WEBVTT - From the Archives: Marilu Henner Chooses Joy 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:05.280 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:11.119 Thing from iHeart Radio. People have different definitions of what 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:15.640 makes a star. Is it raw talent, beauty or is 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:20.160 it simply an X factor, a certain ineffable quality. Whatever 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:22.279 it is, Mary Lou Henner has. 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:24.239 It, and she has it in spades. 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:30.160 Singer, dancer, actor, and wellness expert, Henner is a multi 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:34.280 talented performer who is also simply a joy to be around. 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:37.800 She's like a Christmas tree and lights up every room 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:42.360 she's in. She's starred in over a dozen films, seven 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:47.440 Broadway shows, and two smash hit sitcoms. She played Ava 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:52.279 Evans Newton on Evening Shade alongside Burt Reynolds, and perhaps 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:56.880 most notably, Elaine Nardo on Taxi, a role that earned 0:00:56.920 --> 0:01:02.120 her five Golden Globe nominations. Mary Lou Henner has also 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:06.080 a New York Times bestselling author and recently staged a 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:10.319 one woman autobiographical show. It covered everything from growing up 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:15.200 in a large family in Chicago to her preternatural mnemonic skills. 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:18.800 Henna is one of about sixty people in the world 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:22.800 who can recall nearly every detail of her life down 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:24.800 to the exact day and date. 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:28.920 It's so funny because you know, I worked with Trump 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:33.000 twice on Celebrity Apprentice, but he used to start every 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:36.600 boardroom like Mary Lou, if I took you to Vegas? 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:39.080 Could you cheat for me? Could you count the cards? 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:40.839 Could you let's go to Vegas. 0:01:41.880 --> 0:01:45.560 I'm sure people assume that this skill you have it's 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:46.320 not a sill. 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:47.800 But it's yeah, it's just there. It's weird. 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:48.480 What do you call it? 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:51.920 I call it a gift. People sometimes call it a condition. 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:54.280 It's not, and that's why they changed the name. They 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:56.560 used to call it hyper tynysia, but then they thought 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:59.040 that that was like too weird a name, which it 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:01.240 really is. But it's not that they don't call it 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:06.680 that anymore. It's h SAM highly superior autobiographical memory, h SAM. 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:08.640 And it's funny you should mention that on my show 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:11.440 because I do a song about it in my show 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.680 that my brother wrote the lyrics to. So I'm going 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:18.200 to is a song called wait, don't tell me no, No, 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:20.560 you know what it's called. It's you know the Peggy 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:23.840 Lee song. Because I'm a woman, you know that song? Okay, 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:26.720 So I thought, hmmm, because I have h Sam, So 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:30.800 this is what we decided. I'll just do the first 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:32.320 one bucks count. 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:34.960 Yeah. 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:38.919 I was like, I Sam, because I excuse me, mister. 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:42.040 It was a very successful number and a very successful run, 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:43.320 a lot of fun. They said it was the best 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:44.720 show they've done there in seven years. 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:47.000 Well, let me ask you this. You wrote a biography 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.040 back in ninety four. You've written ten books, I believe, 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:53.440 including that book. But when you do a one woman show, 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:54.280 where do you start? 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:57.360 Well, you need an opening number that sort of grabs 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.280 people and sort of sets up the tone. And so 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:04.120 I wanted everything to sort of connect to something in 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:07.400 my life. And I was watching television and do you 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:10.160 know the Cold Porter movie, not Night and Day, the 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:12.560 other one that he did anyway, So all of a sudden, 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:14.519 I'm flicking through channels and there it is, and it's 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:19.399 Elvis Costello singing Let's Misbehave, And I thought, oh, that's 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:22.760 the closing credits to Johnny Dangerously. I'm going to sing 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:24.799 that song as my opener and then tell a story 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:29.080 about Johnny Dangerously, but then say everything is connected, and 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:31.800 then I go into the song about my memory because 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:33.600 I wanted to set that up right away because I 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.400 throw dates around a lot, and then I talk about 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:39.720 my childhood, which was so unusual, so you know, and 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:41.960 I do a little whole tribute to growing up in 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:42.800 a dancing school. 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:44.640 Well, yeah, what's funny. When I think of you, I 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:46.400 think of many things. You know, when you do the 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:50.800 show Taxi. You're someone who is part of that elite 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:52.800 group of people that I know who were on a 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:55.640 hit TV show back when tens of millions of people 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:59.960 were watching TV, but such a remarkable group of people. