Natalie Wood’s motion sickness pills / the pajamas Whitney Houston wore for seven months / Caroline Flack’s sweatshirt & matching sleeping mask / the suicide note Margaux Hemingway never wrote / the pink hyacinths in Sharon Tate’s hair on her wedding day / the inkwell Frances Farmer threw at a judge in 1943 / Peg Entwhistle’s gardenia perfume / the silk stocking Savannah used as a tourniquet when she shot up / the sixty cigarettes Judy Garland had to smoke every day while filming The Wizard of Oz / Amy Winehouse’s filthy pink ballet slippers / the satin dress Barbara Hutton wore to her fifth wedding / Marilyn Monroe’s eye drops from Schwab’s Pharmacy / the Lincoln convertible where Thelma Todd’s body was found / the ammonia & bleach poured in Jean Harlow’s hair / the white swimsuit Veronica Lake wore when she became Miss Miami, age sixteen / Karen Carpenter’s collection of I Love Lucy videotapes / the $20,000 worth of damage to the Plaza Athénée caused by Casey Johnson’s chihuahua / Janis Joplin’s psychedelic painted Porsche / the glass coffin in which Jean Seberg buried her stillborn daughter / Lana Clarkson’s broken & scattered teeth / the mink coat Billie Holiday wore to court / the notebook Brittany Murphy kept next to her bed / Gia Carangi on the cover of April 1982’s edition of Cosmopolitan, track marks hidden / Lizzie Siddal’s half-empty bottle of laudanum / the $300 Robert John Bardo paid for Rebecca Schaeffer’s address / the miniature poodle Ruan Lingyu’s lover threw out a window / Anna Nicole Smith’s purple leopard-print chaise / Misty Upham’s black purse, found in the woods / the matching tartan dresses Paula Yates and Peaches Geldof wore in their Christmas photograph / the bread knife Chyna’s father used to stab his wife in the thigh / the striped sweater Barbara Payton was wearing in her mugshot / the yacht Christina Onassis’s father named after her / the 17th century house in Paris that Doris Duke bought for her second husband / $1,100 in cash found in Dorothy Strattern’s belongings after her murder / Selena’s collection of Fabergé eggs / Elizabeth Short’s suede heels, found on top of a garbage can / the 10-karat diamond ring Bobbi Kristina Brown inherited from her mother
Nicola Maye Goldberg is the author of NOTHING CAN HURT YOU. Her work has appeared in Joyland, Vogue, New York Tyrant and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing at Columbia University.
Book recommendation: One Friday in April by Donald Antrim
