Dominick Dunne

No, but what's the bio you read?

He was one angry little queen....

I think Dunne himself said, when he finally admitted he was gay, that it was essentially theoretical as he was virtually celibate. I'm thinking he said this to son Griffin towards the end of his life, but I may be misremembering.

Here's the bio (great cover).

Yes, R2, he was.

Hardly, R3, although he may have wanted his son to think that.

Thanks. Just downloaded it.

Always remember his coverage of OJ. Very good writer.

I always looked forward to reading his articles in Vanity Fair. I believe they're available in the VF archives. They were a few years ago anyway.

Evil queen

His articles always read like you were sitting with him in a living room or bar and just shmoozing. Loved reading his stuff. Maybe his anger stems from having a murdered daughter?

Great reporter; mediocre novelist.

I love the way he pops up in those Roddy MacDowall home movies.

His brother and sister-in-law were insufferable. Such snobs.

It must have driven them CRAZY that he had a second act as a successful novelist.

He was every bit as insufferable in his own way and every bit as snobbish. God, the name dropping and pretensions of this man.

Er, may he rest in peace.

[quote]His brother and sister-in-law were insufferable. Such snobs.

Snob? Moi? Non! C'est ridicule!

I was walking out of The Four Seasons (restaurant, not hotel) circa 2011 (???) and almost bumped into him. He was on his way in. He was short. But I recognized him and said "I am a big fan of your reporting". He was very nice and said thank you. I think he might have been hoping for some weiner action. But he was very nice.

^ oh I told him I had watched the Von Bulow trial while at Brown and said his reporting was outstanding. Car was waiting so I left. I should have grabbed a drink w him.

[quote]Great reporter; mediocre novelist.

Exactly! I was amazed at how bad his novels were. I’d loved his VF writing so much.

I watched that crime show he had years ago. It was interesting. I read "The Two Mrs Grenvilles" and "A Season in Purgatory" - obviously a Kennedy family inspired work.

Thanks for the link! I also downloaded the biography and am looking forward to reading it.

I met him at the Playboy rooftop party for Patti Reagan in NYC - had a quite long conversation with him and don't remember a thing about it. didn't know he was gay at the time. met A.J. Benza and Fred Schneider at the same party. I got to say "I wish you peace" (name of the song she cowrote on the Eagles album) to Patti - she smiled.

I also had a brief encounter outside the LA County Criminal Courts Bldg., where I was on jury duty. (Civic duty and what not). He was reporting on the Phil Specter trial. I was a fan of his Vanity Fair articles. I asked him if there was a verdict (he was rushing into the building ). He said no. I asked about his long awaited novel (which was his last). He put his hand on my shoulder (not sure if he was hitting on me ? ) and said it was coming shortly. It actually was not published until after his death. (He came out as gay in the novel). He looked disheveled. Dandruff on his tweed jacket. Hair a bit messy. I did not realize at the time he was probably undergoing prostate cancer treatment (which may have accounted for his appearance ) That is about it. Nice friendly guy

What saddens me is there's really nobody who's taken Dunne's place as a magazine writer covering the types of people he wrote about. Maybe that's all passe now and nobody's interested in the International Set/Cafe Society, for lack of a better term. But really, who wants to read about the lives and foibles of people like Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg? They have no style and don't seem well-rounded or interested in anything other than their empires and space exploration. Aargh.

Such exciting lives of people like Jock Whitney, Ronald Tree, Capote's swans, Baron de Rede, Cecil Beaton, etc etc. Where are their ilk now?

I recall him picking up a psycho on a street corner who tied him up, put a brown paper bag over his head, and started tossing lighted matches at him. DD prayed out loud for the Lord to have mercy on this man. Finally, the psycho couldn't take it anymore and left.

Shitty reporter. He decided that the American nurse who set a fire that killed Edmond Safra wasn't guilty, and bought into a conspiracy theory. Except there was no conspiracy. The nurse ultimately admitted his guilt, saying he'd set the fire to rescue Safra and make him appreciate him more. It also turned out there was a strong history of schizophrenia in the nurse's family.

