Eartha Kitt giving a dance lesson to her dear friend James Dean
 
It’s fair to say that actress, singer, and dancer Eartha Kitt never stood on ceremony, and fairer still to say she always gave a very blunt accounting of the facts, no matter how gauche the topic.
 
In her brutally honest autobiography, I’m Still Here: Confessions of a Sex Kitten,‘Kitt gave every detail of the torrid love affairs that became such a part of her public persona.

The CIA kept a fat file on her romantic life after she made Ladybird Johnson cry. When invited to the White House to discuss President Johnson’s plans to combat crime, Kitt spoke so vehemently against the Vietnam War as to bring the First Lady to tears, saying, “You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. They rebel in the street. They will take pot…and they will get high. They don’t want to go to school because they’re going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam.”

After that, it’s really no surprise when her CIA file refers to her as a “sadistic nymphomaniac.” But really, knowing Eartha, they could have just asked.