DIARY OF URBAN COWBOY: Starring John Travolta, Debra Winger, Scott Glenn No.1
BY AARON LATHAM
(who wrote the movie)
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1ST
1978
We flew from Houston to Hollywood. I picked up Lesley and Taylor at the airport and drove them to the L'Eruritage Hotel. We all took naps and then went out to dinner.
Our party gathered at La Doure on sunset. When we arrived, there was only one person at our big round table: Rhonda Gomez, one of my agents. We're always early. Then Rhonda's boyfriend arrived: Howard Zief, who is currently directing the new Barbara Streisand movie. He looked shell - shocked. Or star-shocked. He was older and much quieter than I remembered him. He never ever entertained the table at large. But he did talk some to Lesley. He said Barbara said the other day: " on the next movie we do together.." and the she just laughed and laughed because she knew he would never consent to direct her again. ( As they say in Hollywood, " who do I have to fuck to get off this picture?")
Next to arrive were the Rosenbergs: Lee and Linda. He is another of my agents. This husband and wife have been fighting, too. Theirs has been Christmas fight. They are both Jewish, but they still fight about Christmas. He wants to celebrate it and she doesn't.
Then Irving Azoff, the producer of "Urban Cowboy," arrived with his wife Shelly. He said he had heard Clay was about to publish another piece that might make another movie, he asked if I knew any thing about it. I said that I had just finished a story called "Co-ed Animal House." He seemed pretty interested.
Then along came four fascinating people.. two fags and two fag hags.. I put this rather crudely although I like them all very much. One was Jim Bridges, my director who was accompanied by ZiZi Jean Mer, who was described to me at the French equivalent of Judy Garland and Margot Fontain rolled into one. Then there was Jack Larson, who used to play copyboy on " superman," who came with Leslie Caron, who played "GiGi," she is in her late forties and one of the most beautiful women I ever saw.
Jim Bridges and Jack Larson live together as man and wife. Larson's hair is always combed perfectly; he always wears a tie, a button-down shirt, and a jacket. He is always perfectly groomed. Jim is just the reverse. He seems never to comb his thinning hair. He always wears blue jeans and boots. And I have never seen him in a tie.
We asked how they all met. It turned out that Leslie and ZiZi met in dancing class in Paris when they were children. The two women met the two men not too much later. They were all kids in Hollywood together when they got to know each other. Jack said they all used to hang around Debbie Reynolds pool. "she was the first one to make any money," Jack explained. She lived with her parents, so she built a pool in their back yard. It took up the whole yard. As Jack talked about Debbie, Leslie made faces. Ms. Caron obviously thinks Ms. Reynolds is crazy.
Prompted by Jim, ZiZi told about being held prisoner by Howard Hughes. Evidently Howard wanted ZiZi so bad that he hired not only her but her whole Parisian ballet troop. Brought them all to this country. And kept them under contract without letting them work. They haunted the sound stages. Finally they tried to escape, but they made the mistake of trying to fly home to Paris on TWA. They were informed that Howard Hughes owned TWA and were taken off the plane.
While ZiZi was trying to escape from Howard, Leslie was having a somewhat hard
time herself. In those days, the studios paid their contract actors only 40
weeks a year. So during her unpaid weeks she taught dancing classes. Here was
the star of "An American in Paris"
--it had already been made but not yet released--teaching little boys and
little girls to dance.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2ND
1978
We went book-store hopping in Beverly Hills. At Doubleday's on little Santa Monica, we ran into senator Gary Hart. He represent Colorado but he was in Hollywood staying with Warren Beaty. Of course.
Senator Hart said he has read and likes "Orchids for Mother ." he said he especially liked the book because he knew its anti-hero: Laures Jesus Angleton, the senator had had lunch with the spy several times. Lesley asked if Angleton was as weird in life as he was in the book. Hart said : weirder.
In the evening, we went to a screening of Jim's movie- "The China Syndrome"-which will be released in the spring. Since they are still working on the movie, the sound and the pictures are still in separate reels. Unfortunately, someone had wound up the sound reels backwards. The screening was for female TV reporters since Jane Fonda plays a female TV reporter in the movie. All the tube women were there to witness Jim's embarrassment as he tried to get his movie put together right, he was finally able to show it one hour late. And it was great! Thank God. We were not forced to be politely enthusiastic. We could be genuinely enthusiastic. Jim seemed relieved and happy that we liked his movie.