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:01.960 All of them went on to have the really heavy 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:04.640 duty careers and everything and movies and TV in theater 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:05.320 and so forth. 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:07.840 And how did you get that job? 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:10.440 Okay, this is a good story. I believe that the 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:12.120 key to your life is how well you deal with 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:14.839 Plan B, because so many Plan B things you plan 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:16.440 for Plan A, and you think this is how it's 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:17.800 going to work out, and then all of a sudden 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:20.960 forget it. I'd been flown out to Los Angeles to 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.440 do a screen test for a movie called Blood Brothers. 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:27.480 I auditioned for Robert Mulligan, the guy I was testing opposite. 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:29.719 He didn't get the job, but they kept me around 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:31.240 because they had to find the guy and then they 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:33.719 found him and it was Richard Gear, whom I knew 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:36.839 through the Grease family because when I my first day 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:39.919 in show business professionally, I was in the First National 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:42.440 Company of Greece and I walked into that first rehearsal 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:45.960 and it was Jeff Conaway playing Danny Zuko, Jerry Zach's 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:50.240 playing Kinicki, Michael Lembeck playing Sonny, Judy k playing Rizzo, 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.719 Johnny Travolta playing Duty, and Richard Gear rehearsing for the 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:58.039 London Company to play Danny Zuko. Anyway, so Richard and 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:00.320 I crosspaths again because we ended up getting care and 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:02.520 blood brothers. So I came out to Los Angeles and 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.160 then I ended up staying because I had a contract 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:07.400 with CBS at the time, and they offered me money 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:09.960 every month to stay away from the other networks while 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:13.000 they found something for me holding money holding deal. I 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:15.720 had a holding deal for a few years. Now, all 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:18.960 of a sudden, they're starting to audition for Taxi and 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:22.799 Joel Thurn, he really liked me. They wanted a thirty 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:25.720 five year old Italian New Yorker because they wanted her 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:28.239 to have like a sixteen seventeen eighteen year old daughter 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:31.280 and because unmarried woman and Goodbye girl, those were all 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.240 out then, so they liked the mother daughter dynamic. But 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:36.560 Joel said, I'm telling you, this is the girl. I 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:38.919 was twenty five. He said, this is the girl because 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:40.960 she can hold her own with somebody like a Judd Hirsh. 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:43.360 She is one of the guys, but you'd believe her 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:46.359 having art aspirations. And I'm telling you, this is the girl. 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:49.599 So he kept bringing me back with all these older actresses. 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:52.120 But in the meantime, my mom was dying in the 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:54.760 hospital in Chicago, so I would literally fly back and 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:57.240 forth and back and forth and back and forth. So 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.400 what happened was they really liked me. And at that point, 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:03.520 paper Chase was picked up for a season because Taxi 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:05.680 didn't have to do a pilot, so paper Chase was 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:08.640 picked up for a season and they said, okay, she 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:12.200 tested higher than even John Housman, we have to give 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:15.919 her a contract. And my agent said, well, there's this 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:19.520 other show, Taxi that you know, so we have to see. 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:21.960 So my agents were able to play one against the other. 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:23.960 And I really wanted to do Taxi because the idea 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:25.640 of doing a sitcom was more appealing to me because 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:29.120 it's like a stage play, you know. So Taxi said, well, 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:32.279 she's too young. We see this teenage girl with a daughter, 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:34.120 blah blah blah blah blah. And they said, look, you're 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:35.960 gonna lose her a paper chase if you don't do it. 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:39.160 And so they said, okay, we'll do it. She's Elaine. 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:41.640 We'll give her two little kids. So that's what they did. 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.040 So how it was Housman pay per Chase and what 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:46.400 was his name, Timothy. 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:48.600 Something, Timothy Bottoms. No, he didn't do the TV show. 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:50.000 Tim Bottoms did the movie. 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:52.360 Yeah, yeah, that was a good movie with Lindsay Wagner 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:55.200 and everything. John Houseman was a real character. At the 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:57.760 rap party for the pilot, he tried to French kiss me. 0:06:57.800 --> 0:06:59.400 I mean he was like one of those guys. 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:02.600 Wow, well you can be canceled now, I know. 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:04.960 Oh my god, I've got that. Yeah. I mean I 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:05.440 never had. 