Did Joan Crawford Know That Christina Was Writing A Book

She was left out of my will, because she wouldn't eat the piece of meat that Carol Anne shopped for and cooked. Oh, and the wire hangers thing too.

Joan hated Christina and Christopher. I think it's because they knew the real Joan.

That little trollop...You WOULD know she always knew where to find the booze AND the boys!

she hated me because I wasn't one of her FANS!!!!!!!!

I think Crawford's book was the first of the genre. Back then people didn't usually believe stories of child abuse. Especially by rich famous Hollywood stars who were worshipped more back then.

Being cut out of the will actually dates from a draft of Joan's will prepared after a May 1958 incident where Christopher had a serious run-in with the law (he was 15/underage, his cohorts were not), even ending up in court and potentially in danger of being tried as an adult and going to jail, and Christina took his side.

On a shooting spree with air rifles, Christopher and some other boys shot out windows of Matituck High School in Greenport, along with some windows of private homes and streetlights. Christopher shot a 14 year old girl in the mouth, according to The New York Times. He was charged with juvenile delinquency and released into the custody of the child psychiatrist with whom he had been staying.

Though the will was revised several times after 1958, the clause disinheriting Christina and Christopher remained part of the document.

According to several sources, at the end of her life Joan did know Christina was working on a book about her, though there's no firsthand proof like a letter written by Joan or recording of Joan talking about it--it's all other people writing "Joan told me..."

The last time Christina saw Joan alive was either in late 1968 (according to some sources) when they appeared on a telethon for Muscular Dystrophy, or, according to a 1981 People magazine article "five years before [Joan's] death." Joan died in 1977, so that would make their last meeting in 1972. Christina did not see Joan for several years prior to Joan's death.

Christina has always maintained that Christopher actually got the worst of it in terms of treatment by Joan. Indeed, he was married with a daughter by the time he was 19, which was the last time he saw Joan. He served in Vietnam, got remarried. That same 1981 People article quotes Christopher as having "no idea" where the three children he fathered with his first wife were. At that time, he was living in Greenport with his second wife, who was supporting their family with a clerk-typist job. Christopher, at that writing, had been unemployed for two years. He died in 2006, age 62, still there in Greenport, having worked as a utility company lineman for much of his life when he wasn't disabled or unemployed.

It was the editing!!!!

R6 Interesting... I wonder why Christina did not mention this in the book. How do you know this?

The info about the clause dating from 1958 comes from Christina herself, at a public Q&A a few years ago. I would infer it wasn't in the book because she didn't know it at the time of writing.

The book was updated and rereleased back in 2009. There's no mention of it, and I always wondered why she didn't come out and reveal more about the will. When the original version came out in the 70s, she said that she couldn't get into specifics because a lawsuit was pending.

Christina claimed that it was his sister's husband that changed the will while her mother was sick. They all settled, with everything split four ways.

I still want to know what Joan had against Christina.

Joan wouldn't accept Christopher's kids. It sounds brutal.

Does anyone have a photo of Christopher in later years? What did he die from?

BTW, if you buy the updated version of "Mommie Dearest" on Amazon, it comes from Christina's personal publishing company signed.

Christina said that she had last spoken to her mother a few years before her death, BUT that they stayed in touch via letters, that Joan knew everything about her life and was proud of her. She said that she couldn't understand the will since she and her mother patch things up years earlier.

[quote]Being cut out of the will actually dates from a draft of Joan's will prepared after a May 1958 incident where Christopher had a serious run-in with the law (he was 15/underage, his cohorts were not), even ending up in court and potentially in danger of being tried as an adult and going to jail, and Christina took his side.

That bitch went and took them out of her will for THAT? Something that happened when he was 15?! Just proves how deranged the woman was.

I would have never gone for her throat had I known. Instead I would have been screaming "Bitch got your tongue!?" as I used her writing fingers to rip it out.

Yes, Joan knew about the book.