Afterwards we went to the Cock `n` Bull restaurant with Jack Larson and Leslie Caron. We were also joined by Gavin Lambert, who wrote "GWTA" about the making of "Gone with the Wind." Lambert's "GWTW" quotes my "Crazy Sundays" at length. A lady judge came along, too. She used to be married to a movie director. Leslie Caron got the evening off to a good start by finding a false fingernail in the lady's room and bringing it out to show everyone. It looked like a dead roach.
The lady judge used to be a lady lawyer with the American civil liberties union. One of her most celebrated cases as an attorney was a topless one. She defended some woman who went to a public beach with her breasts exposed. She said they were not well built, but she did not think their architecture should influence their right to sunbathe. She won the case.
Leslie Caron said all the women of all ages in the best society in France sunbathe topless. So, in order to fit in France, she sunbathed topless, too. Gigi topless. She told the story of a female collaborator during WWII who defended herself by explaining: "I am French but my cunt in international."
&nb
MONDAY, DECEMBER 4TH
1978
We moved into our offices on the Paramount lot. We have a suit that once belonged to Big Crasby. Here are some directions for finding it. You go in the front gate. You pass the set of an old western town. Then you pass the story building. I like to imagine it is a literary supermarket. You go in and ask where the westerns are. And the clerk says: over in aisle six. You make a left at the barber shop and you're there. Our office is the one with a huge black plastic bag hanging from the roof. I don't get it. Looks like an artificial black cloud that escaped from the props department.
There is a big office with wood paneling that is as dark as Gilley's. There is a smaller office. And then a smaller office yet. We also have a bathroom with a telephone and a shower with a sauna. And we have a kitchen. O, Hollywood.
We didn't get much done because so many people came through our offices on the first day we were open for business. Our visitors included. Irv Azoff, the producer.Larry Salter, a PR man.. the telephone man Mr. Barber who is in charge of Paramount office space. Two secretaries. The typewriter man.. Doc, the executive producer.. and a cast of thousands. Jim and I escaped from the crush long enough to have lunch at Paul Newman's hamburger joint.
At some point we went over to the casting office. The receptionist didn't want to let us in. Jim said we're not actors. A poor actor who was cooling his heels in the lobby said, "Don't say that with such a disdain." Jim became very apologetic, explaining he once had been an actor himself. We finally fought our way past the receptionist back to the casting offices. There we met a pretty young casting director Nancy Wally. She explained that she had divided the pictures of the actors and actresses into separate piles. One pile was for our producer, Bob Evans. The other pile was for us. Evans' pile contained pictures of people who couldn't act all but who were pretty. Our pile contained pictures of people who could act. We were allowed to look at his pile, but he was not allowed to look at ours.
We went from the casting office over to Bob Evans' office. The difference between the door to his office and the door to Azoff's office is extreme. Azoff's office has no name on the door at all. Not even a number. These are his rock n' roll offices. They resemble a hide out. And maybe they are. Evans' office door has his name written in letters 3-feet high. Parked in front of the office is a huge car with an R-E license plate.
We stuck our heads in to say hello to Evans. He was about to fly to New York to look at some models he is thinking of putting in the picture. And others he wants to meet in any case..he had told Jim that he thinks it will be easy to find the boy for the picture but he is afraid he will have to look at scores of girls.
Jim thinks it will be harder to find the boy.
Evans slapped me on the shoulder and said there was more excitement about this project than any thing else at Paramount.
* * *
That evening, Jim and Jack took us to Cher's skating party. Every Monday night, she rents a roller rink for the enjoyment of her friends. I don't know what this means, but Jack and I skated. Lesley and Jim didn't. I skated better than I expected to. Didn't fall once. Meanwhile, Jim and Lesley got to know each other better. As we were leaving, Jim was accosted by an actress named Sally Kirkland who was desperate to be in "Urban Cowboy." We asked if she could ride the bull. She said in one movie she rode a pig nude. We said that was close enough.
On our way home, Jack started talking about Montgomery Clift. Evidently Jack and Monty were very close friends. Jack said Monty was quite upset that he never won an academy award. He felt cheated. Jack seemed to feel a real injustice had been done.
We dropped off Jim and Jack at their beautiful home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. We speculated about whether they had separate bedrooms. Lesley said yes. I said no.
TO BE CONTINUED
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5TH 1978
It was my morning to get up early and take care of Taylor. She is beginning to talk. Or almost talk. She says "mo" which means "more." Sometimes she says "mo mi" which means "more milk" she gets so excited when you understand her. Speaking and being understood is sort of a combination joke and miracle to her.
