Dinner With Garbo
Maria Callas had to know if the delectable Miss Garbo was a threat to her relationship with Ari…
of Ninotchka and QueenChristina? Maria had never been confident about her looks, with her big nose and thick ankles, and the way the pounds piled on if she didn’t watch every morsel she ate.
She kept her tone casual when she spoke to Ari. “I see the divine Miss Garbo came out of retirement for the honour of dining with you. How was it?”
“We’re old friends,” he said. “Every time I see her I ask her to marry me and always she turns me down.”
Was that a joke? It wasn’t very funny from where Maria was sitting in a hotel room on the other side of an ocean, but she played along. “Poor thing, I hope your ego is not too bruised.”
She was beginning to understand that celebrity was important to her lover. was lonely without you.”
She should be content with that, and with the ardour of his love-making, but that evening she couldn’t help probing.
“So when am I going to meet your friend Greta Garbo?” she asked. “Shall we invite her for dinner?”
“She wouldn’t come,” he replied. “She doesn’t like meeting new people.”
“Ask her anyway,” Maria said. “Please. For me.” She watched to see if he looked shifty but he was wearing sunglasses, making his expression impossible to read.
While Ari was making business calls, Maria crept around the Christina, looking for signs that might indicate another woman had stayed there in her absence. She checked the bathroom cabinets for unfamiliar toiletries, the closets and the laundry room for discarded garments, but she found nothing suspicious. Certainly, there was no sign that Garbo had stayed onboard after their dinner.
Maria’s jealousy was the only thing spoiling her passionate reunion with her lover. It was like a cloud that kept crossing in front of the sun. If only she could believe the friends who reassured her with, “He’s lucky to have you”, or, “You bring him class”. He often told her he loved her – but still, when they went ashore, his eyes followed attractive women the way that dogs’ noses follow the scent of sausages on a barbecue.
She said yes,” Ari told her a couple of mornings later. “Garbo is coming for dinner on Saturday.”
“She is? That’s wonderful!” Maria should have been relieved but instead she was suspicious. Was Garbo coming to check out the competition? When he saw them both together, would Ari decide he preferred the incandescent Swedish actress?
Maria took great care planning the menu, and choosing what she would wear: a simple but elegant black dress accessorised with jewels Ari had given her. She piled her hair up and secured it with combs, painted on black eyeliner
them. Ari treated Garbo like a kid sister. It was the first time she had seen him with a good-looking woman and not flirting. Suddenly, she remembered a piece of backstage gossip she’d heard from a makeup artist at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
“Garbo likes women,” she’d said with a knowing look. “I mean she likes them.”
Could that be true? Had Maria wasted all that time being jealous of a woman who preferred her own gender?
Over dinner, they talked of the new American president John F Kennedy and his glamorous wife Jackie. Garbo had attended a White House dinner in the spring and, although there were fifty other guests, she said Mrs Kennedy had spent a good half an hour chatting with her, as if they were the only two in the room.
“She’s charming,” she said, “and very knowledgeable about film.”
“I have also met them,” Ari said. “They came for drinks on the Christina, when Churchill was here.” “Of course they did.” Maria laughed. “You’ve met everyone who’s anyone. What was your opinion?”
His eyes took on a distant look. “He’s a politician to the core, and his first love will always be power. She, on the other hand, has a wilfulness about her,” he said. “She has a carnal soul.”
“Ari!” Garbo chastised him. “That’s not a very gallant thing to say in front of Maria.”
Maria laughed it off. At least, she thought, Jackie Kennedy would never be a threat. She was hardly going to leave the President of the United States for a Greek shipping millionaire!
ArinevertiedtheknotwithMariabut theyhadbeenloversfornineyearswhen hesurprisedtheworldbymarrying JackieKennedyinOctober1968.Maria foundoutaboutitfromthepress.
The Second Marriage by Gill Paul, published by Avon, Harper Collins, in PBO on September 17. £7.99 at all good bookshops.
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