Kim Novak ‘never wanted to get married,’ Sammy Davis Jr. says her manager (Exclusive)

At the age of 91, a legend of the screen Kim Novak clearly understands how she wants her story to be told—and she does No I want to overly romanticize she had an affair with Sammy Davis Jr. in the late 50s.

Nearly seven decades later, that relationship is set to become the subject of an upcoming film. According to Deadlineactor Colman Domingo will stage a drama called Scandalousand Sydney Sweeney and David Jonsson are in talks to play the two leads.

According to Novak’s longtime manager, Sue Cameron, it’s important to get their story right.

“Kim and I are aware of at least four unauthorized and unapproved projects regarding the Kim Novak and Sammy Davis case,” she tells PEOPLE.

“Then she never wanted to get married—nobody. It was a novel based on love, respect, what unites them.”

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According to Cameron, “Kim and Sammy met at a party and agreed that they were rebels and outsiders. They both had strong ties to their families and spent time with close relatives in both Hollywood and Chicago. In truth, she hoped that their relationship would help overcome people’s racial prejudices.”

At the time, interracial romances were considered scandalous, and in some states even prohibited. Novak hoped she could be a small agent of change.

But as soon as a columnist broke the news of her affair with the Rat Pack actor, singer and dancer in 1957, falsely claiming that she and Davis planned to marry, Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia Pictures, to which Novak was under contract, was horrified by the news. would hurt her box office and threatened to shoot Davis. Novak and Davis soon ended their relationship.

A major Hollywood star in the late ’50s, Novak left everything behind when she moved to Carmel, California in the early ’60s. From there, she moved to Oregon, where she lived with her second husband, equine veterinarian Robert Malloy, who died in 2020.

The enigmatic star of such classics as Alfred Hitchcock dizziness and The man with the golden hand (opposite Frank Sinatra) continues to live there quietly, where she spends most of her time painting and tending to her horses, with only the occasional interview.

As for the fact that the star’s story is being revived and could soon be dramatized, Cameron says, “I’ve been asked to consult on one of the projects, but I won’t until I read the script to see if it tells a true story.”

He and Novak also have their own documentary project, with Cameron also executive producing.

“It will be the true story of the secret life of Kim Novak, directed by Alexander Philip, which just won the best documentary at the Venice Film Festival,” she says. “We have already completed principal photography and are now engaged in post-production.”

“Kim is a treasured Hollywood legend,” she says, “and I’ve always dreamed of making a true documentary from her point of view.”