Marlene Dietrich was an international superstar – pushing the boundaries of film, art, celebrity and sexuality during Hollywood’s golden age.
But in a recent interview with her grandson, David Riva, it was also revealed that sometimes Dietrich pushed those boundaries too far.
Speaking to the UK’s Mail on Sunday, on the occasion of the auction of her possessions Riva said: “She was cold and emotionally detached. She wasn’t a conventional granny.”
Riva, 53, is the son of Dietrich’s only daughter, actress Maria Riva. In 1992 she caused a stir with a biography of her late mother in which she alleged that Dietrich never showed her maternal love, referring to her simply as “The Child”.
Worse, her grandson claims that Dietrich did nothing to protect her daughter from sexual assault by a lesbian nanny.