There was also the huge payoff to Gary Condit for libel. I think the LA Times said it best in its obit:

>If, as Capote said, all literature is gossip, Dunne was a believer. He loved to "dish," giving rumor equal time with news in his Vanity Fair reports. His story on the Safra slaying, for instance, was an engrossing brew of fact and rank speculation as only Dunne could produce. He repeated hearsay and used unnamed sources liberally, such as a "well-connected woman once married to a prominent figure in the film world" or "a waiter serving me risotto" at a dinner party. Dunne had everyone whispering in his ear.

His willingness to entertain nearly any source made him the target of an $11-million defamation lawsuit by former California Rep. Gary Condit after Dunne told a bizarre, unsubstantiated story on national television and radio programs that implicated Condit in the 2001 disappearance of Washington intern Chandra Levy. He apologized to Condit and paid an undisclosed sum to settle the lawsuit in 2005.<

I always wondered how much he had to cough up to that sleaze Condit. Maybe half of the 11 million? Nothing good comes out of Modesto, that's all I know. Weird fucking place.

For those interested, there’s also a documentary about him called After the Party which is quite good.

As well, he wrote a (small) coffee table book titled "The Way We Lived Then" about Hollywood in the 50's and 60's. Only the title was homage to Trollope.

He was an amateur photographer but given the range of friends he and his wife entertained, it's pretty entertaining: Vincente Minnelli, Jennifer Jones, a very young Candace Bergen, Fred deCordova, Sidney Korshak, Peter Lawford, Gen. Frank McCarthy (one of Eisenhower's top aides/gay), Liz Taylor, some luminous pictures of Natalie Wood, some pissed-off pictures of Princess Margaret, one of Hedda Hopper that looks like it was taken about 15 minutes before she died, Betsy Bloomingdale, Rocky Cooper, Tuesday Weld, Jane Fonda, Lauren Bacall, Oscar Levant, and a cast of thousands more.

I just read that book R26. All the photos, invitations and telegrams were to prove to others and himself that he was worthy of his position in Hollywood. He felt he was an imposter. A woman at a dinner party told him he was and he always remembered it, and believed it. He had one foot in that world and one foot in his secret life. He could never be fully there in either of them. I heard it was Mart Crowley who finally provided his wife with the evidence she needed to divorce him.

I haven't read the book ^^ but it's true that in his novels, his alter ego often feels he's an imposter in society because his family background, while totally respectable, wasn't on a par with his social acquaintances, or with his wife's family.

I thought she divorced him because he was a drunk. No?

I live 3 miles from where the guy who killed his daughter works. It is a posh retirement villa. He is head of the food service or something like that.I don't remember his official title. I called them a couple of years ago and asked the front desk if they knew who they had working for them, I got a curt "yes, and we have no further comment". I would love to go out there for a full tour, pretend I am checking it out for my (fake) elderly parents, and stare that motherfucker down.

I heard it was because of his sexuality R28. You can hear rumors, and sacrifice your dignity until someone shows up with proof.

Very true, r30. I wonder why Crowley would out him to his wife. I thought he and Dunne were tight.

A while ago I wrote about meeting Nick. This was back when he was promoting his OJ book (Another City, Not My Own). He was quite femmy and quite nice. We chatted for a bit about publishing, NYC, stuff like that.

Later that night I was told that he LIVES for gossip and gives as good as he gets. I was bummed that I didn’t get to experience that firsthand.

It's weird to see Truman Capote living it up at Dunne's fancy parties in Beverly Hills. The photos in the book show him mixing with all the rich people and movie stars he loved on Walden Drive. It was Dunne who had the Black and White party first. Truman copied him and didn't even invite him. They both were brought down by a little piece of gossip - in TC's case it was La Cote Basque 1965. In DD's case it was a joke he told about Sue Mengers being fat. Robert Evans called him up and said you'll never work in this town again (so cliche Hollywood), and he didn't. And Capote retreated into the bottle after he was cut off by his "Swans." Later, Dunne got even with Capote by writing The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, with Basil Plant (Capote) as the narrator.