From what reports have said, she knew Christina was in the process of writing a book, though I'm not sure what she knew about the shape it would eventually take.

[quote] and that's the reason she left her out of the will?

She was left out of the will, for REASONS THAT SHOULD BE WELL KNOWN TO HER.

I already TOLD you people that, goddammit! Do you ever listen to me???

This article from Vanity Fair that includes quotes from one of the twin daughters really creeped me out. I find it odd that a grown woman in her 60s still refers to her mother as Mommie. Creepy.

Those "twins" act like programmed zombies. Sort of like Scientology members. I'm seen them speak on television. It's all rehearsed and bizarre.

The Joan Crawford web site (fan made) is so creepy. The dude is nuts. Anyhoo, he answers some questions...

Q:

I was wondering if Joan Crawford was aware of the scandalous book her daughter Christina was writing. Joan passed in 1977 and the book was released in 1978. I am sure that the book was in the works way before that time. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Tim Reilly

A:

Stephanie:

Apparently Joan was aware of the book. In the 2002 bio Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography, authors William Schoell and Lawrence Quirk write (pp. 257-258):

"During one teary late-night phone conversation, Joan confided to Larry Quirk that she was afraid Christina was going to write a book, a terrible book, about her after she was dead, if not before. It had gotten back to her that Christina was asking friends of Joan's for 'dirt' on her mother. For instance, she asked several people if they thought that Joan was having a lesbian relationship with a red-headed female fan who had helped her pack up her belongings when she moved from the penthouse (she wasn't). 'I just know she wants to use it all for a book or something worse,' Joan cried. Quirk assured her this was unlikely--'It's probably just simple curiosity on her part,' he said--and asked her why she thought Christina would do such a thing. 'Surely she knows, whatever your faults, that you love her and have done all that you could for her?' Quirk asked. Joan replied, 'You don't know Tina. She can be very vindictive. She throws things in my face. She says she's seen things I wouldn't want my fans to know about. She's threatened me. To get money out of me. To get me to talk to people when I know it won't do any good. You don't know what that girl is capable of. She's been out to get me ever since I made her stand on her own two feet.' Quirk passed it off as a paranoid delusion on Joan's part, never dreaming that Joan knew exactly what she was talking about."

The Crawford Children.

One of the girls has a broken arm in the last photo. Wonder how she got that...

Faye Dunaway talks about Mommie Dearest

The RFK brood still refers to Ethel and Bobby as Mommy and Daddy.

Is it worth getting the updated version of Mommie Dearest? Is there heaps of additional info or just an Epilogue?

All things considered, she didn't leave much to the twins (or to her "friend"/secretary who got less). Even in the 70s, the interest on 77,500 would not have amounted to much.

I saw an interview Christina did a few years ago and she said that she never had children of her own because she was afraid that she wouldn't be a good mother. At least she had the sense to realize that.

" Even in the 70s, the interest on 77,500 would not have amounted to much."

Had the heir invested that money in Johnson & Johnson stock, for example, in May 1977(the month of Joan's expiratia) she would now have more than $5 million in J&J stock plus would have been receiving quarterly dividends of about $255 which would increase each year.

Really, R22??? As if I needed another reason to think they're weirdos. I sometimes refer to my parents as Mumzy and Popsicle to be funny, but I'm never serious.

[quote] This article from Vanity Fair that includes quotes from one of the twin daughters really creeped me out. I find it odd that a grown woman in her 60s still refers to her mother as Mommie. Creepy.

Agreed! The whole article is kind of gross, with an obvious attempt to do the exact opposite of what "Mommie Dearest" did to Crawford's image. You'd think they could have had the smarts to paint Joan as a normal human being with flaws, but instead they spoke of her as if she were the Virgin Fuckin' Mary.

Didn't her daughter accept a lifetime achievement award for Joan?

I'm starting to think Christina is a fucking CUNT from HELL.

Were those really the reasons r1?