The
date: May 5, 1971. The occasion: a dinner party hosted by a NEWSWEEK
editor in Los Angeles. The guests included millionaire conglomerateur
and art collector Norton Simon, 64, and movie actress Jennifer Jones,
52, who had not previously met - but they soon made up for lost
time. "There was just great simpatico between us right from
the start," recalled Simon last week after Jennifer had become
Mrs. Simon. "There was a soul communication. I found her soul
must more beautiful than her face, and her face is pretty nice."
He began courting Jennifer at the party, prevailed on her to join
him on a trip to Europe and proposed at 7 o'clock one morning over
tea at the Dorchester Hotel in London. "He walked me around
Paris and London until I was so exhausted I couldn't resist him
anymore," smiled Jennifer, who won a 1943 Oscar for "The
Song of Bernadette" and was married in the past to the late
actor Robert Walker and the late producer David O. Selznick. Simon
and his wife of 37 years were divorced in 1970. To get around England's
residency rules, he hired a launch, took along a Unitarian minister
and married Jennifer in the English Channel on May 30 - at 4 a.m.
"We were bobbing about in the sea," said Simon, "and
in the early morning light I could just make out the white cliffs
of Dover. It was very romantic."
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