Spoto

Spoto has given us a useful start at rescuing Crawford not only from Christina, but also from herself.

Saving Crawford from 'Mommie Dearest,' and herself Charles Matthews 2011

A prolific biographer of almost everyone from Jesus to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Spoto has interviewed and written about so many of Crawford's contemporaries that he seems to feel compelled to tell us everything even remotely related to his subject, and the book sometimes feels padded.

Saving Crawford from 'Mommie Dearest,' and herself Charles Matthews 2011

Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies by Donald Spoto (review copy): This is really the worst of all worlds.

Thumbs up for The Futurist (review roundup) 2010

Spoto calls the book "a vituperative act of revenge after Joan excised her two oldest children from her will after many years of discord."

Saving Crawford from 'Mommie Dearest,' and herself Charles Matthews 2011

Spoto is an unapologetic fan, beginning his book with Crawford's response to a letter he wrote her as an 11-year-old in 1952.

Saving Crawford from 'Mommie Dearest,' and herself Charles Matthews 2011

Some of the neighborhood's more traditional spots include Spoto's as well as Tosca Café, which serves marinara pizza baked in one of the city's few remaining coal-fired ovens.

Latin Food Enlivens Throgs Neck Laura Kusisto 2012

According to Spoto, launderers and dry cleaners "were under strict instructions to return all clothing on the richly covered hangers Joan provided."

Saving Crawford from 'Mommie Dearest,' and herself Charles Matthews 2011

Though studio head Louis B. Mayer asserted that "the girl in this picture could be anybody - anyone at all - except our Lucille," Spoto also notes that the blackmailer's "house mysteriously burned to the ground the following month."

Saving Crawford from 'Mommie Dearest,' and herself Charles Matthews 2011

Des RoarDes Roar was founded in New York City in 2006 by California transplants Ben Wolcott (vocals, guitar) and Ryan Spoto (bass) and city gal Lyla Vander (drums, vocals), with Alan O'Keeffe (guitar) rounding out the lineup.

Phil Ramone and Danielle Evin: Dog Ears Music: Volume 142 2010

Evangeline, according to several of the reviews I read, Spoto poo-poos the idea that Grace had affairs with her older married co-stars, which I find interesting since about 80 books say that she did.

New Book: High Society The Life of Grace Kelly Elizabeth Kerri Mahon 2009