Hedy Lamarr on the stand, testifying at her shoplifting trial in 1966. The 53-year-old actress was accused of stealing $86 worth of merchandise from the May & Co. Wilshire department store. Absent from the screen since 1958, the Austrian beauty had slipped from public consciousness when a security guard apprehended her in the parking lot of and found unpaid for items in her handbag. Lamarr’s explanations (“some of the other stores let me do it” and “it must have been a misunderstanding”) didn’t cut it, and the ensuing six-day trial in April 1966 drew sensational headlines. Even though the jury acquitted her of petty theft, Lamarr’s comeback role in the 1966 film “Mommy Dead” was cancelled. An enterprising Andy Warhol capitalised on the scandal by cranking-out the underground movie “Hedy”, starring drag queen superstar Mario Montez as Lamarr.