Trivia

Greta Garbo once expressed a desire to meet her. Garbo called her Mata Hari (1931) costar, Ramon Novarro, asking for an introduction. The actor asked Natacha to his apartment but made the mistake of inviting a number of other people, thereby transforming the rendezvous into a reception. When Garbo arrived at Novarro's door and saw the crowd inside, she turned and fled. Thus the two women, who had similar faces, never met, but they did have a mutual acquaintance in the screenwriter Mercedes de Acosta.

Is credited with giving legendary MGM costume designer Adrian his first experience in working in films with The Hooded Falcon (1924). She would use him on several of her films.

She thought the script for Rudolph Valentino's film The Sheik (1921) was trash but loved him enough to design his costumes for the film, paint a portrait of him in costume, and even appeared as an extra.

Was approached several times to appear in a leading film role, since she was extremely beautiful and photogenic. She refused many offers and relented only once, for When Love Grows Cold (1926). She was horrified when the original title, "Do Clothes Make the Woman?", was changed and she was billed as Mrs. Rudolph Valentino, since the film was released during her divorce from him.

Myrna Loy gave Natacha credit for discovering her when she was cast in Rambova's film What Price Beauty? (1925).

She designed and gave Rudolph Valentino a gift of a platinum slave bracelet, which he took to his grave.

Great granddaughter of Heber C. Kimball, one of the founders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon).

In 1951 she turned down interviews and threatened to sue Columbia Pictures if they portrayed her in a biographical film they were making about Rudolph Valentino (Valentino (1951)).

The niece of legendary interior designer Elsie de Wolfe (Lady Mendle).

She had a fondness for children, and would often visit her young cousins. However, she neither wanted nor had children of her own. She loved her career and she did not believe it possible to be both a successful career woman and mother. She felt that the demands of her career and her dedication to it would leave her unable to provide children with the attention they need.

In 1925 she staged a media event when she traveled from Los Angeles to Paris to pose for photographer James E. Abbe at famous clothing designer Paul Poiret's salon. She modeled a pearl-embroidered white velvet gown and a chinchilla cloak, and declared Poiret her favorite couturier.

In 2009 her 1926 memoir was republished as, "Rudolph Valentino: A Wife's Memories of an Icon".

She and Rudolph Valentino owned and lived with a lion cub named Zela, two Great Danes, a large gopher snake and a green monkey.