R31, I wonder if Crowley might have done it because he loved Lenny and saw that everyone in town was talking about him.

That was super gutsy of you to call up there R29. How did you find out he was working there? If you ever do go up there, make sure you report back here!

I googled his name r29 and nearly shit myself as I had just moved out here a year prior. It was "what were the odds" as I am a HUGE fan of Dunne. I wasn't really scared of making the call, but thanks, however when (not if) I do go out there for a wee look-see, I'm going to careful as fuck. Once a killer, always a killer. I think the people who are residents there should have the right to know there is a killer in their midst. Especially considering the bastard is in charge of their food.

Poor Lenny, r31. Kind of a sad life. Poor Nick, too, I suppose, always fearful of being found out or humiliated in some way. I think his father used to call him a pansy--or at least he incorporated something like that into one or more of the novels.

While working at a tv station I randomly met Dunne. This was when each city had its own "Good Morning X Town" show in the morning and he and a publicist were promoting his new book (forget which one, this was in the '80s). They were leaving the station, walking through the lobby as I was passing through and I said, "Mr. Dunne!" He quickly turned toward me and I told him I was a big fan, blah blah blah. Here's the thing I still remember today: he had the most intense gaze of anyone I've ever met. As I was talking he looked at me, non-blinking, taking in every banal word I had to say. It was a curious combination of "Who are you? I'm taking it all in" and "If you want to tell me something -- anything -- I'm here to listen and absorb." I've never forgotten it.

Meant to add, it's no wonder people confided in him. His attention was total.

Sorry; I just thought he was creepy.

Just watched the Dominick Dunne documentary on Amazon last weekend; interesting, but no mention of Dunne being gay/bisexual.

As he got older he probably paid for a few Falcon and Catalina models. There must be stories out there, somewhere.

I knew him. He was my friend's uncle. He was very interested in younger people and what they thought and observed. He was obsessed with money, and smelled like talcum powder and some old fashioned cologne. Always well dressed in that English slouchy shouldered look. I had lunch with him by accident at the coffee shop at The Beverly Hills Hotel a few months before he died. He walked in, waved and asked if he could sit next to me at the empty counter which was sort of polite. I agree he was a better journalist than novelist. I knew the family of the Woodward's on whom the Two Mrs. Grenvilles was based. They hated Nick Dunne and blamed him for their cousin's suicide. They also blamed Truman Capote for the Mother's suicide but that happenned before Dunne wrote about them.

Working at the Virgin Megastore circa 1995/96. I was looking down at the register and I heard his voice- knew exactly who it was before I looked up.

He asked for a CD by a contemporary female jazz singer who had died recently. Someone like Diana Krall, but I can't remember who it was. Anyone have any ideas?

I really loved his Vanity Fair stuff, and it was the height of OJ. But, couldn't really think of anything to say. He was all business.

I wish he'd done more of those true-crime episodes. Power, Privilege and Justice explained some of the local scandals from my childhood. It's about the only thing I can stand on Justice TV.

Inveterate name-dropper.

I enjoyed Dunne’s take on the Alfred Bloomingdale/Vicki Morgan scandal, “An Inconvenient Woman” — and the miniseries was fun, too!

Inveterate social climber.

I just watched the documentary. Kind of a sad guy. He said his wife left the marriage because she didn't enjoy their partying lifestyle, but I wonder if that was just his way of papering over his sexuality.

Just bought the book on Amazon...reviews looked good. Can’t wait to read it!

Was he a Republicunt?

I read a few of his books but he was insane over his daughters murder. He was not clear on that and of course he was a racist...nothing new.

Rube. Can someone briefly tell me who the references are on here? Who was his wife? How daughter was murdered? Whats Joan - didion I assume- to him?

