“[Talking pictures are] like putting lip rouge on the Venus de Milo.”

— Mary Pickford

Associated Press, "Mary Pickford Sees Talkies as Lipstick on Milo", Los Angeles Times, 18 March 1934, p. 1. Cf. "Los Angeles Times", 20 March 1934, p. A4: "Talking pictures are like lip rouge on the Venus de Milo."
Widely attributed in this form (e.g., A. Scott Berg, Goldwyn: A Biography (1989), Ch. 11) and described as having been said in the 1920s, but the 18 March 1934 AP story quotes it as said that day.
Variant: Adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the Venus de Milo.

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Mary Pickford 7

Canadian-American actress 1892–1979

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