I went to work at 10:30. Jim and I had lunch with Irving Azoff and J.D. Souther. Souther is a musician whom Azoff manages. Irving is always late, but Souther made him look punctual. Souther didn't even wake up until he was already four minutes late for lunch. The four of us finally gathered around a table at Lucy's.A Mexican restaurant across the street from Paramount.said to be Jerry Brown's favorite restaurant. Souther said he was late because the night before at his house they had held a Very special Olympics. He said that's was why he had 30-year-old eyes in 80-year-old sockets. Irving was incredibly proud of J.D.--almost as if J.D. were his child. And yet they are both about the same age. Early thirties.
After lunch, everyone had errands to run except J.D. and me. So we went back to our black- bagged office together. We were seated alone in the paneled office when J.D. asked me: " you wanna tube." I said I didn't. "you mind if I do?" he asked. I said it was all right with me. J.D. took out a small container the size and shape of a cap on a whiskey bottle. He filled a small tube with white powedr, inserted it in his nose, and sniffed. Then he repeated the process a second time, this time inserting the tube in the other nostril. He leaned back on the couch and put his head back. As I later told Jim: " Hollywood's just the way my mother said it would be."
In spite of all the dope and interruptions, I somehow managed to write an opening for the movie. My favorite line: "Cowboys don't kiss their mothers on the mouth." Jim said he liked it.
* * *
That evening, we had dinner with the Azoffs. We drove over to their condominium in Santa Monica where we were introduced to their month-old daughter, Jennifer. She cried the whole time. We were also introduced to Irving's niece--his sister-in-law's daughter--Amy. She is about the same age as Taylor. Irving picked her up and threw her around. Held her upside down.trapezed her. And our view of Irvinh changed. We saw him through another lens. In another focus. The wheeler-dealer producer is in love with kids. Actually, Irving acted with Amy the way he acted with J.D. which may account for the loyalty his artists seem to feel for him.
We went out to eat at a restaurant on the beach called the Jetty. The sister-in-law came along. At one point, Irv hugged his wife and his sister-in-law simultaneously and said: "I love these girls because they're short." He is about four feet two.
We talked about how the "Urban Cowboy" deal was put together. It turned out that Lee Rosenberg was telling me that he represented Irving. And he was telling Irving that he represented me. But actually he didn't represent either of us, at least not at first. Of course before it was all over he had us both. In putting the deal together, Lee saddled us with a director named Floyd Mutruk, a no-talent guy whom he really did represent. Irv later fired Floyd.
We stopped in at Irving's after dinner.
He took us in a room papered with gold records. Then he started taking more gold records out of cabinets. He said he had over a hundred. He manages a lot of geese that lay golden records.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6TH 1978
Lesley came to lunch. To work up an appetite, she toured our offices at the paramount lot. I was hoping the shingle with my name on it would be up by the time she got there, but it wasnt. Jims shingle was up. Irvings was up, but not mine. No chance to impress the wife.
We walked over to Lucys. Lesley wanted to eat there because she covers Jerry Brown and its his favorite restaurant.
Then Jim and I went over to the casting call. When I walked through the door, they told me I had a call from Lee Rosenberg, my agent. I took it there in casting central. He said the race was already on to buy or steal my new idea. Naturally, he wanted to read it. I said I would have to check with Clay. Then I started casting. I had no idea what a casting call would be like. It turned out that interviewing actors for a movie is not very different from interviewing secretaries for a job.
The interviews were held over in Marion Doughertys office, she is the casting director of Paramount Pictures. She does not personally work on all the studios movies, but she has taken an interest in ours, which is good.
The actors and actresses were led back into the casting office one at a time. Each one would sit in a chair and visit with us for about ten minutes, Then go, and some one else would be led in.
The first person to come in was Tanya Tucker, a country and western singer whose biggest hit is Delta Dawn. We dont want her to sing . We want her to act. Maybe , we thought she might be good to play Betty. She has a great, sexy, cheap look.
She knew all about the life. She dates a professional rodeo cowboy who was competing in the world championship rodeo in Oklahoma even as we spoke, She knew all about mechanical bulls. She has ever ridden mechanical bulls. As Jim would say, we thought she was w-u-u-u-u-n-derful.
Tanya came to this interview with her manager, Steve. He is totally round. Shaves his head. And wears a beard. He is essential in the same business as Irving Azoff. And while Tanya and Steve were there, Irv showed up.
