New book casts Paul Newman as functioning alcoholic who cheated on his wife

Whatever happened to not speaking ill of the dead? In Hollywood that’s when all the stories seem to come out. Capitalizing on the recent death of Paul Newman, author Shawn Levy, portrays the Oscar-winning actor, as a functioning alcoholic who wore a bottle opener on a chain around his neck and drank up to a case of beer a day, with plenty of Scotch chasers. Levy’s book, Paul Newman: A Life, which will be published next month, also depicts the venerable actor as an adulterer, who cheated on his wife with Nancy Bacon, a Hollywood journalist. Newman who died last year of cancer, had one of Hollywood’s most enduring unions, a  50-year marriage to  actress Joanne Woodward.

Newman famously cast himself as Hollywood’s most faithful husband with the line: “I have steak at home, so why should I go out for a hamburger?” According to the book, however, he began an 18-month affair with Bacon while filming Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in 1968. Bacon, who had been sent to the set to write a piece on Newman, said:

“We were hot and heavy for about a year-and-a-half. He was at my house almost every night for two or three weeks. It was the worst kept secret in Hollywood. People used to joke about it.

“Referring to his old remark, they’d say: “Paul may not go out for Hamburger, but he sure goes out for bacon.”

Bacon has said that she ended the affair because of his alcoholism. “I finally said to myself: ‘I can do better than this.’ I told him: ‘You’re always drunk, and you can’t even make love’.”

The book also describes the fierce rivalry between Newman and Steve McQueen, who was asked to play the Sundance Kid. “When he asked for top billing and Newman said no, McQueen walked out — and the part went to Robert Redford.”

Source: Telegraph