Talk:Mercedes de Acosta

New MdA page
Hello out there..I've just rewritten MdA's page so that it is fair, accurate, and up-to-date (based on R. A. Schanke's recent bio of her). Any thoughts or discussion?--Classicfilmbuff (talk) 23:05, 29 March 2012 (UTC)

Removal of devotee-published sources
I have removed the reference to Kalchuri, Meher Prabhu. For discussion, see RS/N and this Talk page. Simon Kidd (talk) 14:06, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

There is nothing in the RSN page you link to that gives you the right to remove referenced text. You are removing valid information from articles acting against consensus. Hoverfish Talk 20:45, 7 April 2012 (UTC)


 * I linked to two pages. Fifelfoo said on his Talk page: "I'd suggest editing out OR and inappropriately sourced content, citing policy and appropriate discussions, and discussing at length on the talk page." The relevant policy/guideline says that an article "must be based upon reliable third-party sources, and meets this requirement if [among other things, it] is independent and unaffiliated with the subject, thus excluding sources such as self-published material by the subject, autobiographies, and promotional materials". Kalchuri fails this test, since he is published by an organisation affiliated with the subject. Simon Kidd (talk) 22:56, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

You can't unilaterally decide that Lord Meher is not a reliable source. You can't unilaterally decide that it is devotional and not a reliable biography. What is "Devotional"? and who decides. Not You, Mr Kidd. Hoverfish Talk 16:11, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Five siblings or seven?
This article says that Mercedes de Acosta had five siblings. The article about her sister, Rita de Acosta Lydig, says, "She had seven siblings: Joaquín, Enrique, Ricardo, Mercedes, Aida, Maria, and Ángela." Is there a discrepancy in the references, too?

Sorry all I can do is point this out, but my real-life limitations are getting in the way of looking into this myself and I might not make it back here. Thanks in advance if you can work on this! — Geekdiva (talk) 06:31, 15 December 2015 (UTC)
 * According to the biography of Mercedes cited in Rita Lydig's article, seven is the correct number; five girls and three boys in total. The discrepancy may be related to a missing "surviving" somewhere. The eldest brother died before Mercedes was born, and another brother, eight years older than Mercedes, committed suicide when she was in her late teens. 2600:1006:B152:74C2:DDF:6999:A965:B6F6 (talk) 07:18, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

Problems with lead paragraph
Several statements in the first paragraph are inaccurate and/or misleading and should be removed or modified. Please ponder and respond if you wish before I go forward with some edits.

1) To say MdA conducted “openly lesbian relationships" with many prominent women is not accurate; true, she was quite open about her own sexual orientation but it’s my understanding most of her lovers chose to be closeted at the time and were documented only in later research. I’ll check on this.

2) Greta Garbo was in no way a “dependable friend” for 30 yrs; Frequently Garbo cut off contact with Acosta for long periods of time and refused to have anything to do with her. (See section on Garbo relationship)

3) The current statement, “Although she claimed [she and Garbo] were lovers, their letters do not suggest physical intimacy” needs to be removed because it invokes evidence that doesn’t actually exist. First, “their letters” consist only of GG’s to Acosta. We don’t know what Acosta wrote to GG. 2nd, only 87 of GG’s 181 correspondences to Acosta—less than half—have been made public. (see section on GG.) One wonders what’s in the other half. It’s quite possible they include romantic content the family does not want to make public. Who knows. But we can’t say the letters “do not suggest physical intimacy” until we see all of them.

4) Finally, “However, there were many others with whom she was sexually involved….” We generally do not define heterosexual relationships this way. For example, we wouldn’t say, “Kevin Costner became sexually involved with Christine Baumgartner when they shot Dances with Wolves. So we probably shouldn’t do so with gay relationships. More appropriate, I suggest, would be something like “romantically involved.” Classicfilmbuff (talk) 19:23, 29 July 2021 (UTC)

Birthdate
Her birth year is shown as 1892 here. The reference for her birth year shows 1893. On the german wiki page it is also shown as 1893. Can someone fix this problem or find any source for the date of 1892?