Pointing to Steve, he said, And you thought I was weird . He had a good point. Then we interviewed Jamie Leigh Curtis. She is the daughter produced by Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, which should be enough to make anyone psycho. And she looked like the real-life Jan in my story. And I was wondering whether I should tell her so.
.when Jim told her. She told us that her agent had told her to tell us that she caught onto accents right away. She sounded a lot more Hollywood than Houston to me. It was strange to hear Jan talking with a Hollywood-High accents.
Eventually, Joe Bottoms came in. I had always heard about star quality, but I never understand it, but now Ive seen it. I could not stop staring at Joe from the time he came in until he left. He was handsome. He was dangerous. He strutted. He joked. He glowed. He somehow transformed to be into an active verb. But he has a scheduling conflict. Joe is filming The Black Hole for Walt Disney and wont be finished until the first of April. We want to go a month earlier. So far, Bottoms is at the top of our list, but we arent sure we can wait for him.
In all, we must have seen a dozen actors and actresses including a beautiful girl from Catalina High School in Tuscan and one of Jims kinfolk; the kin was terrible. Afterwards Jim and I walked back to our offices together, Jim seemed in love with Bottoms.
* * *
We had dinner at La Ruche with John Bradshaw of Esquire, his girlfriend the rock promoter, John Bueg, and a guy named Jerry who is producing American Jiggalo with Travolta. Bradshaw kept telling me to keep a diary so I could write a book later about how Hollywood screwed me. He assured me that the writer always does get screwed.
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THURSDAY DECEMBER 7th 1978 Irv dropped me of at the office. Then Jim and I went out to lunch at Musso Franks where Scott Fitzgerald and William Faulkner hung out in their Hollywood days. We had a w-u-u-u-u-u-derful dessert called a diplomat. Irv had asked Jim and me if we wanted to go to the first Hollywood showing of Moment by Moment starring John Travolta and Lily Tomlin. We both accepted. But then it turned out that Irv not only had no tickets but couldnt get any. So Jim and I went off to another casting call with our evening plans in disarray. Once more the actors and actresses trooped through the door for their 10 minutes with us. There were some extraordinarily beautiful girls, including the star of Alice in Wonderland, a pornographic movie. One I missed. And then we met Cooper Huckelby. I think he might just be our Urban Cowboy. He is naturally what Bottoms would have to act to become. Bottoms seems dangerous in an intelligent way. Cooper seems as if he could be dangerous in an accidental, animal sort of way. Like a bull. In the middle of our casting, we got a call from Irv. Somehow he had gotten us tickets. So we rushed to pick them up at his rock-n-roll office. As we were coming up the stairs, Irv pretended he was going to pour coffee on our heads. On his desk, I noticed a neon sign that said:
BIG SHORTY
And I saw more gold records. They were scattered here and there as if they were ashtrays. The screening of Moment by Moment was held at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Jan Wenner, the editor- publisher- founder of Rollingstone , joined us. Jan asked me: how do you like it in the big time, Aaron? I didnt like the movie, I was bored, Lesley loved it. We went out to dinner at Dan Tanaˆïs where our party was joined Joe Bottoms. I would say he wants the part. Lesley pointed out that Joe looks like Mounty Clift. Jim and Jack who were close friends of Montys, said they had never noticed the resemblance. But when Lesley pointed it out, they did. Maybe thats why Jim.. and Jack too.. like Joe so much. Maybe they were affected by the likeness without being aware of the similarity.
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MONDAY, DECEMBER 11TH
1978
I went over to the Paramount lot and worked alone in the big office all morning. Jim was out taking care of other business. Sometime in the morning when I wasnt looking, they hung a shingle with my name on it beside the front door.
When Jim Bridges finally arrived, he said he had had a terrible night. It was all because of ZiZi. And her daughter. At 1:30a.m., Jim had to take the daughter to see a very sleepy dentist. The dentist said there was nothing wrong with her. He was furious about being hauled out of bed to look at a healthy mouth at that hour. Jim thinks the daughter is crazy.
Weirdly, Zizi also had trouble with her teeth that night. But something really is wrong with her mouth. She will probably have to lose a tooth or two. Anyway, she was having a tooth ache that night and took so many pain killers she over-dosed. Jim called the fire department at 4am. Zizi survived the night, but Jim almost didnt . He got to bed sometime after 8 a.m.