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:10.120 Like who probably deserved to be canceled at some point 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:10.680 in your life. 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:13.320 Actually, I was very protective of myself. I've been the 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:15.520 kind of girl that I think most whatever I don't 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.680 want to say, well, you know, I had brothers, so 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:21.360 I knew men or pigs, so I was like always 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:24.040 on the defense. I knew I was paying attention. Some 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:25.080 of them are some of them? 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:26.960 You know. It's funny you say that because in that 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:29.360 casting holding deal I went out to l A. I've 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:31.000 told the story before, I think, but I'm there and 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:36.640 Chris Guest's mother, Jean Guests, who I worshiped. Geen Guests, 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:39.200 was in charge of casting. Incredible, loveliest woman and show 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:41.000 She was one of the loveliest women in show business. 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:42.920 And if she really believed in you, she like hung 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:45.200 in there with you. She brings me into a meeting 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:47.640 and they put me on a holding deal because I 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:49.920 did a pilot for them that fizzled, and they said, 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:51.840 we're going to sign to this holding deal because we 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:53.840 really believe in you. We're going to keep throwing it 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:56.360 against the wall until something sticks. And then he says, 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:57.560 we want you to be the. 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:03.760 Next Bill Bixby. I was like, wow, that sounds great. 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:06.360 Did you ever honor the deal? Did you ever have 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:08.160 to or did you go get something else in. 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:10.040 The I went to do a pilot and then I 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:12.200 did a TV movie for them. I did a couple 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:14.240 of things for them. This is obviously a billion years ago. 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:16.600 In the eighties and the early eighties. 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:19.040 The one with Stephanie Zimbleist. You were so good in that. 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:21.320 That was NBC. Remember that, My god? 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:23.640 Yeah, I did tell you the day we met and 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:24.200 how we met. 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:25.640 What was it? 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.880 It was May May the twenty second of nineteen eighty five. 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:31.400 It was a Wednesday, and this is how we met. 0:08:31.560 --> 0:08:34.480 I knew Tuck, your roommate. So Tuck and I went 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:36.760 till dinner one time, and in Venice and right where 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.160 you guys used to live. So I went over to 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:42.960 your house. And now we are both. I'm in New 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:45.880 York doing the junket for Perfect and I'm on a 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:48.760 bunch of shows and I'm on Live at five with 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:52.360 Sue Simmons, remember yeah, and you're and so you and 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:53.880 I were both in the room, but I didn't see 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:55.400 you because I didn't really know you. And all of 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:58.840 a sudden I could feel you over this person over 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:01.560 my left shoulder, and then all of a sudden, Susman says, 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:04.840 I'm coming up next Alec Baldwin and later Mary Lou Hannah, 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:07.320 and it was like we looked at each other and 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:09.720 I went, oh, my gosh, it was like, oh my gosh. 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:12.840 And you and I actually had lunch the day of 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.480 the big Perfect opening and you were one hundred days 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:18.800 sober that day and you showed me your coin. 0:09:18.960 --> 0:09:21.520 Yeah, I have thirty six years now and Febrielle have 0:09:21.640 --> 0:09:22.600 thirty seven years. 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:23.439 Then, unbelievable. 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:24.079 It's incredible. 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:25.840 And even last night I wanted to DEVI a drake. 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:31.000 Last night, I thought, let me just have a gigantic glass, 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.760 what would you doe, slurpy glass of red wine? Help 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:36.560 me good because I have horrible insomnia. I've always had 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:37.560 hard me too. 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:39.520 Me out with these kids. It's horrible. You know. 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:41.520 I wrote a book called I Refused to Raise a Brat, 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:43.440 and I wrote it with a brilliant psyche flanalyist because 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:46.439 I had these two kids, and I listened. Every time 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:48.880 I listened to her, it didn't the kids. It was 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:50.840 all good. And then when I didn't, it was like, Okay, 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:52.480 it's going to bite me on the ass at some point. 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:55.760 But it's so funny because having so many. I grew 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:57.400 up with six. You grew up with six. We had 0:09:57.400 --> 0:09:59.439 the opposite of you, guys, because it was two boys 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:04.160 and four girl, which is different, and you were third third. 