Dirty Harry? Just Call Him "Daddy," New Book Dishes

Ex-lover Sondra Locke lets Clint have it in new autobiography

By Joal Ryan Oct 21, 1997 6:55 PMTags
Sondra Locke refuses to go quietly into that ex-girlfriend goodnight.

Clint Eastwood's former live-in love and movie costar has exacted another pound of flesh for the dissolution of their couplehood: and this time, there's no palimony or fraud suit. Just a book. A tell-all book.

The Good, the Bad and the Very Ugly: A Hollywood Journey is the title of Locke's tome, due out November 1, and if you're Eastwood (and you once starred in a western flick called The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), you know the stuff inside can't be good news.

Among the autobiography's revelations: Eastwood modeled his tough-guy husky whisper voice after...Marilyn Monroe, liked to be called "Daddy," didn't keep up with current events (once asking "Who's Barbara Walters?"), and whispered, "Sweetie, did you floss?" as a prelude to sex.

Some of Locke's dirt was dished previously during the trial for her fraud lawsuit against the Oscar-winning director. The actress told a jury last year that the movie icon encouraged her to have two abortions and undergo sterilization surgery during the course of their 13-year relationship. (The suit was later settled out of court. A palimony complaint filed by Locke against Eastwood in 1989 was earlier dropped by the actress.)

Locke and Eastwood hooked up in 1975, during filming for The Outlaw Josey Wales, their first of six films together in an eight-year span, including the two orangutan movies, Every Which Way but Loose and Any Which Way You Can.

In The Good, the Bad and the Very Ugly, Locke, now 50, describes her first night together with her (then-married) costar. (Jackie Collins would be proud.)

"He pulled me into his arms and kissed me gently, delicately," Locke writes. "Then lifting me up, like some knight bearing his maiden, he carried me across the room to the bed."

For those of you keeping score at home, Locke notes that despite Eastwood's "size"--we think (hope?) she means the actor's six-foot, four-inch skeletal frame--"he was a gentle, affectionate, thoughtful and yet intensely ardent lover."

Eastwood and Locke split in 1988. In years since, Locke has fitfully tried to jump-start a directing career. (A career she accused Eastwood of sabotaging in the fraud lawsuit.) And she has battled breast cancer, a struggle her book also details.

A spokesperson for Eastwood said Monday that the 66-year-old star, a new father and husband, would have no comment on Locke's book.

Sure, he has no comment. We'll never floss the same again.