Liz receives wishes for her 94th birthday
“WHEN I turned fififty, my children said, ‘Half a century, mother, half a century.’ Sixty? Well — that wasn’t too bad. Seventy was awesome. Eighty? Well, as I say, if God decides to pick up my option.”
That was the incredible Bette Davis, backstage at an Academy Awards ceremony, shortly before her 80th birthday. She had already suffffered several strokes, was battling cancer and had been betrayed by her beloved daughter, with a scathing tell-all book.
She died a little over a year later, in Paris, age 81, right after accepting a lifetime achievement award at a fifilm festival.
Although physically frail she was dynamic, vital — and as far as I am concerned, heroic — to the very end. Bette knew what to do when the inevitabilities of a long life punched — she punched back!
I WANT TO thank the many who sent me birthday greeting recently — emails, phones calls, skywriting. (Okay, nobody did any skywriting. But keep it in mind for next year!) I couldn’t possibly reply to each and every one of these good wishes. But I was overwhelmed by the affffffffffffection and attention.
One of the loveliest calls I received, as I turned from 93 to 94 was from the great and darling Angie Dickinson. We are longtime admirers of this woman. She is so sweet, gentle, thoughtful as a human being. Her wonderful screen presence aside — sexy and vulnerable — Angie is a marvelous woman (and a discreet one). She famously returned the advance of her memoir, not willing to “kiss and tell” on some of her famous amours. Those memories, she says, she will take to the great beyond.
After we got through talking about my great age and my health pretty good, for my great age), I asked Angie if she was going to come out of retirement and act again?
The star of “Rio Bravo,” “Dressed to Kill” “The Chase,” “Point Blank,” “Big Bad Mama” “Wild Palms,” and of course, TV’s “Police Woman,” laughed and said, “No, I want to be remembered as the demure but sexy girl I was!” Then she paused a moment. “But look, if Steven Spielberg called, I might be tempted!”
Mr. Spielberg, the ball is in your court.
Angie also sent her love to my longtime colleague and cohort Denis Ferrara, who adores her. “Give him a hug and a kiss, I truly love Denis.”
Angie Dickinson, we love you, too.
I ALSO heard from my college chum Bob Benton, who was an aspiring artist when I fifirst met and adored him at the University of Texas in Austin.
Benton went on to become a cartoonistwriter- editor in New York. Later, he wrote screenplays (“Bonnie and Clyde” “What’s Up, Doc?” “Superman”) and directed fifilms such as “Kramer vs. Kramer” (Meryl Streep’s fifirst Oscar, and two for Benton) and “Places in the Heart” (Sally Fields’ second Academy Award, and a third for him!)
I thought Bob was kidding, during our chat when he said he’s put me in his will. This undeserved reward would be “pieces of utterly worthless land” in his home town of Waxahachie, Texas.
Well, there is no “worthless land” near the booming Dallas, so maybe I will have the last laugh. But Benton is still young, so this is a vain thought.
ENDQUOTE: “The dumbest thing I was ever taught was that ‘The Canterbury Tales” were funny, and I would argue that they were not even funny at the time they were written, and certainly less so now. Even if they were funny then, they’ve dated very badly, unless you fifind the idea of people shoving their naked backsides out of windows entertaining. It has a certain visceral charm, I suppose.”
That’s John Oliver, talking to Entertainment Weekly. John is, (thank heavens) back on HBO with his “Last Week Tonight” show of political commentary, satire and outrage.
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