it about with many, many men but unlike Kelly, she could not keep her hoe ways secret and there were three events which combined to force her to flee America.

The first:

David O. Selznick testified later, "I'm afraid I'm responsible for the public's image of her as Saint Ingrid. We deliberately built her up as the normal, healthy, unneurotic career woman, devoid of scandal and with an idyllic home life. I guess that backfired later."^[193]

The second was that the Stromboli affair itself came out:

In 1950, she starred in Roberto Rossellini's Stromboli, released after the revelation that she was having an affair with Rossellini; that and her pregnancy prior to their marriage created a scandal in the U.S. that prompted her to remain in Europe for several years. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Rossellini

Although he wasn't personally religious,^[6] he had a strong interest in Christian values in the contemporary world;^[7] he appreciated Catholic ethics and religious sentiment—things which he saw as being neglected in the materialist world.^[7]

Both were married at the time, which clearly was of no consequence to either of them.

Third:

America itself objected. As reflected in a subsequent speech in the Senate, the country had just come out of wartime, with its attendant horrors, America was quite moral and as Selznick admitted … they’d deliberately sold America a pup. All very well for Bergman to later object that she was no saint, just a woman … she was conniving in the ploy, plus she was not “just a woman”, she was America’s fave of the time, on the strength of Casablanca and as Saint Ingrid … she was what her public wanted and needed post-war.

So much so that a speech was made:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_C._Johnson

This affair caused a huge scandal in the United States, where it led to Bergman being denounced on the floor of the United States Senate. On 14 March 1950, Senator Edwin C. Johnson insisted that his once-favorite actress "had perpetrated an assault upon the institution of marriage", and went so far as to call her "a powerful influence for evil".^[63] "The purity that made people joke about Saint Bergman when she played Joan of Arc," one writer commented, "made both audiences and United States senators feel betrayed when they learned of her affair with Roberto Rossellini."

To my mind, she had her just desserts, just as Megs and her lapdog have had theirs. More on this further down.

The last chapter in the sordid matter:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_H._Percy

In 1972, SenatorCharles H. Percy of Illinois entered an apology into the Congressional Record for Johnson’s attack, which had been made on Bergman twenty-two years earlier.^[4]

Another of these eons after the event rewritings of history which afflict us today.

Johnson was a former railroadman and Demrat, yet “Christian” in this sense:

Johnson is also known for the alternative he presented to mankind in November 1945: "God Almighty in His infinite wisdom [has] dropped the atomic bomb in our lap." Now for the first time the United States, "with vision and guts and plenty of atomic bombs," could "compel mankind to adopt the policy of lasting peace … or be burned to a crisp."^[5]

Percy was a Rockefeller Republican, also:

Percy was a Christian Scientist.^[6]

Also Alpha Delta Phi. Also:

In 1966, Percy ran for U.S. senator from Illinois. His 21-year-old daughter Valerie was murdered at the family home on the morning of September 18, late in the campaign. Her death was thought to have been caused by an intruder, but the crime was never solved despite a lengthy investigation.^[2]

The main objection in my eyes:

It’s that she both connived and contrived to present herself as one thing, whilst openly a tramp within her circle. What could go wrong? Then tried to make out she had not done so, nor had fprofited from the ruse.

That she had scant respect for a clear feeling America had for her, which accounted for the rage.

Every one of us is “a miserable sinner”, truth be told, we all have skeletons … we do not present ourselves as saints. We do not, as Welby does, put on the trappings of holiness in order to push an unChristian agenda. We oft fail in our personal lives and try to do better … but Bergman was cynically playing America, just as Sunpak is playing Britain … though in his case, no one ever embraced him except globos.