Toward the end of his adoring tribute to Mary Astor, the villainess star of The Maltese Falcon, the famous cartoonist Edward Sorel explains his half-century infatuation with Mary as just another odd ...

Aug. 12, 1936: A sensational court case came to an end when actress Mary Astor and Dr. Franklyn Thorpe, her surgeon ex-husband, agreed on joint custody of their 4-year-old daughter, Marylyn. But it ...

Mary Astor's Purple Diary is a musical fairy tale for adults, inspired by Ed Sorel's best-selling book of the same name. It's a fizzy little cocktail of a musical about a Hollywood sex scandal, love, ...

Many movie lovers know actress Mary Astor for her role in the 1941 Warner Bros. film, "The Maltese Falcon," but even those who have followed her work may not know the details of the scandal that ...

For detailed instructions, see our Slate Plus podcasts page. In 1936, actress Mary Astor (who had not yet made her most famous film, The Maltese Falcon) and her husband went to court to fight for ...

Elderly Hollywood breathed a little easier. By court order, the torch had been put to Actress Mary Astor’s famed “Purple Diary,” introduced by her then husband Dr. Franklyn Thorpe in his 1936 suit for ...