BROKEN ROMANCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 219, 16 August 1937, Page 11

BROKEN ROMANCE

“MARRIAGE WRONG.” BRENT-WORTH DIVORCE. “We are just not meant for each other!” was the curt reply of George Brent when asked why he was dissolving his marriage with Jocelyn, or Jov, Howarth, Australian screen actress, known in Hollywood films as Constance Worth. They were married in Connecticut two months ago. Brent said he would file a suit for annulment of the marriage “when I have time,” and, if this failed, he would sue for divorce on the grounds that his Mexican marriage was in valid because the two witnesses were unknown to him and his bride, also that they had not lived as man anu wife. Brent said: “I do not care to talk of our marriage or its break-up beyond saying that we should not have married.”

A subsequent statement by Miss Worth declares that she and not her husband first moved for the dissolution of the marriage. She is living in her mother’s Beverly Hills home. Though Joy Howarth was seen occasionally with Brent in rpetaurants. the marriage surprised everybody. Divorce rumours began when they were on their honeymoon, but the news that they had separated ten days after their elopement did not break until July 18. SUICIDE ATTEMPT OR ACCIDENT?

Joy Howarth has had more headlines than any other Australian in Hollywood. First her name was linked with that of Tyronne Power, jitnr. Three months after her arrival in Hollywood last year Tower answered a telephone call' and found her collapsed on the floor, suffering from gas poisoning. Some newspapers called it a “suicide attempt,” but the Hollywood Reporter, a reputable trade paper, scouted this rumour, and related that the accident was caused by the explosion of a gas heater. RKO-Radio gave her a year’s contract, and insisted that she change her name to Constance Worth. Her first picture. “China Passage,” was nut important, and after one more film. “Windjammer.” with George O’Brien, the studio ended her engagement.

Mrs Howarth 6aid: “This Connie business has not been very successful. She’s still ‘Joy’ to me. Ever since they changed her name she has had bad luck.” This matrimonial smash has not surprised those who are acquainted with the circumstances of Brent s divorce from Ruth Chatterton. Incompatibility was statc-d as the ground for that divorce. Friends give incompatibility of temperament as the reason for the breakup of the romance, while thinking that Greta Garbo may also have been .a factor. George Brent, who was interested in Garbo for years, proposed to marry the Swedish actress some months before his elopement with Jocelyn Howarth. Garbo’s acquaintances said she was deeply affected and depressed when she heard of the marriage. Before h’s marriage, Brent was an almost daily visitor” to Garbo’s borne to play tennis. Since separating from bis wife lie lias resumed these tennis visits.