Blonde on Blonde - Jayne Mansfield

Mariella Frostrup tells the story of the short but packed life of the busty blonde Hollywood bombshell Jayne Mansfield - better known for her pneumatic physique than her films. Pregnant at 15, married at 16; and at 18 the spectacularly endowed Vera Jayne Palmer left Texas for 1950s Hollywood, determined to pursue her dream of movie stardom. With a blend of homespun innocence, brazen sexuality, and a layer of peroxide, she became Jayne Mansfield, the Hollywood sex kitten extraordinaire - with a passion for self- publicity. Though she spoke five languages fluently and boasted an IQ of 163, even Mansfield admitted the public were more interested in her body measurements than her brains. Her movie career was short-lived and by the time of her death, she was little more than a down-at heel nightclub performer. Often overshadowed my Marilyn Monroe, the similarities between them were uncanny. They both made 29 films, they both took to drink and drugs towards the end of their lives and died young and even in death, they were both at the centre of a blaze of publicity.