Movie stars, television stars and singers have a reputation for being playboys. Wild stories are always floating around town about their adventures with half the female population in Hollywood. Rumors always have anywhere from 10 to 100 assorted starlets and fan-types either swearing undying devotion to the star, threatening suicide over the star, or announcing an engagement when the truth is that they’ve probably only said “Hello” to him in an elevator.
The Monkees get more than their share of outasite grapevine gossip. It’s not hard to guess why. Rich, young and handsome, it’s natural that people will talk. But what do the gossipers say?
To start off with, they credit each Monkee with having at least six girls who individually consider themselves to be “the one and only” for that Monkee. Then rumors usually say that about 20 more are literally hanging onto their telephones night and day, just in case a Monkee will ask them for a date. It doesn’t stop there. Stories continue about a girl who supposedly committed suicide over one of them, the woman who left her husband for a certain Monkee, the “truth” that they are all married with six children apiece and finally the “confession” that each of them was seriously hurt by a grammar school sweetheart and they haven’t dated anyone since.
It’s just not true!
Can you really imagine Micky with a big black book, trying to make up his mind who to invite for dinner? He doesn’t have the patience to thumb through pages!
Or Davy. Do you really think someone would leave her husband and three children to join Davy Jones and play pool every night at a Hollywood club?
Then there’s Peter. He simply couldn’t be married and have six children without absolutely everyone knowing about it. Peter loves to talk about people he’s close to and he couldn’t keep a family a secret. He’d probably show you all their baby pictures.
And Mike is married and the father of two boys and if you knew Mike, you’d really have to laugh when someone told you the latest rumor!
It’s a shame to disappoint people who thrive on the hope that each of the Monkees is a modern day Don Juan with a list of girlfriends as long as his list of records, but there’s just no other way. They’ll have to be disappointed.
The truth is that each of the Monkees is probably more like your brother or your boyfriend or the boyfriend your parents keep hoping you’ll bring home for dinner.
Micky is still dating Samantha steadily and he seems quite content to let their relationship stand as it is.
Peter is dating different girls and vowing he’ll never get married again. He’s avoiding getting too involved with one person and prefers to keep his social life open to many girls and not date one person too steadily.
Davy’s involved with various business interests and dates one girl exclusively for a while, then meets another and dates her. Plus, he has many good friends who are girls and he visits with them quite often. Lots of times, it’s even a case of Davy visiting them just to watch television with her whole family!
Mike’s happily married and madly misses Phyllis whenever she’s away. Their marriage is sturdy and sound and any rumors that they are getting divorced are just that—rumors!
So the Monkees don’t exactly qualify as playboys. In fact, they don’t want to. Each of them is mature enough to realize that the playboy image is exactly what they don’t want. They all appreciate sincerity and honesty in their relationships with other people.
Besides, being a playboy takes lots of free time and they are just too busy!
