IDLE GOSSIP

Summer 1940 finds costume designer Edith Head and her pal Lillian Frost doing some snooping that’s beneath even gossip columnist Lorna Whitcomb.

“Eyes on Hollywood,” Lorna’s column, relies on material gathered by her legman, Sam Simcoe, and Sam relies on information dispensed by tipsters like Glenn Hoyle. When Glenn is beaten to death and Sam, who’s lurking conveniently nearby, is arrested for his murder, Lorna, fearing that her well may go dry, asks Edith and Lillian, who’ve acquired a certain reputation as investigators, to nose around in her place and find enough evidence to pin the tail on some different donkey. The two friends aren’t exactly hurting for activities. Edith has just been promoted to head of Paramount’s wardrobe department, and Lillian’s work as social secretary for wealthy, star-struck retired industrialist Addison Rice fills her days with resplendently obnoxious characters like Englishman Freddy Sewell, who was formerly employed (can you believe it?) by producer/director Alexander Korda. Even so, they agree to track down information about three people Hoyle evidently dug up dirt on: silent film director Vernon Reynolds, who’s now the maître d’ at Arturo’s; Mephistophelian wannabe producer Earl Lymangood; and Delia Carson, America’s sweetheart, who’s outraged her stage mother, Rhoda, by up and marrying bit player Arthur Davis. The pair manage to unearth the three targets’ not very interesting secrets with insulting ease, but learning what Hoyle knew doesn’t get them any closer to telling them who killed him. Nor does it prevent a second murder. Luckily, walk-ons by the likes of Orson Welles, Preston Sturges, and Barbara Stanwyck keep things lively.

The mystery is no more than serviceable, but the chatter, much of it based on fact, makes this rehash of the past shine.