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PEOPLE & ARTS Monday 19 deceMber 2016
Zsa Zsa Gabor: A rare, unforgettable celebrity

FRAZIER MOORE was in on the joke. midlevel compact “so
AP Television Writer She was a symbol, from the nice, so chic.”
NEW YORK (AP) — You 1950s on, of European style The car featured new-
didn’t have to know exact- and flair, of material and fangled disc brakes, and
ly who she was to appreci- romantic extravagance. in her fractured English,
ate Zsa Zsa Gabor. She was rich in more ways Gabor purrs to the audi-
She belonged to a rare, than one. She was playful ence, “My friend says I
hard-to-catalog vintage and outspoken. She was would be in jail from coast
of celebrity, not only the blessed with a ritzy, come- to coast if I wouldn’t have
great-aunt of Paris Hilton, hither name: Zsaahhhh them.”(backslash)
but a true ancestor of Hil- Zsaahhhh! In 1989, she hit the brakes
ton’s jet-set flamboyance. Some of the heavy lifting and had a celebrated
For such a flashy member that helped sustain the brush with the law while
of the leisure class, she Gabor brand was courtesy driving not a Lark, but her
did plenty, appearing in a of Zsa Zsa’s lookalike sister own Rolls-Royce Corniche
number of films, including Eva, who shared the Gabor convertible.
Orson Welles’ “Touch of pizazz. Eva’s star turn in the She slapped the face of a
Evil”; logging enough hus- 1960s as a sitcom socialite Beverly Hills police officer
bands to field a baseball on “Green Acres” has guar- who had the effrontery to
team; and flaunting sex ap- anteed her immortality in stop her for a traffic viola- In a May 1, 1990 file photo, Zsa Zsa Gabor gestures as she while
peal, excess glamour and the pop-culture pantheon tion. answering questions as she leaves the Beverly Hills courtroom
an exotic accent into her — and, by association, giv- The officer was rude, she where judge Charles Rubin ruled that she violated her proba-
tion.
senior years. en Zsa Zsa status beyond testified at the trial where Associated Press
But none of this fully ac- her own accomplishments. she was subsequently
counts for the enduring But Zsa Zsa could be funny, found guilty of assault. Dahling, the Zsa Zsa legend while, it’s not hard to imag-
recognition she enjoyed too. Her arrest became just cannot die, even in a cul- ine her in heaven right
and cultivated. Maybe she In a TV commercial from another sparkling career ture with short memories now, tricked out with wings
just knew how to work it. 1963, a begowned, be- move. She spoofed the where attention seekers and a Blackglama mink,
Maybe it happened above jeweled Gabor extols the incident in “Naked Gun jostle for camera time. She advising St. Peter that the
and beyond her control. It virtues of the Studebaker 2 1-2” and various other lives on, unchallenged, in Pearly Gates clash with her
certainly helped that she Lark, kittenishly calling this cameo appearances. the cultural ether. Mean- diamonds.q