Sager saga of Burt & his hurt
CAROLE BAYER SAGER should have known her marriage to fellow songwriter Burt Bacharach was doomed on their wedding day. The 69-year-old New York native recalls in her forthcoming memoir “They’re Playing Our Song” that when she wed “The Look of Love” scribe in 1982, the judge asked, “Do you take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?” Sager writes that Bacharach replied, “I’ll try,” causing guest Neil
Diamond to blurt out, “Holy s---!”
Bacharach comes across as a complete narcissist who revealed to his wife that sometimes her touch made him feel nauseated and afterwards exclaimed, “I’m really glad we can have these talks . . . I always feel better after I’m able to tell you how I’m actually feeling.”
Eventually the pair split up in 1991 after nine years of marriage. Sager writes that the couple met in a restaurant and with tears streaming down his face, Bacharach, then 63, announced that he had met someone else — a 23-year-old woman who he met in Aspen and would become his fourth wife.
Sager was best pals with Elizabeth Taylor and tells of the time she doubled-dated with Taylor and playwright Neil Simon. The screen legend was clearly excited by all the menu choices and couldn’t make up her mind. The “Lost in Yonkers” playwright took the liberty of quipping, “Miss Taylor will have the entire right side of the menu, please,” causing the table to burst into hysterics. Sager, who has written with Bob Dylan, Peter Allen and Bette Midler, has been married to ex-Warner Bros. Chairman Bob Daly since 1996.
The book — taking it title from the hit Broadway show “They’re Playing Our Song” that she penned with her then-boyfriend, the late Marvin Hamlisch, will be published by Simon & Schuster Oct. 18.