UGLY duckling? Um, no.
I couldn't believe the quote that the casting director or whoever the heck the peanut said was about Judy. He said she was the ugly duckling of MGM studious. Now, I suppose it depends on your view on looks, but I think ugly is a wildly inaccurate stretch of a term -- profoundly overused to describe even the slightest distaste. I mean how often have you said it about someone who probably wasn't THAT awful looking?
I'm just tired of that word in general. But to see someone as radiant and beautiful as Judy Garland considered to be "ugly", is absolutely dispiriting and disheartening. No wonder she battled for so long. I mean, it's absolutely spirit crushing to be put down in general, but to be put down in an industry where looks come above everything else (and you can deny it to the nth degree, but it hasn't changed in the film industry), it must be soul destroying. You never hear it about Marilyn Monroe, who in my humble opinion, was nowhere near as pretty as Garland. Don't get me wrong, they were both attractive women even by today's standards, but there was something extra special about Judy.