His wife was Ellen Griffin, a cattle heiress from New Mexico, very refined and by all accounts, a lovely person.

His daughter was strangled by a former boyfriend. Joan Didion is his sister-in-law--married to his brother John Gregory Dunne.

Thank you R54

He and his wife make several appearances in Roddy MacDowell's Malibu home movies from the summer of 1965, so they were clearly well-liked by that community.....and young Nick wasn't so bad-looking.

Typical of me that I already posted this info at r10. I'm nothing if not consistent.

He wasn't bad looking, r56--just really bland-looking. Like a 'Nilla Wafer. She had beautiful bone structure.

My office is in The Seagram Building on Park where The Four Seasons restaurant was (on the 52nd street side). My smoking place is close to the entrance. Have seen tons of famous coming and going but one day he was walking towards the door. I said hello and said how much I enjoyed his writing. He was extremely nice. We talked about Claus Von Bulow's trial as I told him I followed it in undergrad and went to many of the court dates. Ended up talking for fifteen minutes outside there. Super nice.

It looks like the last post was right around when the fore mentioned documentary got posted in full to YouTube. It’s definitely worth checking out, although it doesn’t go into anything about his sexuality, which I guess Griffin only revealed after his death and having been disclosed to him by his dad.

The correct question, OP, is "Who's had him?"

Dunne crashed a party hosted by Sharon Stone and Ypir on Mouna Ayoub's yacht, le Phocéa, at the 2002 Cannes festival. I was there with my friends the Chaplin - Sauras whom I knew from Brown and Gstaad. Everyone snubbed him. I took pity and chatted briefly about his work and my film studies. He thought he was heading to the Lady Moura, Mouna's ex-husband's super yacht. Geraldine manouevred him off the intimate yacht before dinner.

R26 I was in the book too

I always thought of him as a more polished and inebriated Nancy Grace. He always took his editorials on TV very seriously but he had a "pleading' way of delivering them. Which made me weary of his reporting. It was like he was trying to convince you rather than inform you. But , I did find him interesting without a doubt. Was not aware of the Capote connection, which now makes him even more interesting.

If you read The Way We Lived Then and compare it to Joan Didion's Year of Magical Thinking you can see that Joan really looked down on Dominick for throwing his money away throwing all of those parties. She's a little mean about it. I think Dunne may have had financial problems right after his divorce and maybe he could have been smarter with his money. Funny though, Dominick outlived his younger brother despite all of his partying.

Loved his VF writing, but I also like his novels. They’re fun and trashy.

R65 I’m pretty sure Joan and John were notoriously big party throwers when they arrived in L.A. as well, like right out of Dominick’s playbook to get work?

The first time I was aware of him was when he was on one of Dick Cavett's talk shows, when his first novel was a bestseller but before he got into the crime-writing genre. He was very honest about his banishment from Hollywood. I always enjoyed his novels, adored his VF articles, and was very sad when he got mired in the Gary Condit sleazy story.

He made Vanity Fair for me.

I never read You’ll Never Eat Lunch in this Town Again or saw the one woman play. I assume his story is prominent in both since it was so well known?

"Why is that Irish-Americans are all social climbers? Do you suppose it's because their mothers were all chambermaids?... Oh, of course I don't mean you."

--Gore Vidal to Nick Dunne, overheard at a fashionable society luncheon

Loved him, and his VF articles. He had a lot of anger for his daughter’s murderer, I expect given the chance he’d murder him with his bare hands.

R72 With how easy it is to find the guy based on an upthread posting, I’m surprised when he hit terminal with the cancer he didn’t go there and take the guy out as one of his final acts.

I loved his portrayal as the teenage daughter in Poltergeist.

“I’m Dominick Dunne, with ‘Power, Privilege and Justice’!”

[quote] I always thought of him as a more polished and inebriated Nancy Grace.

