Maria is still alive, 98 years old. Longevity definitely runs in genes ❤

Maria is a very kind and loving woman, her son David was one of my best friends back in the 90s.

I think Maria Riva is the most believable and most dignified of all of the children of those Hollywood golden age actresses who had a terrible childhood. Her criticism of Dietrich is nuanced, intelligent and aware. She's clearly a very bright lady.

When a mother like this dies, her children cry for the lost love they never had.

Interestingly enough, she managed to escape the craziness and later had a normal life, with a good marriage and children.

"Power must not be allowed to triumph all the time, it must not be forgiven. No matter what it does, because its beautiful , because its famous, because its powerful."

Her son, J. Michael Riva, died of a stroke in 2012 while working on Django Unchained. He was a VERY talented production designer.

Many years ago, on a cigarette break, my son met a very charming, intelligent nice young man also taking a cigarette break at 3am on a side street on the Upper East Side. When my son came back to the apartment a few hours later (they spoke for a good while as they had gone to the same school) he asked me if I knew of an actress by the name of Marlene Dietrich! My son being in his very early 20’s at that time, was not aware who she was, so being a movie buff myself, he asked me- well, you can imagine my expression. I pulled my favorite movie of hers: The Lady is Willing and educated my son on how famous and gorgeous MD was and, what a legend she continues to be. They kept in touch for many years. I will have to say this that Maria’s grandson is truly an exceptional person.

I believe Maria 120%! Never a Marlene Dietrich fan, but she was beautiful and charismatic.

I’m about 3/4ths through her biography. While it is so intriguing and descriptive-the sumptuousness of the backdrops across America and Europe and the many notable players marching into and out of Marlene’s life, I am looking forward to finishing it. While I adore Marlene Dietrich, the book has a grim sadness that lingers throughout. Like the desperate pleading from a daughter who extended herculean amounts of effort to please her mother and father (Marlene Dietrich Sieber and Rudolph Sieber). I understand you have to know a person in real life from beyond the pages of a biography but Dietrich just seemed to be someone who never quite understood the depth of human emotion or genuine ‘love’ that was not adorned with emerald and diamond baubles. A woman with an insatiable hunger that no mere mortal could satiate. It’s at once an exhausting narrative as it is endlessly fascinating. But Maria Riva really outlines the pitfalls of glamour and stardom so wonderfully.

The actress I heard put her children first before being an actress was Audrey hepburn

How terrible to be kept out of school so as to feed the parent’s emotional needs and be set up for sexual abuse by her mother’s friend. So damaging to a child.

This poor girl was a daughter of a Narcissist. Good to hear she detached herself from her mother, created a family and has lived a fulfilled life. Happy ending for Maria. Can’t say the same for Dietrich.

Creating for yourself an image and legend is no easy task I would say. Living up to both is probably a nightmare most of us wouldn't touch. Rest in Peace Marlene you were a legend indeed but full of contradictions as we all are.

Thanks for posting. I read Riva’s book last year and loved every page of it.

Gene Tierney went to school with Maria. Gene adored Marlene and felt she was the epitome of Hollywood glamour. Gene even tried to dress like her when she first arrived in Hollywood as a young starlet.

Maria’s book was really great and a lot of it was inadvertently funny , I wasn’t sure I wanted to read such a long book on Marlena but it was well written and read fascinating and fast , I loved the parts about Marlena later in life - she was hilarious . On a side note the book Swanson on Swanson by Gloria Swanson was another big fat tome that was exceptionally memorably excellent

This is a fascinating interview! I never knew Marlene Dietrich had all these secrets!

There are hundreds of millions of bad mothers in this world, but the list of great actors who slogged through the mud and lived in tents to bring some joy to the Allied troops in WW2 is much shorter.

Thank you, Alan. Love Marlene.

When you compete with your children you are sad.

Greetings From Florida 🏖 Fascinating interview! She’s still alive 2021 ❗️

Thank you Alan for.posting this. I never knew

The worst misfortune in this life is to be born to a terminal narcissist, or adopted by one.

Riva's relationship with her mother was one of ambivalence. And of mutual dependence. As a child, she was annexed by her mother and remained so, to a degree, throughout her life. The child seeks love from its mother in whatever form it is offered or construed. Riva's book is, partly, at attempt to transcend her mother's failures while letting the world see them for what they were.

Feel so sad for Maria hope her husband and children gave all the love she never received from that psico parents.

