March 27, 1944

HOLLYWOOD, March 26 — A lawsuit that may completely upset one of M-G-M’s most important pictures, starring Susan Peters and Robert Young, looms potent on the horizon. Today, by wire, Pauline Leader Brand, former wife of Millen Brand, author of “The Outward Room,” confirmed information she is preparing to sue M-G-M for $500,000. She is alleging the main feminine character in the movie (now titled “Secrets in the Dark”) is she and that it would damage her because there is an illicit love affair and a baby born out of wedlock.

The picture is nearly finished and at M-G-M they tell me they have not been notified of the suit. Of course, I wonder if Mrs. Brand knows there isn’t a chance of an illicit love affair nor an illegitimate baby in any movie these days? Papa Hays and his office would say” No! No!”

From the Milwaukee Sentinel.