TEMPERAMENTAL NOT THE WORD FOR SIMONE SIMON

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 148, 10 July 1937, Page 8

TEMPERAMENTAL NOT THE WORD FOR SIMONE SIMON

Hollywood, ever prone to pass a quick judgment on newcomers to the fabulous film centre, finally ha3 taken time out to reconsider that the "temperamental" tag it attached to Simone Simon, the sensational French actress who flashed to fame.in her first American film, "Girls' Dormitory," and whp now makes her debut as a fullfledged star ' of the Amexican ■ screen in ' ' Se venth ; Heaven. " ■When Simone arrived in Hollywood last year, under long-term contract, she had no friends to welcome her to the screen city and no-one to confide in. The person largely responsible for hei presence in Hollywood was miles away and her knowledge of the English lan--guage was practically nil. Over-sen-sitive and bewildered, she couldn't acclimatise herself overnight to the land of informal short-cuts and easy familiarities. Mistaking the constructive suggestions of the studio make-up man for criticism of her natural appearance, Simone walked out on him and the cry of "temperamental" "began. When a case of the 'flu so severe that it twice caused her tp faint halted her work in "Under Two Flags," tongues wagged that she was- unmanageable, that she had "gone Hollywood." The 'flu was real enough to keep her in hospital six weeks, d#ring which time she read some scathing items about her temperamental outbursts. When that hospital siege was over, Simone had a better understanding of Hollywood 's easy maimer and its familiarity and it was a smiling, free-and-eaay Simone who walked on the set. ' The studio folk soon came to understand the roguish nature of this exotic star, who would not take too seriously the unparalleled interest in the pronunciation of her name (Seo-, Moan See-Moan).