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:06.600 I was third. We came up with this concept, the 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:09.079 concept of hamper, you know, because our houses were like 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:11.720 a big hamper. So now to this day, you could 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:13.880 have a beautiful silk blouse, but it's got a stain, 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.240 so you put a pin over it. That's hamper. You know, 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:18.600 your glasses are broken, so you put a pin in it. 0:10:18.679 --> 0:10:21.480 That's hamper. You know, you do you put a paper clip, 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:24.880 a paper clip, your uniform had staples in it or 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:25.679 tape or something. 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:25.880 You know. 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:28.839 It's like I remember growing up, our phone court was 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:31.280 always like so you had to like hold it. 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:33.680 If you read If you read my memoir, it opens 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:35.760 up with how my mother's bedroom was filled with plastic 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:41.120 pails filled with laundry. It was laundry bedroom. Her bedroom 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.000 was a hamper. She had an ironing board at the 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:45.160 foot of her bed and an iron and she had 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.600 like these plastic hampers, right, these collapsible plastic things that 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:50.640 were just and they were like falling off of each other. 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:52.760 I said, if you if you came to my house 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:54.079 and you didn't know better, you thought this was in 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:55.000 an illegal laundry. 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:56.160 Someone was running out of their house. 0:10:57.480 --> 0:10:59.480 My mother used to do her laun tree on Tuesdays. 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:01.880 There was seven teen loads, you know, and she always 0:11:01.920 --> 0:11:04.000 had like seventeen loads from all of us, because when 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:05.959 you think about it, a house full of kids like that. 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.640 The beginning of the pandemic, I was home, My boys 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:11.360 were here, my brother has two children, my husband, we 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:13.720 were here. I never did more cooking and cleaning and 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:17.560 laundry and scrubbing grout in my life because I'm very 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:19.720 you know, I like to be very organized. But we 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:20.960 had a rule that everybody. 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:23.040 My wife hates it. She's really angry with me. 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:26.880 That you're so meticulous that I'm so crushed by an 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:29.480 OCD at that level with my kids, like I'm always 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:31.160 cleaning in my household, and long with my wife. 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:32.520 Was like, this is going to kill you. 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:34.520 Well, with kids, you got to let it go. I mean, 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:36.680 because I was always and I was tested for OCD 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:38.400 because that was part of the whole memory thing. They 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:40.040 take blood, they do all kinds of tests for you. 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:43.720 I don't have OCD. I call my OCO obsessive compulsive 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:46.480 order because one kid in the family had to have 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:49.000 it with six kids, and my bedroom was off the 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:51.680 kitchen and had no door so people could be on 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:53.800 the phone or at the kitchen table and look in 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:57.199 at a little girl sleeping, and I didn't care. I 0:11:57.240 --> 0:11:59.520 was my oldest sister shared it with me, then my 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:02.640 younger sister than my brother. I mean, but always my 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:04.839 room had no door. So I think that's how I 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:05.960 ended up in show business. 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:06.480 I think the same. 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:08.000 I'll tell my wife, I go, don't you want to 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:10.040 let's go to the opposite here. Don't you want to 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:12.480 commend me for how neat I am? But would you 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:14.520 rather have a husband who didn't want to clean? Now 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:17.080 you have two biological. 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:19.080 Children, two biological children, and they're how old? 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:19.320 Now? 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:22.120 They're twenty one is twenty seven, the other one's twenty 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:22.720 five and a half. 0:12:23.240 --> 0:12:25.280 And you have them doing what phase of your career? 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:27.000 What were you working on at the time you decided 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:28.520 to put the brakes on and have kids? 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:28.760 Oh? 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:32.640 Well, I had finished okay, so I finished evening Shade. 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:34.360 I do tell this in my club act because I 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:36.920 always say I couldn't talk about the eighties and nineties 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:39.760 without talking about Burt Reynolds, because I did five projects 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:41.760 with him and we never had a thing, which is 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.480 probably why we were able to work together so often. 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:48.440 But I always adored him, and he one morning, you know, Rob, 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:50.960 my second husband, and I were frisky. And then I 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:54.880 go to work and Bert is directing this episode where 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:58.080 he has me do a stunt where I am running, running, running, 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:03.160 leaping over like a fence in a football stadium stand 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:05.880 and I land and then you run up to the 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:07.680 team and he says, do it again, do it again, 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:10.120 do it again, do it again. So that night I 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.480 was sitting in a restaurant, and this is after three 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:14.520 and a half years. I was sitting in a restaurant 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:16.640 and I looked at Rob and I went, the eagle 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:19.480 has landed. I just got pregnant. He said, what I said, 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.560 I'm telling you. Contact was made, and sure enough I 0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:24.960 was pregnant. So I always tell people Burt Renolds got 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:27.560 me pregnant. Even though he's not the father of my kids. 