by Reg Green (January 2025)
I wrote in this column recently that Truman Capote described one of the socialites he mixed with as having “the most beautiful legs extant.” That was Nancy ‘Slim’ Keith next to whom, he said, Elizabeth Taylor looked like ‘a runt.’
“Hold on there, old chap,” I said to him in my mind. “Iconoclasm should know some decorum, some seemliness, don’t you think?” I should have remembered that every Eden has—and needs—a serpent.
I expected the piece to be of interest mainly to the cave men who read New English Review but it was a gentlewoman—Annalisa—who best summed up the response to Slim’s magic in one of her pithy comments: ‘Sigh!’
Weep some more, my lady. Since then I have come across Truman’s description of ‘Babe’ Paley, wife of Bill Paley, founder of CBS: “Babe had only one fault: she was perfect. Otherwise she was perfect.”
Wheeze!
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Reg Green is an economics journalist who was born in England and worked for the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and The Times of London. He emigrated to the US in 1970. His books include The Nicholas Effect and his website is nicholasgreen.org.
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One Response
Completely off the subject of male appreciation of female perfection: I spent much of the day reading about a 16-century anatomist Andreas Vesalius — with the name of Harvey Cushing. his major biographer, constantly popping up. Than, read this in the evening — and out of curiosity, looked up the “‘Babe’ Paley” you are talking about on Wikipedia. She was nee Cushing. Of course, the name rang a bell — and sure enough, her father was the Harvey Cushing who was mentioned time and again in my reading earlier in the day. Its a small world — both in space in time. Weird…