The famed Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper was once confronted by Merle Oberon demanding to know why she had written such vicious things about her. Hopper leaned over and patted Oberon's arm. "Bitchery, dear," she then replied. "Sheer bitchery."

["Our town worships success," Hopper once said of Hollywood: "the bitch goddess whose smile hides a taste for blood."]