In the office, he collapsed in a big black chair and sat there like a ruin. Eventually, we got down to work . And we did pretty well considering the condition of one of us.
Jim and Irv and I had lunch with Bob Evans in a hole-in-the wall near the studio. Irv and I walked in together. Normally Im only a third taller that Irv. But this time I was wearing my cowboy hat which made me twice as tall. Evans thought it was the funniest thing he had seen in a long time. And he did not keep his amusement to himself. He said next time he was going to bring along the camera.
Evans shocked us a little by being rude to the waitress. She started to clear away our plates which prompted an outburst to the effect that we werent ready yet. But ha didnt put it that way. She fled.
Then as we were returning from lunch, Evans was approached by a young man, Evans brushed him off with: Cant you see Im busy. The rest of us were a little shaken. Irv later called Evans and asked him why he acted that way. Evans said: Youd better get used to it.
That evening, we went out to dinner with Irv, Shelley, and Jean Valley of Esquire. We ended up at a restaurant called La Serre in the valley. It looked better than it tasted.
Shelley and Irv told us about one of their hobbies: egg throwing. It seems that they enjoy driving through Beverley hills in their jeep and throwing eggs at people carsstoresThey enjoy picking up a couple of dozen eggs and striking by night. One night they stopped and pelted a monster pick-up with a roll bar and lots of fierce headlights. It seemed to have as many eyes as they had eggs, suddenly the lights came on. Someone was in the truck!
The blazing truck started chasing the jeep. It was like a movie, of course. The pick-up started hanging into the jeeps bumper. The bumper still has a dent on it. Irv and Shelley both thought they were going to be crushed like a couple of eggs but somehow the humpty dumpties got away.
Irv started telling stories about his adventures as a manager of rock stars. One tale concerned the eagles last road trip back in August. On the last night of the tour, Joe Walsh, one of the Eagles, was staying in a Chicago hotel suite with his girlfriend and her parents. They all went down to the restaurant in the hotel--Maxims--where Walsh was denied admittance because he did not have a tie. And he refuses to put one on.
Walsh got so mad he decided to trash a hotel room. He chose a room where a record company executive was coked out in the bedroom. He poured tomato juice on the carpet and then cut out the stain with a knife. He wrote FUCK on the walls and then cuts the dirty words out of the wallpaper. At some point, Walsh turned to Irv and said stop me when I get to $14,000.*
* Actual damages came to $18,000
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12TH
1978
While I worked in the office, Jim worked at home. And we each wrote the same scene without knowing the other was writing it. When Jim came in around noon, we compared scenes. And they were spookily similar. The scene concerned a certain morning after. Our hero wakes up with a young woman with whom he had spent the night. In my scene, I wrote the following:
GIRL
Where'd you learn to do that?
In Jims scene, he had the girl say:
GIRL
Where'd you learn to do all that.
One word different. And later on our hero talked to his mother on the phone and again the dialogue was almost identical. Jim and I seem to be in sync.
Lesley came over foe lunch and brought Taylor. Jim had brought his dog, Betcher, to the office that morning. So we both had our children on the Paramount lot. At first, Taylor was afraid of Betcher. But before long she was chasing him around the office tackling him by the hind legs. Taylor is the most unafraid little girl I ever saw.
We went to Hamptons for lunch. That is Paul Newmans hamburger joint. Taylor made me pretty nervous. I kept thinking she was going to trash the joint like a pint-sized Joe Walsh, but she was w-u-u-u-u-nderful.
Jim and I had to leave early to go back to the office to interview an actor. Lesley stayed on at the restaurant with Taylor and two secretaries who have worked with Jim for a long time. She asked them if Jim had ever loved a woman. They said he had girlfriends back home in Arkansas. But he had changed when he came to Hollywood at the age of 19. He came to Hollywood to be the new James Dean. His movie 9/30/55 is about what he went through on the day James Dean died. It was evidently on that day that James Bridges decided he had to take James Deans place. Bridges dressed like dean as a teenager--and still does. When Bridges got to Hollywood, he began making surprising and disturbing discoveries about Dean. He even found out that James Dean was a homosexual. At first, Bridges was devastated. Then he decided that if his hero was a homosexual then he would have to be a homosexual, too. He wore James Deans clothes and lived James Deans life
.or so the secretaries said.