I loved the book - Maria is an amazing storyteller. That said, she definitely has a love/hate relationship with her mother, and unlike the books by Joan and Bette's daughters, this book celebrates Dietrich's talents and courageous war time efforts. Yes, Dietrich wasn't mother of the year, but who is? There is always two sides to every coin....and as Maria says herself, she was never bored. My only gripe with the book is the sad ending....did we really need to know that Dietrich slept on shit covered sheets or made racist comments? I think not. And who's to say Dietrich wasn't suffering from some form of mental illness or dementia at the end of her life? I mean, she was in her 90s. For whatever faults Marlene Dietrich had, her daughter lived a very fine life on two continents all on her mother's name and dime.

My heart reaches out to her .

i think it's great to dispel the notion that kids of the famous have charmed, fairytale childhoods.

Maria Riva turned 99 in December, 2023. Long, long life.

Poor maria her mother was truly a narcissist it's horrible what she went through I'm glad that she managed to build a good life

If Marlene was a man she'd just be described as a bachelor, an endless badass bachelor

fantastic! one of my favorites! Maria is marvelous.

Madeline Kahn did a great job impersonating Marlene in blazing saddles.

Dietrich was one of a kind and was no doubt all she was and did plus what her daughter says.....these are rare rare people...not the kind that live in our towns......not the kind most others ever....meet

I feel like Maria was also crying tears of relief at the funeral. Relief that is was all finally over.

Madonna has copied Marlene Dietrich so much, even down to the eye blinking.

This is called utter perversion. To subject a little kid to that kind of sexual philandering is a crime.

Not easy to be the daughter of someone so famous, and put her own needs first, surprised she had a child at all !!!! 🐩🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

No one truly knows whether or not Marlene Dietrich was a good mom or not, but famous people are simply that, people, and some of them, not all, are far from perfect. Some of their children have told the truth in books and interviews and I think Maria is one of them.

I never thought Dietrich was all that talented nor beautiful. I did like her performance in "Witness for the Prosecution" though.

She sounds just like my narc psycho mom. I believe every word.

Marlene has always been such an inspiration musically and a warning spiritually for me.

My first husband was the same type of personality as Dietrich. I met him when he was 65, but the fire of Narcissim and fame still burned brightly. Unlike Marlene, he did know how to love, but it was a cruel love. I believe Maria told what she remembers; the events that shaped her world and her life. But I still adore Dietrich, which is as both of them would wish.

God Bless Maria's husband.

I don’t think Maria did anything wrong.

I never understood the allure of Deitrich or Garbo.

News to me. ...I didn't know she had a child in the first place.

Everyone is writing in the comments how horrible Dietrich was, but she went on the front lines with General Patton to entertain the troops during WW2, traveled with them to do USO shows, she hated Hitler because her friends in Berlin in the entertainment biz were Jews. She isn’t all evil.

5:58 "Uh, huh, that's what I'm talking about, sweetheart." [Best line putting prurient Diane Sawyer in her place.]

Maria was brilliant. Read her brilliant book. No book like it. What depth of understanding this woman had: not just her mother, but about life and people in general. Marvelous wit and a fine mind combined. Sorry she had to be victimized by the one person who she should have trusted most.

The book is fabulous.!!!!!

"I think the biggest tragedy of my mother is that she never knew what love is", keep it on mind when you deal with a pure narcissist like her. A real German woMAN. I red the book of Maria twice and I complete believe in her. She was a monster on the day by day life, but funny enough, as Maria says, can you deteste her? No, you can still adore and admire her for what she did with her life and her imagine, and nowadays divas can only learn from her, one a above all Madonna. She's been inspired from her much more than she did with Marilyn Monroe. Particularly in the 90s. True fans can agree with me. That's the power of the narcissists... EVERYONE have something to teach to the others.

Her lighting director said she was a task master to put it gently. After seeing the Blue Angel on screen Marlena Dietrich was appalled at how round her face looked under the light. After that she made sure the light was casting shadows perfectly on her ivory face to contour the silhouette beautifully with angles. She mastered the technique and the lighting directors became her best friends. It was then she could get into her character. Talkies complicated her husky voice. She didn't like technicolor because it didn't silhouette her face in shadows and swirling cigarette smoke like black and white film.

Dietrich might have been a beautiful, fascinating actress, but she was a hideous human being. The Blaue Engel with the red-hot eternal address.

Stars don't live NORMAL lives. We simply love watching them SURVIVE our stares. Mothers and Fathers are No Angels, but they are looked upon as Gods to their children. Later--then, we are disappointed OR relieved to find they are ... only human.

If Marlene had not been her Mother , nobody would have bought her book, there wouldnt even have been a book! People are interested in her BECAUSE of her mother!

12:57 That sounds like the onset of dementia or the side effects of medication. It's common behavior for the elderly.