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:30.760 He's the spiritual father, a spiritual father. Yeah. And when 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:33.080 you worked with him, you did Cannibal too. 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:35.120 With him, Well, I first did the man who loved women, 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:37.840 and we had such a great chemistry the very first day. 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:41.360 But he called me the night that we met, the 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:42.880 very night and he said, I want you to come 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:46.679 down to the dinner theater in Jupiter, Florida. I want 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:48.560 you to do their playing our song, he said, And 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:51.800 I want you to do Cannonball Run too, but I 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:54.880 want a rewrite of the script. Do you know anybody, 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:58.000 any of the guys from Taxi that might be willing 0:13:58.040 --> 0:13:59.920 to take a crack at it. I was like, okay. 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:03.080 So originally the Countball I've never told this story before. 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:07.400 The Countball Run two script was about the Dom and 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:10.120 Bert sort of rescue this girl who's hiding out in 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:13.480 a sanitarium and she's an heiress, and then they rescue her, 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:15.080 and then she and Bert end up in a thing. 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.400 And so then I get Harvey Miller, who's a taxi 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:20.880 writer the job, and he turns it into two women. 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:25.080 And then Shirley McLean wanted to do it. So then 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:27.280 of course they put Shirley with Burt and I was 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:29.520 with Dom, which was fine, but it's kind of funny. 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:31.960 But I had like one of the best experience. That 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:35.000 movie was so stupid. But there were a couple days 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.720 where we had like twenty three wagon trains in the 0:14:38.760 --> 0:14:43.120 desert outside of Tucson, Arizona, because it was one hundred 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:45.880 and seventeen degrees. So we started hair and makeup was 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:47.560 at two o'clock in the morning so we could be 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:49.880 on the road before four, and we pulled the plug 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:52.760 at one. But then everybody hung out at the pool 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:55.320 at the Arizona Inn. So it was Sammy Davis Junior, 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:57.520 and Dean Martin, all these guys and even Frank for 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:00.040 a day. And to be with Shirley, who I I 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:03.520 had always loved and always idle to play her friend 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:05.840 and then to have her hanging out with the rat pack. 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:07.200 It was like, you know, I was this little girl 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:09.920 from Chicago who's watching these people at drive ins and stuff. 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:11.680 So it was like a lot of fun. 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:13.200 Yeah, I met him. 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:16.200 For those people who don't know this, and I wasn't 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:17.800 on a big devotee of this, but I went a 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:21.160 few times. It's that Norby Walters, the famous record executive. 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:23.040 Norby Walters had his. 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:25.280 Card game, his legendary card game. 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:27.880 In his apartment Wednesday nights and West Wednesday nights in 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:29.880 West Hollywood, and you go up to the department of 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:32.360 his near Holloway. 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:34.640 Yeah Halloway, Losi Anago, Yeah Losi. 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:36.320 On your way to Barney's Beanery and on your way 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:39.800 to the sunset Marquis and you go to his house 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:40.760 and I went there. 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:42.120 I went a handful of times. 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:46.360 You know, velvida cheese and he's in a bowl, my god, 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:47.240 and no alcohol. 0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:48.600 That was a no alcohol. 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:50.480 And you bought one hundred dollars worth of chips and 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:51.960 when you were finished, you were done. It was no 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:54.400 serious gambling, right, And you went there. And I remember 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:56.680 sitting there one time, and there was Harvey Korman. 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.120 And Tim Oh, Tim Conway, Yeah Conway. 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:01.080 The two of them were there one time. Kathy Lee 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:02.000 Crosby would go. 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:04.720 Every now and then Rod Steiger was there a couple of. 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:07.200 Times when you were there. Bert was there when I 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:07.760 went one. 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:08.480 Time, Oh he was. 