“Obviously, after four days, her muscles need to be stretched, and [her doctor] felt it would be more productive to keep her in the hospital until she could get some exercise and they could monitor her condition,” Hartford Hospital spokesman James Battaglio said.

The 94-year-old multiple Oscar winner was admitted to the hospital last Wednesday.

Battaglio said Hepburn’s condition is still good, and said keeping her is a “cautionary measure.”

The post KATE WON’T GO HOME JUST YET appeared first on Broadway After Dark.

“She wanted very much to go home. The infection she had cleared up several days ago, and her doctor had kept her a few days longer so she could regain the strength she had before she was admitted,” hospital spokesman James Battaglio said yesterday.

The feisty, 94-year old four-time Oscar winner was rushed to the hospital by ambulance July 19 suffering from what Battaglio later said was a urinary-tract infection.

“God bless her. She’s one tough lady! They couldn’t hold her in the hospital longer than she wants to,” John Sexton, a family friend who lives near Hepburn, told The Post.

“Kate’s determined not to die in any hospital. And she won’t stay in one hour more than is necessary,” family friend Jones Harris, the son of actress Ruth Gordon and director Jed Harris, told The Post.

Just weeks before Hepburn went into the hospital, neighbors saw her taking a few halting steps on the beach in front of her home overlooking Long Island Sound. But Sexton says, “She doesn’t get out of the house very much any more.”

In 1996, Hepburn moved from her Manhattan townhouse to her family compound in the upscale Fenwick section of Old Saybrook.

The post NO PLACE LIKE HOME FOR HEPBURN appeared first on Broadway After Dark.

In a rare interview, the feisty Hollywood legend shot down rumors that she is bedridden.

“Tell everybody I am doing fine!” Hepburn told The Post as she sat in the comfortable living room of her rustic seaside home in Old Saybrook, Conn.

“I am OK.”

Dressed in a purple jumpsuit, the four-time Oscar winner rested on a large settee in front of a roaring fire and a picture window with a sweeping view of Long Island Sound.

The legendary star has spent all her time in this quaint home since moving out of her posh Midtown townhouse in the mid-1990s.

And while she occasionally invites an old friend or a neighbor over for afternoon tea, Hepburn’s reclusive lifestyle has fueled speculation she’s seriously ill.

But, although Parkinson’s disease has limited her mobility and her speech, Hepburn insists that all the chatter could not be further from the truth.

The actress confessed that she’s still a big eater — enjoying homemade meals prepared by her cook.

Her best friend, actor Max Showalter, recently told The Post his famed friend sits down to four square meals a day and “eats like a horse” — a fact Hepburn confirmed with a broad grin.

“Oh, yes, that’s true,” she admitted, as her cook, Maureen, stood by and nodded in agreement.

Hepburn’s mood turned dark as she asked about Showalter, who has been gravely ill with cancer at Essex Meadows Hospital in nearby Essex, Conn.

The actor, who played Marilyn Monroe’s lover in 1953’s “Niagara,” has been Hepburn’s closest confidant since the death of her longtime love, Spencer Tracy.

She nodded with approval when told that Showalter is hanging in there.

Neighbors say Hepburn — who delighted audiences in classics such as “The Philadelphia Story,” “Adam’s Rib” and “The African Queen” — still ventures outside when the weather permits.

“Miss Hepburn has good days and bad days, like most of us,” said friend and neighbor Henry Josten, first selectman of Old Saybrook.

The post Kate Hepburn: ‘Tell everybody I’m doing fine’ appeared first on Broadway After Dark.

Although she will be 86 on Nov. 8, Hepburn, her steel-gray hair pinned loosely at the back of her head, shows few signs of slowing down.

A shaking disorder that was visible in past years appears to have disappeared. She still goes to her family home in Fenwick, Conn., for long weekends, entertains friends in her New York townhouse and remains an avid reader of books as well as the countless scripts that are always being sent her way.
Her 50th film, “This Can’t Be Love,” was broadcast as the “CBS Sunday Movie” last year and “Love Affair,” starring Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, was also released last year.

“I don’t know what movie I’m going to do next. But then I’ve never known. I just do something that interests me,” Hepburn said, sitting in the second-floor living room of her townhouse. “Sure, I’d do a play – if it interested me.”

Hepburn said she loves movies but does not “see as many as I should.” She wants to see “Apollo 13″ starring Tom Hanks, the Oscar-winning actor who many say has the best chance of eventually tying Hepburn’s record of winning four Oscars.

“I’m lazy I guess,” she said. “I love this house and going to Fenwick. And I’m always reading things people send me.”

Looking back at her long career, Hepburn said all of her Academy Award-winning performances, beginning with “Morning Glory” in 1933 and ending with “On Golden Pond” almost 50 years later, depended on having a good script.

“Doing well in a part is not so much a matter of talent,” she went on in the clear, crackling tones that are unmistakable to almost any film-goer over the age of 12. “It’s really luck – choosing the right material for you. I was lucky enough to get material that the critics liked.”

Hepburn said that while she misses “some of the glamour” show business had in the old days, she nevertheless finds that today’s crop of actors can often be as exciting as the studio icons of yesteryear. …

This article was first published for Reuters in the St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)

The post Hepburn the Hollywood Icon Is Nearly 86, and She Is Still in Love with Life appeared first on Broadway After Dark.