Althouse: JFK and the "lady of some note in Europe."

August 31, 2026

JFK and the "lady of some note in Europe."

Chris — my son, the reader of presidential biographies — texts me another passage from "President Kennedy: Profile of Power" (commission earned):

37 comments:

Caroline said...: I seem to recall the Mayflower Madam had a Biddle in her name. A longstanding blue blood tradition, pimping for the Aristos. Poor Charles and Andrew, rules changed and no one told them.; 8/31/26, 11:28 AM
Smilin' Jack said...: I hope the “lady of some note” was worth all that trouble. Brigette Bardot, perhaps?; 8/31/26, 11:31 AM
rehajm said...: …American college educated white women find Trump repulsive for his womanizing but write their own bodice ripper paperback where they would have been under/over/on all fours with Kennedy at a private villa on Lake Como back in the day…; 8/31/26, 11:38 AM
ChrisC said...: My memory of the actual Camelot was that Guinevere was the one fucking around, not Arthur.; 8/31/26, 11:41 AM
Earnest Prole said...: A dedicated memorial there honors Kennedy’s 1963 visit. It features a famous inscription: "When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations."; 8/31/26, 11:43 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: A lady of some note. why keep the name a secret? Its been 60 years.; 8/31/26, 11:48 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Its a good thing for JFK that he was a Democrat. Had Nixon behaved like that, you can sure the press would've forgotten about their "rule" of "Whats done in private stays private".

We saw that with Epstein Island. The MSM didn't care about the rich and powerful going to Epstein Island for statuatory rape and other pleasures until they thought they could tie Trump to Epstein. Then it became a story.; 8/31/26, 11:51 AM
Earnest Prole said...: “why keep the name a secret? It’s been 60 years.”

The book was written 33 years ago.; 8/31/26, 11:53 AM
gilbar said...: remember!
it's NEATO when a democrat has sexual affairs/assaults/etc..
it's EVIL when a republican does it!; 8/31/26, 11:55 AM
Rick67 said...: "They were trying to get an American out of their home".

That one sentence is astounding.; 8/31/26, 11:59 AM
Disparity of Cult said...: Jack was a horndog but it was all managed as efficiently and neatly as possible. Nobody suffered a miserable death by asphyxiation in a submerged Oldsmobile.; 8/31/26, 12:02 PM
Josephbleau said...: Kennedy was a true king. He could use government resources to pressure Americans out of their homes for his sexual activities. It interests me that I have never heard this story before even though this book is old. It’s been kept out of the media well.; 8/31/26, 12:04 PM
Earnest Prole said...: “it's NEATO when a democrat has sexual affairs/assaults/etc..
it's EVIL when a republican does it!”

And vice versa. I think we can all agree morality is subordinate to political exigency.; 8/31/26, 12:07 PM
n.n said...: Leaning into a prelude? Adjacent to a sexual revolution.; 8/31/26, 12:07 PM
Earnest Prole said...: Personally I think there’s no more poetic name than “Stormy Daniels” but I’ve been told I have the tastes of a prole.; 8/31/26, 12:11 PM
Deep State Reformer said...: The elites in EVERY society act like entitled assholes, so what's the big deal? As long as they do a decent job, and don't embarrass their country with scandals that's just gonna be a thing. That's DJT's problem. He can't keep his private life private. And yes, there is a double standard for the Lefties. That's just how it is.; 8/31/26, 12:18 PM
Ralph L said...: If Rusk actually disapproved, why did he ask about it afterwards? And why did he (presumably) tell the author he had.
How much of politicians' sexual conquests is just a flex they like to show off.; 8/31/26, 12:28 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: achtually it was written 33 years ago.