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:11.080 He seemed like he was in the throes of his 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:15.240 kind of medicated agony. But he But then to the 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:19.280 right of me one time was Don Adams. And Don 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:23.080 Adams is in a China white jumpsuit and everyone's waiting 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:24.680 for the moment to arrive when someone's going to just 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:27.000 do this and do the Don Adams thing. So somebody 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:30.960 will puts down two pairs, you know. He puts down 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:32.440 two pairs, and I put down. 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:34.960 I say, I have three kings. 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:39.520 I do and everybody left and he doesn't laugh, and 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:41.840 then finally he smiles and nods to me, like, Okay, 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:44.560 good for you. You saw the opportunity and you took it. 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:49.400 But he was very serious and very really super antiseptic 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:51.680 and very He was there to play cards. He didn't 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:53.800 want to talk about his career or chit chatty. Was 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:56.440 there to play cards with a bunch of schmucks. We 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:57.680 were card players, were eating. 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:00.600 Velveda and Hershey's kisses and drinking on pop punch. 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:04.639 Yeah, it's funny you're bringing up Norby Walter because you 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:06.840 probably don't remember this, but we were both supposed to 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:11.600 be there on it was it was June the seventh 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:14.640 of two thousand and one. Okay, it was a Wednesday, 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:18.520 June the sixth of two thousand and one, seriously, and 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:21.159 you called up and said you weren't going to make it. 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:23.560 He put me on the phone with you, and I said, 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:25.119 you said, how are you doing? Blah blah blah, And 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:28.440 I said something about I just I'm filing for divorce. 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:31.320 And you said, oh, can I talk to you about divorce? 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.199 I said, you said, let's meet tomorrow. So you and 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.560 I went to Sushi Roku on third Avenue and you 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:39.520 were telling me there was all the pitfalls. This was 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:42.359 two thousand and one. It was what happened was we 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.920 got together because I was avoiding the process servers because 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:48.480 everybody said, oh, you have to let the woman serve first, 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:51.080 otherwise it looks like she cheated. Blah blah blah blah blah. 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:52.720 And we were having a friendly divorce, you know, we 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.119 went away that weekend and read about it ourselves in 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:57.439 the paper. Rob and I we're still friends. You know, 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:00.760 I do things weird, but we're still like really good friends. 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.640 But anyway, we sat at Sushi Roku for like two 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.479 and a half hours, and you told me everything that 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:08.439 was going on and what I should watch out for. 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:10.119 I know you remind me. 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:12.800 Your energy and my feelings for you remind me of 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:15.600 when I was around streisand once and I said to her, 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:18.600 you know, you and I would be the greatest divorced couple. 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:20.400 You know, we would be married, we'd be in love, 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:22.840 maybe we'd have a kid. Of course, we get divorced. 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:24.920 It just has to be that way. It shows us. 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:27.640 But I come over every Sunday. We'd have Chinese food 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:31.639 screenings exactly, and I feel the same way about you. 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:34.320 You and I would have made great ex pers Yeah, 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:39.040 very similarly, And that we have that big family kind 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:39.440 of thing. 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:43.280 This is a trite word, and this is a trite idea, 0:18:43.320 --> 0:18:45.720 but not so trite now in the age of the 0:18:45.720 --> 0:18:49.119 pandemic and beyond. And that is positivity and you have 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:52.920 always been this, like staggeringly positive healthy. 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:54.560 What's the secret? 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.000 Well, A couple of things come to mind. I had 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:59.480 a really great family and we're still super close. My 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:02.639 parents both died tragically, both of them very young, and 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:04.840 I think it bonded the family. I did a lot 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:07.640 of therapy. I got my whole family involved in therapy. 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:11.400 My therapist would put six speaker boxes up in her 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:15.480 office at Princeton, New Jersey, and every other Sunday for 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:18.520 ten years, the siblings would do a group therapy. So 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.280 we've worked out a lot of our stuff. That's number one. 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:24.960 But I had an extraordinary childhood, which was totally unusual, 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:27.159 with the dancing school in the backyard, beauty shop in 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:31.480 the kitchen, an uncle who taught art at the Catholic 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:34.320 grammar school and lived upstairs with his boyfriend Charles, and 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.439 a menagerie of animals, and I just had such an 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:39.600 unusual way of growing up, and I always had this 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:43.200 mission to make something of myself and to share. I 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:45.399 think it's a middle child and me always wanted to like, 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:47.120 if I have a good idea, I want to share 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:50.120 it with everybody. I've never been very proprietary over anything. 