One of Hollywood’s worst tales has persisted for decades: Natalie Wood, then an adolescent, was sexually abused by a major movie star more than twice her age when they met at a hotel in Los Angeles.
Wood’s younger sister, in a memoir due out next week, names the long-suspected assailant: Kirk Douglas.
“I remember Natalie looking very gorgeous as Mom and I dropped her off that night at the Chateau Marmont door,” Lana Wood wrote in “Little Sister,” claiming the incident occurred during Natalie Wood’s filming of “The Searchers” in the summer of 1955. According to Lana Wood, their mother, Maria Zakharenko, organized the encounter because she believed that “many doors would be thrown open for her, with just a nod of his famous, handsome head on her behalf.”
She adds, “It seemed like a long time passed before Natalie came back into the car and slammed the door shut, waking me awake.” “She appeared to be in bad shape. She was untidy and agitated, and she and Mom began whispering urgently to each other. I couldn’t understand what they were saying since I couldn’t hear them. Something awful had reportedly happened to my sister, but I was apparently too young to be informed.”