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“... as herself in the biopic Claretta starring Claudia Cardinale. In the 1940s, Myriam had dark Bette Davis eyebrows and artfully curled hair, like Claretta’s. When she got married in the 1940s to a rich textiles magnate, Mussolini did everything he could to ensure that she had a perfect wedding, taking more notice of her marriage – as one leading ...”

“... superstar; and publicly she was clearly a monstre sacré almost indistinguishable from any other (Bette Davis, for example), a person entirely different from the unworldly, dedicated creator and pure fount of originality she had been during the first half of this century. In those days she had exemplified the difficulty of telling the dancer from the dance as ...”

“... women preferred being attractive in the depraved modern way, like Dietrich and Garbo, or maybe Bette Davis, and dressing, like the rest of the modern world, in imitation of Paris. Folk-dress invoked notions of national purity, meaning no make-up and no permanent waves, no smoking and no cocktails. Some eager Nazi supporters went in for it, but only the ...”

“... stood up and looked around the day room with a surprised and slightly dismayed expression, like Bette Davis in some old movie. ‘Shall we go for a walk?’ she said. It was clear, from her tone, that refusal was not an option. It doesn’t sound like a very auspicious beginning, I suppose, yet over the next few days Cathy and I became new best friends ...”

“... character, given this faculty, might have noticed that Bellow’s use of Baron Hulot, from Cousine Bette, had already been used as an instance of indestructible desire in The Dean’s December and Humboldt’s Gift. Or that Forster’s aphorism ‘How do I know what I think till I see what I say?’ had already appeared (uncredited) in Humboldt’s ...”

“... based on Nelly’s life and personality and there was talk that the part would be played by Bette Davis. But it came to nothing. Thomas Mann and his family continued to dislike Nelly. When she and Heinrich needed sponsors to regularise their stay in America, Heinrich turned to his brother, who wrote to him in February 1941: That I am doing it for you ...”

“... Kansas, where Stanley Ann was born in 1942. (The name was a homage to her father but also to Bette Davis, Madelyn’s favourite actress, who played a character called Stanley in a movie released that year, In This Our Life.) Always looking for the next big break, her father kept the family on the move, bumping around the American West for years until ...”

“... owns CNN. On his first night, he wakes up at 1.30 a.m. to tweet that the 73-year-old entertainer Bette Midler is a ‘washed up psycho’.The president says it is ‘fake news’ that there were mass protests in London against his visit: ‘I heard that there were protests. I said where are the protests? I don’t see any protests.’ On Fox & Friends ...”

“... all this Hollywood dreck, Ben?’ Roth wanted to know, ‘And why are you gay men so beguiled by Bette Davis?’ Yeah, Ben, what gives? Roth: ‘You don’t look twice at Ava Gardner, who was, to put it mildly, more attractive. She had an enduring sexiness, even in London. In the 1980s. When I had her.’ When I had her: how the phrase just rolls off the ...”

“... in her words. You’ve heard it from time to time in the movie tones of Marlene Dietrich or Bette Davis. It was late, I’d been in bed for some time. I pretended to be asleep when she walked into the dark room and told me. I didn’t know what to say, and I was frightened by what would happen to the voice if it was encouraged to go on. Besides, I had a ...”