SUGAR-COATED BUT DISPARAGING WORDS

"There's an up and coming starlet in Hollywood who, when you tell her a story that reflects credit on someone, manages to murmur 'Oh, Honey...' in a way that either suggests you're a nice person and have been taken in or that there's more to the story than meets the eye. This technique saves this starlet from ever actually saying anything unpleasant.
In spite of the fact that this girl never commits herself in so many words, she has come to be avoided not only by those people whom she has dismissed with her 'Oh, Honey' technique, but also by those to whom she has cooed her sugar-coated but disparaging words. People, I think, would distrust her far less if she would come right out and say what she thinks."
--Photoplay magazine, 1952.