The HyperTexts
Famous, Notorious and Luminous Beauties: Page 5
This page is dedicated to famous, notorious and luminous beauties of
the past and present. Scandalous beauties and infamous bad girls include: Lily
Allen,
Ursula Andress, Fiona Apple, Tallulah Bankhead, Brigitte Bardot, Drew Barrymore,
Boudicca, Eva Braun Hitler, Naomi Campbell, Gia Carangi,
Marchesa Luisa Casati, Cleopatra, Colette, Joan Crawford, Miley Cyrus, Candy
Darling, Janice Dickinson, Isadora Duncan, Eve, Megan Fox, Nancy Friday, Lady Gaga, Madame Pierre Gautreau
(aka "Madame X"), Lady Godiva, Sasha Grey, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mata
Hari, Helen of Troy, Joanna Hiffernan, Paris Hilton,
Xaviera Hollander (aka "the Happy Hooker"), Whitney Houston, Calamity Jane, Joan
Jett, Jezebel, Angelina Jolie, Grace Jones, Janis Joplin, Kim Kardashian, Ke$ha,
Gypsy Rose Lee, Lilith, Lindsay Lohan, Courtney
Love, Linda Lovelace, Madonna, Alma Mahler, Jayne Mansfield, Queen Mary I of England (aka "Bloody
Mary"), Marilyn Monroe, Evelyn Nesbit, Kate Moss, Bettie Page, Pandora, Bonnie Parker, Katy Perry,
Charlotte Rampling, Christina Ricci, Rihanna, Amber Rose, Diana Ross, Sarah Silverman, Wallis Simpson, Anna Nicole Smith, Britney Spears,
Sharon Stone, Dorothy Stratton, Poly Styrene, Elizabeth Taylor, Dita Von Teese, Christy Turlington,
Lana Turner
and Mae West.
Colette by Clint Cearley
Sidonie Gabrielle Colette, better known simply by her pen name, Colette, was a
French novelist and performer in the early 20th century. Considered scandalous,
Colette had various affairs with both men and women, including Mathilde de Morny,
with whom she performed in "Rêve d'Égypte" at the Moulin Rouge. The pantomime
was banned, after their onstage kiss almost caused a riot. She later had a
notorious affair with her stepson Bertrand de Jouvenel, which began when he was
only 16 years old and she was in her late 40s.
Evelyn Nesbit [1884-1967]
Evelyn Nesbit was an artists' model, chorus girl, and Gibson Girl immortalized
in E. L. Doctorow's historical fiction novel, Ragtime. She was
considered scandalous because but her story is much darker than her innocent
images portray. First, there was her relationship with Stanford White, which
began when he was 47 and she was 16. Then she married Harry Thaw, a cocaine
addict and physical abuser who killed White out of jealousy. And finally, she
was a major player in the two sensationalized murder trials of Thaw's "Crime of
the Century." While Harry Thaw denied paternity of the child raised as his son,
Evelyn maintained that Russell Thaw was conceived during a conjugal visit with
her husband at Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Evelyn Nesbit
played Vashti, the gypsy girl, in "The Wild Rose", 1902 and she was also known
as "the girl in the red velvet swing."
Candy Darling
Candy Darling certainly qualifies as a notorious, scandalous beauty, since she was a favorite of Andy Warhol. The songs "Lola" by the Kinks and Lou Reed's "Candy Says" and "Take a Walk on
the Wild Side" were allegedly written with her in mind. Oh, and "she was a he," born James Lawrence Slattery.
Calamity Jane [1852-1903]
The famous gunslinger and markswoman known as Calamity Jane allegedly worked as a dance hall
girl and prostitute, among other odd jobs. It
was said that to offend her was to "court calamity." But she was also known for
her courage, compassion and generosity. By the time she teamed up with Wild Bill
Hickok in 1876 and became famous as a performer, she had lost her youthful good
looks. The picture above is the only one I could find that begins to do her
justice. Calamity Jane, born Martha Jane Canary, was an American frontierswoman,
explorer, wagon train rider, army scout, Indian fighter, sure shot, horsewoman,
hunter, ox team driver, cook, waitress, dishwasher, nurse, Wild West show
performer, dance hall
girl, and courtesan. She also worked as a prostitute at the Fort Laramie
Three-Hog Ranch. She was named "Calamity Jane, the heroine of the plains" by a
Captain Egan whom she rescued from death at the hands of Indians at Goose Creek,
Wyoming in 1872-1873. She claimed to have married and borne a child by Wild Bill
Hickok, and was by many accounts a generous and compassionate women, if
something of a hellion. She lies buried next to Wild Bill and as one admirer put
it, "Her vices were the wide-open sins of a wide-open country: the sort that
never carried a hurt."
Madame X
Madame X or Portrait of Madame X is the informal
title of a portrait painting by John Singer Sargent of a young socialite named
Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau, the wife of Pierre Gautreau. The model was an
American expatriate who married a French banker, and became notorious in
Parisian high society for her beauty and rumored infidelities. She wore lavender
powder and prided herself on her appearance. Madame X was painted not as a
commission, but at the request of Sargent. It is a study in opposition. Sargent
shows a woman posing in a black satin dress with jeweled straps, a dress that
reveals and hides at the same time. The portrait is characterized by the pale
flesh tone of the subject contrasted against a dark colored dress and
background. For Sargent, the scandal resulting from the painting's controversial
reception at the Paris Salon of 1884 amounted to the failure of a strategy to
build a long-term career as a portrait painter in France, although it may have
helped him establish a successful career in Britain and America.