Yes, he was similar to Nancy Grace in that they acted like defense attorneys were personally doing stuff to be evil. A lot of what Nancy Grace & Dunne were bitching about was basic US Constitutional rights. Nancy should have known better b/c she is a trained attorney. Dunne, just uncontrolled emotions.

Dunne lost his objectivity, was too emotional, shirked his professional standards, and that's why he got in trouble re: Condit, etc.

I loved his VF writing, but agree that there were too many unnamed sources and "heard it from a friend of a friend."

Trump's mother was a chambermaid.

I did not like him...he was like Nancy Grace.

Some people are saying Dominick Dunne was like Nancy Grace.

[quote] Trump's mother was a chambermaid.

That's fitting, since her son grew up to be a chamberpot... full of shit.

Doesn't Dunne in the doc talk about professionally destroying the judge who passed sentence on his daughter's murderer? It gave him enormous satisfaction.

R80 wannabe despot chamberpot!

[quote] Doesn't Dunne in the doc talk about professionally destroying the judge who passed sentence on his daughter's murderer? It gave him enormous satisfaction.

R81, if you're talking about "After the Party," then, yes, DD did seem enormously satisfied to have "destroyed" the judge. In "After the Party," (IIRC) DD was unhappy with some pretrial rulings about admissibility of evidence. I'm not saying I agree with the judge, but DD is purposely obtuse about constitutional law (like Nancy). If he wanted to commentate on courtroom stuff, he should have at least acknowledged some rudimentary concepts.

R78. I did not like Domink Dunne in the role of Joker.

I'm not a big movie goer but I saw a clip of a movie with Madonna in a car with a guy. Maybe here on DL. Anyway I thought wow that guy is cute who the hell is he? Imagine my surprise when I found out it was somebody I recall hearing the name of and it turned out to be Dominick's son. I don't think Dominick was anywhere near as cute when he was young.

I've always felt the main thing about Dunne's obsession with his daughter's death was that he really wasn't much of a father to her when she was alive, and so when she died, he really blamed himself for being a negligent father, and tried to make up for it by sublimating his self-loathing in different ways. He became obsessed less with murder itself than with the [italic]gossip[/italic] surrounding murder among the famous and fabulous, so he could justify his life's obsession with gossip and celebrity.

He was a pretty pathetic human being. He saw himself very much rewflected in Truman Capote, who also was obsessed with gossip about the rich and celebrated. But Capote genuinely had writing talent--although I liked Dunne's first novel, "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles," it was little more than a potboiler, and every subsequent book was a decline further in quality.

He was trapped in a life built from a house of cards. It was always going to fall apart he was just waiting on when. He was so busy filling it with props (including his kids) to distract from facing his reality ( Gay, Career Gaslighting) he missed bonding and connection windows with his family that probably would have filled a lot of his self esteem gaps. He was vey pathetic but not unlikeable. I hope he reached some sort of absolution with himself before he died.

Re: Griffin Dunne, I did find him cute in 'Who's that Girl?' and also 'After Hours'. In the Carrie Fisher/Debbie Reyolds documentary, Carrie talked with Griffin about the fact that she lost her virginity to him.

With so little talent Carrie was very lucky in her life. But then maybe that's why she killed herself with alcohol and drugs. She knew she was an imposter.

I'm glad he destroyed that ignoramus judge.

With so little talent Carrie was very lucky in her life. But then maybe that's why she killed herself with alcohol and drugs. She knew she was an imposter.

Lucky?! She had serious mental illness that destroyed her life and THAT'S why she did drugs and alcohol, she was self medicating.

Dominick Dunne was the poor mans Gore Vidal

In the documentary Evans said he had no recollection of telling Dunne he would never work in Hollywood again though he doesn't deny it either.

Don't think it matters in the end, his life was completely upended when his only daughter was killed and her murderer was turned loose.

This is not something anyone just gets over.

He was a complicated man. A feckless party boy who was also a war veteran awarded a medal of honor for recovering a fallen comrade on the field. He wrote the solider, who was seriously injured and possibly dying weakly pressed his hand to thank him.

