Jane Russell outlaws PC pose: Tinseltown legend Jane Russell longs for a conservative resurgence in Hollywood, while using her celebrity to get the Bible back into the public-school curriculum

0 Comments | Insight on the News, March 11, 2002 | by John Berlau

In World War II, pinup photos of actress/singer Jane Russell adorned the barracks of American GIs stationed throughout the world. Russell's first film, The Outlaw, released in 1943 and directed by Howard Hughes, showed off her dramatic beauty and full figure in a way that pushed the limits of what the censorship board would allow. In the 1950s, Russell won critical acclaim for her costarring role as Marilyn Monroe levelheaded best friend in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Russell used her fame to help unwanted children by forming the WAIF Foundation in the 1950s to promote adoption. The foundation closed in 1998. Today, at80, she is active in conservative causes such as Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum. INSIGHT caught up with the world-famous Hollywood star when she was in Washington recently for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). The interview took place in the Arlington, Va., condominium of retired Maj. Gen. John K. Singlaub and his wife, Joan. Singlaub is another outspoken conservative and a childhood friend of Russell from Van Nuys, Calif.

Russell says she always has been conservative. "My father was a Republican, and he couldn't stand what [Franklin D.] Roosevelt was doing to the country," she tells INSIGHT. "I always say I'm a mean-spirited narrow-minded right-wing, conservative Christian.... I start out with that, and if you don't like it, you can lump it. I am not politically correct."

These days, Russell is encouraged by the interest young people show in 1940s swing. "Music has gone just as bananas as the movies. But kids are learning swing and going back to the music of the forties," which Russell regards as a good and healthy thing. "There's a swing club near my home in Santa Barbara, and the kids are fantastic. There's no drinking, no smoking, just dancing all night long," she observes.

Insight: Did you enjoy the CPAC conference?

Jane Russell: Yes. I went to just about all the sessions. I liked [National Security Adviser] Condoleezza Rice. And [columnist] Ann Coulter was great. She was so strong and forceful. But people kept asking me, "You're from Hollywood. Why are you here?" I very much wanted to tell them, as a whole group, that in my day Hollywood was Republican. All the heads of the studios were Republicans, and we were fighting communism. You had John Wayne and Charlton Heston and myself and Bob Mitchum, and President Ronald Reagan came fight out of that same group.

There were a few Democrats in Hollywood, but we thought they were crazy.

Insight: Were there movies you made that championed America and conservative values?

JR: There were some war films, and I was doing a lot of traveling with Bob Hope to entertain the Army, the Navy and the Marines.

Insight: Is there a patriotic spirit in this country now, after Sept. 11, similar to that during World War II?

JR: Yep. People were trying to help each other. Everybody was joining up, one thing or the other, or they were working in the factories helping get the equipment that our troops needed. There were a lot of people praying. What we didn't have then was the sort of thing going on at Berkeley [Calif.], where political correctness is more important than anything else.

Insight: Where were you on Sept. 11?

JR: Right here [at the Singlaubs' condominium overlooking the Pentagon] and [the general] was looking out that window. I had heard about what happened an hour or so earlier in New York, and I just had come from New York, two days before.

He was standing looking out that window, I was watching television to get the latest news, and all of a sudden Jack said, "My God, they've hit the Pentagon!" And we both went running out on the deck. We watched it burn for 10 days.... I just thought this is definitely a wake-up call from the Lord to our country to get back to what's important.

Insight: What is important, Miss Russell? To what do we need to get back?

JR: We need to start obeying biblical law and be biblically correct instead of politically correct.

Insight: What can Hollywood do to help with the war effort?

JR: They need some writers, some stories, some directors who are not into big crash-bang accidents and sex scenes but into people, so that you really care about the characters you're watching.

Just look at some of the movies that are on the tube in black and white and the first thing you'll notice is that you care about the people.

Insight: That was true even of such wonderful color films as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, in which you starred with Marilyn Monroe. What was she like to work with?

JR: Marilyn was very shy and very sensitive. Smart. She really wanted to be very good, and she had a great deal of drive. She would work with her [drama] coach every night and, in the morning, when we'd start shooting, she would look to her coach first instead of looking to the director.

Well, that didn't go over with [director] Howard Hawks at all, so he finally kicked the coach off the set, and then she cried. She was a very sensitive, very sweet little girl.

Insight: What was Howard Hughes like?