Dietrich like Crawford were Goddesses of the first magnitude and their likes never to be seen again.

Maria Riva is quite a woman. I admire her.

People are complicated. There are always two sides to every relationship. Her mother wasn't around to give a rebuttal.

Fabulous actress 😊 a real star 😊

Marlene Dietrich was a terrible mother. She was narcissistic and probably manic depressant/bipolar. I am so surprised that Ms. Riva became so intellectually and emotionally intelligent.

How very sad. A waste of life. She only lived in vain but she did a lot for the soldiers. I give her that..

Why do children have to write books about their parents.?

THIS DAUGHTER SEEMS INTELLIGENT & NOT BITTER IN THE REAL SENSE OF THE WORD AS TO HER "CHILDHOOD."

She was 77 and Drunk will never get old lol

For someone who supposedly "hated" sex, Marlene Dietrich certainly had plenty of it. The daughter is definitely scarred psychologically as a result of having such insane parents.

There's always a dark side too famous legendary actress and actors. She definitely had a dark side to her life and she pulled many people into it.

The say about what is Golden isn't always Shiny behind closed doors!!

I don´t think Marlene Dietrich was setting up a drama at the end of her life to make her daughter look bad. I think she was depressed - and, B.T.W., how DID she end up like that, living in dirt? By neglect. That´s how it happens. She didn´t have the strength or the mental ability to take care of herself. A shame.

15 abortions? Sounds like a real loving mother.

RIP Marlene

Don't Forget Dietrich Was A True Blue "Berliner."

Dietrich Crawford and Swanson. The most amazing faces

Marlena must have been a true narcissist. I feel sorry for her daughter.

Marlene had an Affair with John Wayne.. I think Her daughter looks like him.! Even the face expressions

The shade thrown to Eddie fisher

"my mother was royalty" oooh yeah , love it

toxic narcissism.

My only slight of what Maria said was."if you locked an acholic in a liquor store could blame them" As a lesbian I never thought to force myself onto a young lady.

Bad grass never die that’s why you’re still alive! The saying also says so, because it’s the pure truth!!!

What a Woman. Real old screen Goddess.

For some reason Marlene Dietrich gives me the creeps. Maybe it’s what I’ve read about her.

In normal life such people usually called by different name😢

WONDERFUL BRILLIANT MARIA RIVA 🌟🌟 I don’t know why people get so offended by what she is saying. 80% of Hollywood actresses of that time were narcissists, even Marilyn psychiatrist said so (Marilyn wasn’t). Fame does go to their head, and when a narcissist loses their beauty/ prestige you can count on they becoming worse and worse

I am in awe of Maria and she had to endure so much trauma as a result of her mother's very troubled personality and I think that her mother died in darkness and really that is a reflection of her own soul

She is as eloquent as her mother.

If we knew what Marlene Dietrich's own childhood was like we would probably understand her actions and motivations (those driven by the conscious mind and those by the subconscious).

Dietrich sounds like the archetypal narcissist. Living with her must have been ghastly. She was always looking around to see who was watching her. So self centred.

gigolo showed how grand marlene was. she is so beautiful there. last performance in 1990 at babelsberg

My how times have changed! Now, such behavior for a man is considered pathological; for a woman, celebrated.

Would love to see the whole show.

Good for John Wayne.

Definitely resembles her mom.

I loathe Diane Sawyer. I can't be the only one. Her questioning is downright rude often.

Some people shouldn't be allowed to produce if they plan to destroy.

mommie dearest....

She resembles Hailey Mills.

The main ingrediant of a narristic is lies. Marlene I believe was a narristic , yet did honorable and courageous things in her life. She defied the Nazis, but allowed her daughter to see her in same sex relationships and with hundreds of men. Id heard she was bisexual before, and to each their own AND to God who sees, knows and judges the great and small. BUT when you have a children they Must be first in how they are raised, their vunerability and their rightful need to be cherished and loved by their parents. In this case, I believe the daughter because a narrisis is the most important person in the room. When she said her Mom lied and wrote her daughter didnt come to see her, that IS the Nature of a true narrcistic. They will literally drain anyone that loves them to such a degree that it is a life or death choice to stay with them or leave. ThEY lie to make themselves look like they are not as bad as the person they are trashing. When you use very painful methods to contort your aging face and body and face into something it cannot be, this is nsrcisstic behavior. I hate that her daughter was raped, and was seen as a servant, companion to Marlene. I believe any man, woman or child that states they were raped. I can only pause in that this book was published after Marlene died. Marlene has a right ti defend herself but there is too much of solid evidence that can substaniate her daughter's story fir it not to be true.