R94, Dominique’s murder and the complete travesty of her trial changed the trajectory of his life . He adored and cherished Dominique. She was an amazing young lady , full of love and life . He became passionate about justice and victims rights .

I tried to work my magic on him but little Dominick would not stand up.

R21 social media has rhuewinned journalism.

Even if someone's good, everyone's blathering on too much about themselves to notice.

r44, Diana Krall is still alive, so it wasn't she. Ella Fitzgerald died in 1995, Carmen McRae in 1994.

Nick Dunne was a fascinating guy . He had such charisma and was captivating. I believe the murder of his daughter awakened a sensitivity in him and he became more empathetic. He had quite a life. To be gay in his era was extremely difficult and dangerous.

R99, I marvel at how gay guys after a certain age (college) can still fuck a woman.

I wonder about Lenny Dunne . Her boyfriend before Dominick was gay. All 5 of their kids (2died in infancy) were delivered via c section. She never dated or married again . Did they actually have sex?

His daughter Dominique pinged somewhat. She was lovely .

The children all looked like Dominick, r101. Of course they did.

R103, of course that’s his kids! I’m wondering if they did the turkey baser

Dominique was the combination of both parents . A beautiful girl .

[quote]I’m wondering if they did the turkey baser

In the 1950s?

Cute

R106, why not?

[quote] I was walking out of The Four Seasons (restaurant, not hotel)

Are you sure?

Dominick was good friends with Jay Sebring and Sharon state

Mr. Dunne rocked . He’s courageous

I posted in the hoarding thread; one of the things I found this weekend while cleaning up my place is the VF article on Dunne after his death.

R101 - Lenny Dunne was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and was wheelchair bound for the latter part of her life. I'm not so sure finding new love was a priority. I read that Dunne remained devoted until her death at 65 from complications .

Lenny was a great lady! She was fun, down to earth and kind. Poor woman endured so much and rarely complained.

Lenny was best friends with Natalie Wood and Norma Crane.

Nick got involved with some really dark sexual stuff and hard drug use. He was lost for a while.

He was a shameless social climber in Hollywood. Most people couldn’t stand him and were more than happy to kick him back down the rungs.

He sure showed them r117, by his spectacular rise back up! In fact, he became truly famous and rich .

How bad waa he actually compared to rung of the rung cunts?

He was a decorated WW2 hero .

Bump for a fantastic man

I loved his passion and charisma

I went to hear him speak at the 92nd St. Y in the early 90s. He had just written his Kennedy roman a clef. I brought my copy of “People like us“ for him to sign. He said “ah, I like that book.“ He he was very priestly. I always thought “the Two Mrs. Grenvilles” is a perfect little novel in its way. At its best, his writing was simple yet so elegant; he knew exactly how to use a fancy word in just the right place, but never tried to be pretentiously lit’ry. He was in on the joke even if he took his subject matter very seriously.

“A town not my own “ was his best . It’s about the OJ trial . He does mention his daughter’s murder and how it impacted him And his family . Heartbreaking

R124 Funny, I thought that was not his best. It just seemed like a litany of name dropping. “An inconvenient woman” was very good.

I also loved his VF articles- best of high society gossip. That it sometimes turned out incorrect was besides the point.

Bump

Bumped from over a year ago, but I do love Dominick Dunne and this description from R123 rings true:

[QUOTE]At its best, his writing was simple yet so elegant; he knew exactly how to use a fancy word in just the right place, but never tried to be pretentiously lit’ry.

By the time the documentary about him was made he was quite old, with splotchy skin and smoker's yellow teeth. But he still had his wits about him.

His writing was word salad before the internet turned 80% of authors into verbose bores.

DD was the reason I subscribed initially to Vanity Fair, especially his trial coverage of OJ Simpson, the Menendez brothers, Klaus von Bülow, etc.

Yup, those were the glory days of Vanity Fair. My mom and I both enjoyed reading VF. They had some nice, long, interesting articles, back then.