AVA: THE SECRET CONVERSATIONS ***
By Samuel L. Leiter August 7, 2025: In 1988, former screen star Ava Gardner, famed much more for her sultry glamor ("the world's most beautiful animal") than her thespian artistry (although she did get an Oscar nomination), was living in London, recovering from a stroke and in need of money, when she asked British journalist-novelist-biographer Peter Evans (1933-2012) to ghostwrite her memoirs. A poor girl from a s…