Goddamn you people are stupid. Step 1 - dumbest interpetation possible Step 2 - Gotcha!; 8/31/26, 12:29 PM
Jupiter said...: "Wonderful", Kennedy said, "Absolutely wonderful."
Angie Dickinson said sex with Kennedy was "the greatest thirty seconds of my life".; 8/31/26, 12:34 PM
Vance said...: As I recall, Democrats still celebrate and adore that one director who is still banished to Europe for having sex with 12 year old Kinsky. Apparently that's a-ok over there, and for our leftist "betters" who never, ever criticize it. But McCain's alleged affair was enough to give them the vapors... in the same election after Obama beat out old Hillary Clinton and nary a word of disdain for Bill's raping women was uttered by a leftist. Democrats run for the fainting couches over Trump all while they demand we vote for Platner and excuse Harvey Weinstein.; 8/31/26, 12:40 PM
Iman said...: Gina Lollafalana maybe? 🤔; 8/31/26, 12:46 PM
Jupiter said...: So nobody thinks it was Angela Merkel?; 8/31/26, 12:48 PM
Iman said...: “Ask not what your president can do for you, ask what you can do for your president.”

—— from the anals of PT 69; 8/31/26, 12:50 PM
exhelodrvr1 said...: There were rumors about Sophia Loren; 8/31/26, 12:55 PM
Disparity of Cult said...: Abbondanza!; 8/31/26, 1:00 PM
rehajm said...: ..there was that giancana moll but she’s not exactly ‘of some note’. If you’re clearing out a villa it should be for a celebrity, a solid eight or better. Anita Ekberg?; 8/31/26, 1:05 PM
Known Unknown said...: "As I recall, Democrats still celebrate and adore that one director who is still banished to Europe for having sex with 12 year old Kinsky."

Kinski was 15 when she started dating Polanski. It was out in the open. The Polanski problem was the alleged drugging and raping of a 13 year-old in 1977 at a photo shoot.

He pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor in exchange for the rape charge to be dropped, but then took off and has never returned to the U.S.

He's had many other claims against him, including a recent civil settlement suit over a underage rape in 1973.

He's a piece of shit.; 8/31/26, 1:16 PM
Amadeus 48 said...: Angier Biddle Duke earned a place in the history of panache with the timing and manner of his death. At age 79, he was killed by an auto while rollerblading in Southampton NY.; 8/31/26, 1:24 PM
Leslie Graves said...: Several of the big AIs have nothing useful to add. My granddaughter wears a button that says, "AI. It's not worth the trouble".; 8/31/26, 1:28 PM
Leslie Graves said...: Claude lectured me on having unrealistic expectations about what historians should or shouldn't have figured out or looked into.; 8/31/26, 1:30 PM
Not an oldster. said...: Oh dear, for a gay man, chrissy is decades behind on his dish...

Wait until he reads about what went down in the WH swimming pool!

Mama likey?; 8/31/26, 1:32 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Yeah I tried AI and got nowhere.; 8/31/26, 1:40 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Grok: “So my actual guess is not a name. It is that she was a discreet European socialite already in Italy, known to the protocol people, and that Reeves left her unnamed because naming her would have been both unverifiable and cruel. The gap is the point.”; 8/31/26, 1:42 PM
Jupiter said...: C'mon, Grok! Hallucinate one for the team!; 8/31/26, 1:49 PM
William said...: It seems a lot of women are going to take their secrets about JFK to the grave. Bill Clinton dragged a lot of mud, but there was a great deal more that was allowed to harden and dry and blow away. I'm sure Trump was a horn dog, but I don't think the the press or the women in his life have helped him keep things secret.......JFK undoubtedly got away with the most Even today we don't know a fraction of it.........Well, he was good looking, a war hero, the son of a rich man, a Pulitzer Prize winning (sort of) author, a powerful man in his own right. Any one of those things can get you over, and he had all that working for him. It's a wonder he refrained from having sex with every attractive woman he ever met---or perhaps he did and we just don't know about it yet.; 8/31/26, 1:51 PM
Joe Bar said...: “It’s good to be the King!”; 8/31/26, 2:09 PM
Narr said...: Cumalot stories never pall.; 8/31/26, 2:14 PM