Army Archerd
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Armand "Army" Archerd (b. January 13, 1922 in Bronx, NY) was a gossip columnist for Variety for over fifty years before retiring his "Just for Variety" column in September 2005. In November 2005 Archerd began blogging for Variety and he is currently at work on his memoirs. In 1984, he was given a star on the Hollywood's Walk of Fame, in front of Mann's Chinese Theater, where he has emceed dozens of movie premieres.
Archerd graduated from UCLA in 1941 and was hired by Variety to replace columnist Sheilah Graham (former girlfriend of F. Scott Fitzgerald) in 1953. His Just for Variety column appeared on page two of Daily Variety and it swiftly became a must-read within Hollywood. Archerd has broken countless exclusive stories, reporting from film sets, announcing pending deals, giving news of who's in the hospital, who's just been married and who's given birth.
One of his most significant scoops was in his July 23, 1985 column, when he printed that Rock Hudson -- despite denials from the actor's publicists and managers -- was undergoing treatment for AIDS. Global media picked up on the story; though the disease was not new, this was the first time anyone put an identifiable face linked to the disease.
The New York Times stated that if it weren't for Archerd's report, the actor's death probably would have been attributed to other maladies, and the realization of the scope of AIDS would not have been publicized and realized until November, 1991, when Magic Johnson revealed his condition.
Archerd, a Jewish American, is also a strong proponent of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Holocaust awareness; he frequently railed against Elia Kazan's special Academy Award for the 1998 ceremonies and has often written critically of the National Rifle Association.
He is married to actress Selma Archerd.
