Jill Jackson on Ross Hunter, Lana Turner + Constance Bennett

Gossip columnist Jill Jackson was a close friend of Ross Hunter's and played bit parts in several of his films, including MADAME X. It's interesting that Jill gets billing for her wordless part as the police matron escorting Lana while several people with lines are not billed in the movie. I recently found an old Times Picayune newspaper interview with Jill Jackson from 1994 in which she discusses her association with Hunter and the making of MADAME X:

Jackson also launched a career as a bit player in movies produced by glamour guru Ross Hunter, not always with happy results. "I went in and had my make-up and hair done for 'Tammy and the Doctor,' only to be completely covered by a surgical mask, cap and gown. I said, 'Why did I get made up?' and Ross said, 'Well, your mask might slip.' "

She regaled readers for weeks with stories from the set of "Airport," but in the finished film she was obscured by her oxygen mask and a hefty fellow passenger.

"In 'Madame X,' I played the stern police matron who leads Lana Turner in and out of the courtroom and was there for Lana's big deathbed scene. It was raining, and cold, and Lana had been drinking brandy, and the mike caught her stomach rumbling. Also, she was feuding with Constance Bennett, who played her mother-in-law, and it was such fun to watch Lana's head peek out of her dressing room door, and if Connie was on the set, she wouldn't come out. At the end, she refused to read lines for Connie's final reaction shot, so I did it."