Back at the office, Jim and I waited for Sam Bottoms, the youngest of the Bottoms boys. Lesley dropped in while we were waiting for him. So she got to sit in on a casting call. Sam turned out to be the right age to play Boy and certainly looked the part. He came with his girlfriend Sash whom we had met in the Philippines while he was filming Apocalypse Now. She had gone to the Philippines to baby sit for members of the company who had children. The company went for 14 weeks and stayed for a year and a half. And Sash was practically the only unattached woman. And Sam Bridges got her. Thats star quality.
The movie turned out to be like the Vietnam war which it is about. Nobody could end it. They didnt unpack lots of stuff for a year and a half because they kept thinking they would be home next week.
Lesley liked Bottoms and thought he looked remarkably like the real James Dean.
That evening was Irvin Azoffs birthday party. It was held at one of Los Angeless most fashionable restaurants: Ma Maison. I had to carry Irvs present-- six foot horns--across this fancy eating place. I almost destroyed a whole set of crystal, and I nearly demolished the dessert tray. We had put bows on the tip of each horn. I really thought the horns were the best present Irving got.
Don Henley and Glenn Frey of the Eagles came to Irvs birthday party. Trashman Joe Walsh didnt because he had just broken up with his girlfriend. J.D. Souther was there with Linda Ronstandt. She pretended to remember me from out days together at Catalina High School. The rock n rollers would say: Do you have the only thing that matters. By which they meant cocaine.
Bob Evans came in, pointed at me, and said: Thats my boy. Lesley said: No, hes my boy. Bob had a date downstairs--we were in a private room upstairs--whom he refused to bring up. The Eagles were convinced he was afraid they would take her away from him. Evans spent the evening shuttling between his date downstairs and the party upstairs.
Irvs parents were there and almost as short as he is. His mother started feeding him whiskey sours and got him drunk. He threw up all night.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13TH
1978
Jim called me at the office and asked me to pick him up at his home. All the way out to his house, I was afraid he was going to make a pass at me. But he didnt. We had lunch at a great Mexican restaurant called Paunchos on Pico near its intersection with Bundy. I had the best cheese enchilada Ive ever eaten.
Driving back to the studio, Jim told me what he used to do to one of his girlfriends back home. When he was a teenager he got a Kodak camera that he used to make movies. One movie was a version of Joan of Arch. Jim would tie his girlfriend to a tree, pile up wood around her, set the wood on fire, and take pictures of her screaming. Another movie he liked making was a variation on this theme. In this one, he would tie his girlfriend to a tree and throw knives between her legs.
Jim and I got back to Paramount just in time for a 3 Oclock casting call. When we reached the casting office, we were surprised to see an organ-grinder and his monkey. Only the organ grinder had a guitar instead of an organ. And the monkey was a kid in a monkey suit. The monkey juggled an apple, an orange, and a banana. The master and the monkey both wore green coats that said Cuckoo Gram on the backs. They had talked their way past the guard at the gate, the casting receptionist, and the casting directors private secretary by telling them they had a cuckoo gram for Marion Dougherty. The scene ended with the monkey handing Marion a telegram that said he wanted to be in Urban Cowboy. He took off his monkey head and was a pretty good looking blond cowboy.
Marion said this was only the third time anything like that had happened in her long career. Once an actor pretended to be delivering a registered letter which required her signature. Another time an actor sent her a homing-pigeon with a request for an interview. She opened the pigeon in the presence of the producer whom the actor wanted to meet. Unfortunately, the producer was deathly afraid of birds and had to be scrapped off the walls and floor like pigeon droppings.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14TH
1978
I took Lesley and Taylor to the airport and then drove to Paramount where a whole movie was waiting on a dog. With Jack out of town, Jim wanted to bring his dog to the office, as he had done earlier in the week. But this time the guard would not let Jim on the lot with Betcher. Jim got upset and refused to come to work. Then everybody got upset. Bob Evans, the fabled producer. Don Simpson, head of production. Michael Eisner, the president of paramount pictures. They all got involved in getting Betcher on the lot and trying to pacify Jim.
While all this was going on, I ran casting calls all by myself for an hour. I treated the actors like subjects of a story. Which means I asked them to start the beginning and tell me about their lives. One actress said that she and her friends used to go out in the wheat fields and stamp out square rooms which they used as stages. While they were in this room, none of the kids was supposed to be himself. They were all suppose to play roles.
But they all broke the rules but me, the actress said. No one could sustain being someone else all the time but her. She would get so mad at the kids who broke the rules. Then she found out about this profession where no one ever broke the rules. She knew then she wanted to be an actress.
Jim finally arrived. Betcher had been allowed on the lot.