Miranda Grosvenor
Encyclopedia
Miranda Grosvenor was the fictitious name of an elusive Louisiana
woman who enchanted dozens of famous men with sweet telephone talk in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1999, Vanity Fair
exposed the mystery woman as Whitney Walton, a Baton Rouge social worker and bored fan who made a full-time hobby of calling stars.
As "Miranda", Walton engaged in late-night telephone conversations with such stars as Billy Joel
, Warren Beatty
, Bob Dylan
, Buck Henry
, Michael Apted
, Mike Nichols
, Vitas Gerulaitis
, Ted Kennedy
, Art Garfunkel
, Robert De Niro
and Richard Gere
, telling them that she was a blonde Tulane University
student, wealthy socialite, and international model. Her voice and conversation style were reportedly so alluring that wealthy and powerful men (including actors, musicians, and movie moguls) fell in love without ever meeting her, and rearranged their whole evenings around speaking to the mysterious stranger. According to Vanity Fair
, at least two of her telephone paramours, Quincy Jones
and Richard Perry
, proposed marriage. Billy Joel
wrote songs which he sang on Miranda's answering machine, considered her at times his "only friend", and considered writing a musical about her. Many others bought her jewelry and sent her plane tickets. Novelist Kinky Friedman
created a Miranda character in his detective novels.
According to John McCall, the multimillionaire shampoo magnate and novelist, "Whitney Walton was friends with almost everybody. From maitre d's at fancy restaurants to movie stars, writers, pop singers, football players, team owners, she seemed to know everything. If you had a question on where to go or what to eat if you were in a strange city, she knew where to go, and she seemed to know all the people involved and they all knew her. She was a smart, sophisticated lady who knew a lot about everything."
Miranda's telephone calls dissipated at some point in the mid-1980s. Though no one knows why "Miranda" retired, it was rumored that she "disappeared" in the wake of threats from lawyers of the late tennis player Vitas Gerulaitis
.
paid close to $1 million for Walton's memoir, Miranda Rites: My Life As the Mysterious Hollywood Sweet Talker (to be published in December 2006), as well as her audiobook rendition. "She's not just a person", said her agent, Dean Williamson, "she's a state of mind."
In January 2001, Robert De Niro
, one of Miranda's former talkmates, purchased the film rights to the story.
In January 2008 Harper Collins was reporting that the memoir had been cancelled. No reason was admitted to. In late 2007 online book retailers were advertising a January 2008 publication date and had identified the planned book as having ISBN # 006018521X and 978-0060185213 with 256 pages. An audioversion was also at one point available for pre-sale on Amazon.com. Speculation among some was about whether HarperCollins had been "bought off" or threatened.
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
woman who enchanted dozens of famous men with sweet telephone talk in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1999, Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
exposed the mystery woman as Whitney Walton, a Baton Rouge social worker and bored fan who made a full-time hobby of calling stars.
As "Miranda", Walton engaged in late-night telephone conversations with such stars as Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
, Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Buck Henry
Buck Henry
Henry Zuckerman, better known as Buck Henry , is an American actor, writer, film director, and television director.-Early life:...
, Michael Apted
Michael Apted
Michael David Apted, CMG is an English director, producer, writer and actor. He is one of the most prolific British film directors of his generation but is best known for his work on the Up Series of documentaries and the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.On 29 June 2003 he was elected...
, Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...
, Vitas Gerulaitis
Vitas Gerulaitis
Vytautas Kevin Gerulaitis was a Lithuanian–American professional tennis player. He is known for winning the men's singles title at one of the two Australian Open tournaments held in 1977. Gerulaitis won the tournament held in December, while Roscoe Tanner won the earlier January tournament...
, Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
, Art Garfunkel
Art Garfunkel
Arthur Ira "Art" Garfunkel is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and actor, best known as being a member of the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel...
, Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
and Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
, telling them that she was a blonde Tulane University
Tulane University
Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...
student, wealthy socialite, and international model. Her voice and conversation style were reportedly so alluring that wealthy and powerful men (including actors, musicians, and movie moguls) fell in love without ever meeting her, and rearranged their whole evenings around speaking to the mysterious stranger. According to Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, at least two of her telephone paramours, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
and Richard Perry
Richard Perry
Richard Perry is an American music producer. Perry began as a performer in his adolescence, but shifted gears after graduating college and rose through the late 1960s and early 1970s to become a highly successful and popular record producer with over a dozen gold records to his credit by 1982...
, proposed marriage. Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
wrote songs which he sang on Miranda's answering machine, considered her at times his "only friend", and considered writing a musical about her. Many others bought her jewelry and sent her plane tickets. Novelist Kinky Friedman
Kinky Friedman
Richard S. "Kinky" Friedman is an American Texas Country singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician and former columnist for Texas Monthly who styles himself in the mold of popular American satirists Will Rogers and Mark Twain. He was one of two independent candidates in the 2006 election...
created a Miranda character in his detective novels.
According to John McCall, the multimillionaire shampoo magnate and novelist, "Whitney Walton was friends with almost everybody. From maitre d's at fancy restaurants to movie stars, writers, pop singers, football players, team owners, she seemed to know everything. If you had a question on where to go or what to eat if you were in a strange city, she knew where to go, and she seemed to know all the people involved and they all knew her. She was a smart, sophisticated lady who knew a lot about everything."
Miranda's telephone calls dissipated at some point in the mid-1980s. Though no one knows why "Miranda" retired, it was rumored that she "disappeared" in the wake of threats from lawyers of the late tennis player Vitas Gerulaitis
Vitas Gerulaitis
Vytautas Kevin Gerulaitis was a Lithuanian–American professional tennis player. He is known for winning the men's singles title at one of the two Australian Open tournaments held in 1977. Gerulaitis won the tournament held in December, while Roscoe Tanner won the earlier January tournament...
.
Movie and book deals
In 2000, HarperCollinsHarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
paid close to $1 million for Walton's memoir, Miranda Rites: My Life As the Mysterious Hollywood Sweet Talker (to be published in December 2006), as well as her audiobook rendition. "She's not just a person", said her agent, Dean Williamson, "she's a state of mind."
In January 2001, Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
, one of Miranda's former talkmates, purchased the film rights to the story.
In January 2008 Harper Collins was reporting that the memoir had been cancelled. No reason was admitted to. In late 2007 online book retailers were advertising a January 2008 publication date and had identified the planned book as having ISBN # 006018521X and 978-0060185213 with 256 pages. An audioversion was also at one point available for pre-sale on Amazon.com. Speculation among some was about whether HarperCollins had been "bought off" or threatened.
Sources
- Vanity FairVanity Fair (magazine)Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, "The Miranda Obsession", by Bryan Burrough, December 1999 - Salon.com, Sweet-talker to the stars signs book, film deals: The voice that charmed Hollywood's men goes public by Craig Offman, April 19, 2000
- The Real Stephanie Dupont, by Sidney Moody, Austin ChronicleAustin ChronicleThe Austin Chronicle is an alternative weekly, tabloid-style newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demographic...
, November 2, 2001 - The Scotsman, "Mystery Woman Who Had the Stars Hanging on the Telephone", by Julian Brouwer, November 12, 1999