I've written about how at an event years ago, Christina Crawford suggested that mommie dearest Joan Crawford killed her last hubby, Pepsi head Alfred Steele, but Christina didn't get to elaborate as to just what she meant by that.

When I cornered her after her talk to ask for some expansion on the horror she'd hinted at, Christina--signing books at the time--replied, "I'm doing this now."

Well, last night I saw her show Surviving Mommie Dearest, which includes a documentary with Christina telling stories about Mommie's manic manipulations and abuses, then coming out to field a few questions from the audience. And she elaborated.

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In case you haven't heard (or maybe you did and blocked it out):

Just in time for Mother's Day, Christina Crawford will descend upon the heart of Manhattan to tell even more harrowing stories about her late mama, the shoulder-padded menace Joan Crawford.

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This little known short film of Joan Crawford's, The Big Rock Candy Mountain, has the great screen star philosophizing about meat while shopping in a grocery store with a little girl who gets pummeled up and down the aisles with Joan's wisdoms and queries.

Among Joan's saltier bon mots:

"Did she say weirdo?"

"Green. Like the grass, like the trees. Like Frankenstein's monster...Whoever heard of a red weirdo? Come on."

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Just in case any more happened to be needed.

I recently discovered Helen Hayes's memoir, in which the grande dame talks about becoming an unlikely friend of Joan Crawford starting in the '30s, possibly because Helen didn't pose a threat to Joan's movie allure.

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In 1998, Christina Crawford, renowned author of the legendary revenge memoir Mommie Dearest, came to Town Hall to sell copies of the new edition of her book after being interviewed onstage by critic Rex Reed.

In that Q&A, she graciously reiterated all the awful things Mommie did to her as we wept in sympathy one more time.

But the real shock came when Christina let slip something I'd never heard her say before:

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The Eventi hotel offered my movie club another swanky get-together in their posh fifth-floor screening room -- complete with snacks -- so we seized it like the fine cineastes we are.

And for a main course, we watched The Best of Everything, the 1959 soaper based on Rona Jaffe's best-selling novel about a publishing house overrun with manuscripts for trashy novels!

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Rutanya Alda played loyal housekeeper Carol Ann in the 1981 flick about Joan Crawford's abuse of little Christina, who fought back with a tell-all.

She's interviewed in my current column, but here are some more tidbits she revealed to me (which will be in her upcoming book, The Mommie Dearest Diaries):

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If you're gay and of a certain age, the iconic scene from Mommie Dearest where Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford shrieks at her daughter Christina, "No wire hangers!" has been ingrained into your being like Man Tan.

Well, a new book about Joan by Donald Spoto says it's pure fiction.

In Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford, Spoto writes:

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*Joan Crawford had a lifelong sexual crush on her arch rival Bette Davis and once tried to seduce Marilyn Monroe, which promptly ended their friendship.

*Bette Davis turned down Mildred Pierce, which turned out to be Crawford's Oscar role, jump-starting her faded career.

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This is from the book Crawford's Men by Jane Ellen Wayne:

"She allowed her fans (she called them 'friends') to gather near her Bristol Avenue home.

"She put them to work doing odd jobs around the yard and house or helping with the mail.

"They scrubbed floors and cleaned out the garage and basement.

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