Dolly Parton Called Sylvester Stallone an ‘Ungrateful Son of a B ****’
In 1984, Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone starred in Rhinestone, an unsuccessful musical comedy. The film did not perform well with critics or audiences, but Parton enjoyed her time on set. She established a good rapport with Stallone that felt particularly refreshing as she was at a low point in her life. This didn’t mean that they always got along, though. During the shoot, Stallone did something that upset Parton so greatly that she shouted at him.
Dolly Parton snapped at Sylvester Stallone on the set of ‘Rhinestone’
During a night shoot for Rhinestone in an alleyway, Parton noticed a visibly cold man.
“There was garbage everywhere and big rats running around,” she wrote in her book Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business. “We were working all night, and it was that New York kind of damp cold. I noticed a man lying there next to some garbage, and he was shivering. We had a big heater and blankets on the set. So I thought I’d go back there and get warm and put a heavy shawl I was wearing around this poor man. I didn’t realize anybody was watching.”
Stallone was nearby, though, and he tried to stop Parton from giving the man her shawl.
“Just as I wrapped the shawl around the man, Stallone walked up and jerked it away,” she wrote “‘Don’t you put that good shawl over that scum!’ he said. ‘He could have made something of himself. We did.'”
Appalled, Parton turned on her co-star.
“Well, you could have knocked me over with an angel feather,” she wrote. “I couldn’t believe what a man I considered a friend was saying. I grabbed the shawl back from him and wrapped it back around the man. Then I stood up right in Sly’s face and said, ‘Hey, look! That could have been you, you ungrateful son of a b****! Except by the grace of God. Who knows. It could be an angel sent to show you what an a** you really are. At least he’s one of God’s creatures, and that’s good enough for me.'”
Parton said Stallone seemed stunned but rightfully ashamed. The next day, she heard from a member of the crew that Stallone bought the man a blanket.
Dolly Parton said she mostly got along with Sylvester Stallone
With the exception of this moment, Parton said that she found Stallone to be good company. He made her experience on set enjoyable, even if the movie wasn’t a success.
“No matter how big a financial disaster Rhinestone was, it was not all bad for me,” she wrote. “Sylvester Stallone made me laugh at a time when I really needed it. I have found no therapy more effective than laughing, although in this case there were probably less expensive ways to get it. I should point out that Sly Stallone is certifiably crazy. But he was a good kind of crazy, the kind I needed at that point in my life.”
She said that her friendship with Stallone was better than anything that could have come out of making a hit film.
“After all, movies may come and go, but life is something we buy a ticket to every day — and it doesn’t come with popcorn,” she wrote. “To me, Stallone was better than popcorn. He was full of life and very healthy for me to be around (Lord, I’ve made him sound like a laxative).”
Her co-star felt the same way, even if the movie wasn’t successful
Stallone had a similar experience on set. He noted that he immediately hit it off with Parton and considered her a close friend.
“She is an incredible woman,” he said in a Q&A with Ain’t It Cool News. “I remember in the early 80s when I was sitting in a hotel room feeling sorry for myself, actors do that a lot, it’s actually considered a sport in Hollywood, self-loathing. Anyway, Dolly called and we began a conversation that lasted at least two hours and by the time I hung up I thought she was the most amazing person I’d ever spoken to.”