As for Madame X,
originally, the right shoulder strap was
hanging off the shoulder, and the combination of this and the "erotic"
suggestion of her dress, pale skin and pose caused viewers to be shocked and
Gautreau to retreat from the public's eye.
Alma Mahler
Alma Mahler, aka Alma Maria Mahler Gropius Werfel, was an Austrian socialite,
muse, and composer who married and had affairs with prominent men in society
during the early 20th century. She is considered scandalous because at age 17,
she had a fling with famous painter Gustav Klimt, who was 35 at the time. While
she had various affairs over the years, her most notable one was with painter
and playwright Oskar Kokoschka. After she refused to marry him, he commissioned
a life-sized sex doll in her likeness!
Isadora Duncan
Isadora Duncan was an American dancer who brought the world modern dance. She is
considered scandalous because she bucked tradition in her tragically short life,
being bisexual, possibly Communist, bearing children out of wedlock, and
marrying a Russian poet 18 years younger than herself.
Xaviera Hollander
Xaviera Hollander, aka "the Happy Hooker," is a former call girl, madam, and
memoirist. She came to be best known for her best-selling memoir The Happy
Hooker: My Own Story. She was born Xaviera de Vries in Soerabaja, Dutch
East Indies (present-day Indonesia), to a Dutch Jewish physician father and a
mother of French and German descent. She spent the first three years of her life
in a Japanese internment camp. In her early 20s, she left Amsterdam for
Johannesburg, where her stepsister lived. There she met and became engaged to
John Weber, an American economist. When the engagement was broken off, she left
South Africa for New York. In 1968, she resigned from her job as secretary of
the Dutch consulate in Manhattan to become a call girl, where she made $1,000 a
night. A year later she opened her own brothel, the Vertical Whorehouse, and
soon became New York City's leading madam. In 1971, she was arrested for
prostitution by New York police and forced to leave the United States. In 1971
Hollander published a memoir, The Happy Hooker: My Own Story. Robin
Moore, who took Hollander's dictations of the book's contents, came up with the
catchy title, while Yvonne Dunleavy transcribed the book. The book was notable
for its frankness by the standards of the time, and is considered a landmark of
positive writing about sex. In the book, Hollander detailed her life as an
open-minded woman. She stated that during the start of her career, she did not
ask for cash in exchange for sex, but her partners voluntarily gave her money
and other presents. Hollander later wrote a number of other books and produced
plays in Amsterdam. Her latest book, Child No More, is the heartfelt
story of losing her mother. For 35 years, she wrote an advice column for
Penthouse magazine called Call Me Madam.
Drew Barrymore, who has definitely grown up since E. T.
Drew Barrymore may qualify as a scandalous woman for "flashing" David Letterman
on public TV, and for photos like the ones above. But of course she has millions
of fans among men who love naughty girls!
Taylor Swift
While Taylor Swift has a sweet and wholesome image, she had a
Marilyn-Monroe-like scandalous moment when her skirt flew up in the middle of a
concert and she "flashed" the crowd. But she was wearing "granny panties" so
perhaps she really is sweet and wholesome after all!
Alessandra
Ambrosio
Penelope Cruz
Rachel McAdams
Kelly Brook
Kate Upton
Sienna Miller
Dorothy Revier [1904-1993]
Lillian Russell [1860-1922]
Lillian Russell was one of the first American female celebrities. She was an actress and singer known for her stage presence. She was married
four times, but her longest relationship was with Diamond Jim Brady, a man known for his enormous appetites, which included
gambling, food and (as
his nickname suggests) expensive jewels. Her mother was a noted feminist who became the first woman to run for mayor of New York
City. In her later years Russell became an advocate of women's suffrage and was a popular lecturer and newspaper columnist.
Madge Bellamy [1899-1990]
Louise Glaum [1888-1970]
Lizabeth Scott
Betty Blythe [1893-1972]
Burnu Acquanetta [1921-2004]
Burnu Acquanetta, whose name means "Burning Fire, Deep Water" in
Arapaho, was born on an Indian reservation at Ozone, near Cheyenne, Wyoming, in
1921. Acquanetta, who became famous playing Jane to Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan,
walked out on her Universal contract in 1951, complaining about the way studio
bosses had come on to her, "grabbed and pulled and chased [me] around the
executives' offices."
Brigitte Nielsen
Jayne Mansfield [1933-1967]
Katherine McPhee
Dido sings like an angel and looks like one too ...
Fiona Apple
Fiona Apple explained her choice to parade around in bra and panties in
her "Criminal" music video: "I decided that if I was going to be exploited,
then I would do the exploiting myself."
Susan Coffey
Dani Crayne loved water like her namesake ...
Myriam Fares ... is the Lebanese siren known as the "Queen of the Stage" the
most luminous beauty of all time? To be sure, you can check out our pictures of
her at the bottom of every page in this series.
Restart at page 1
Back to page 4
Forward to page 6
Related pages:
The Most
Beautiful Women of All Time,
Famous Beauties,
Forgotten and Unknown
Beauties,
Famous Courtesans,
Famous Ingénues,
Famous Hustlers,
Famous Pool Sharks,
Famous Rogues,
Famous Heretics,
Famous Hypocrites,
Famous Forgers and Frauds,
Famous Flops,
Famous Morons,
The Dumbest Things Ever Said,
Unmentionables
The HyperTexts