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:53.239 I just always want to share with people. I think 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:55.920 it comes from being the middle maybe, but I also 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:59.640 think having my memory is helped because the memory makes 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:02.199 you get over things very quickly, because you start to 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:05.399 see the waves. And also being an actress, you know, 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:08.320 every bad experience was like, Okay, I'm going to take 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:10.880 note of this. What can I do better next time? 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:13.440 How can I figure this out? You know I say 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:14.760 to people all the time, they go, how do you 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:16.800 do it? And it's like this, I go, think of 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:20.080 flaps up and it's like you just close your ears 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:22.560 to it, flaps up. Like say that to my kids 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:24.720 all the time, you know, smile not and move on. 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:27.040 So you were married three times, you were married twice, 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:27.800 and you're married again. 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:28.720 Now very final. 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:32.320 There's final, and so each of these meant the extent 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:35.040 you're willing to say, what did they represent for you? 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:39.119 You seem to be such a thoughtful, deliberate aware. You 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:43.080 seem like somebody that all the lights are on your brain, 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:45.360 your mind, your soul is like a house you pull 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:48.440 up to. It's like some kind of a Richard Neutra, 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.040 all glass structure and all the lights are on. 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:53.720 You're always on, you know what I mean? And alert 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:54.280 and aware. 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:56.440 So when you married one, and you're married two, and 0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:58.560 you married three, what were you marrying them for? 0:20:59.240 --> 0:20:59.480 Well? 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:03.240 First, Freddie and I met at a screen test and 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:05.600 I didn't know that they had added a kiss. And 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:08.280 I was the sixth girl screen testing opposite him for 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.720 a film called Hammet, and we just did. 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:13.200 Some people who don't know, this is Forrest. 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:16.960 Yeah, sorry, Frederick Forrest the Academy Award now called Freddie. 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:20.640 And so he was so different from anybody I knew. 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:22.239 He was a lot older than I was, but he 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:25.320 was so different from anybody I ever knew. And I 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:27.960 was so fascinated by him because his brain was so 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:31.600 different and he was just I've just never seen anything 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:37.520 like a totally instinctive, brilliant actor. Brilliant actor and would 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:41.719 transform himself every part that he's played. He looks completely different. 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:44.160 And he wanted to marry me a few months after 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:46.920 we started dating and I said, no, let's live together. 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:49.520 He said, no marriage or nothing. I said, okay, well 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:52.360 then nothing. And then I went to my tenth year 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:55.080 high school reunion in Chicago and he went to a 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:57.320 wedding and he called me and we were both feeling 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:00.280 very sentimental, and we said, okay, let's get married. I 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:02.760 said okay, and then we ended up getting married three 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:05.280 weeks later in New Orleans and that was it. And 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:08.000 then coming home from the honeymoon because the actors were 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:10.280 on strike, I was going back to taxing. I thought, 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:12.600 what have I just done? I married a total stranger 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:14.760 to me. You know, it was like crazy, but he 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:18.919 was so fascinating and so loving and so full of 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:22.919 demons that if you're not somebody who is exposed to 0:22:23.080 --> 0:22:26.000 demons a lot, you think like, I'll fix it. I'm 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:29.560 going to take care of it. Twenty eight twenty. 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:31.600 Eight, you're very young. Yeah, everything you do in your 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:34.040 twenties is a book. Yeah. No. 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:36.800 I have three theories of marriage. The first one is 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:40.880 marriages like making waffles. You throw the first one out, okay. 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:44.080 The second one is marriage is finding that special, certain 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:47.120 someone you just know you'd love to aggravate the rest 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:49.840 of your life, because marriage is like, you know, all 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:52.080 these little like diggy kind of things. And I said, 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:54.720 but no, the real theory. Saint a Zuberrie wrote something, 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:58.000 and I added something to it, and that is, you'll 0:22:58.000 --> 0:23:01.840 have a happy marriage when you realize marriage isn't two 0:23:01.920 --> 0:23:06.120 people gazing longingly into each other's eyes, but rather looking 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:10.120 out over the mountain in the same direction, with their 0:23:10.119 --> 0:23:13.320 hands on each other's genitals. That's the part I added. 0:23:16.160 --> 0:23:19.720 That's the part I added, because you got to have heat. 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:23.720 Oh that wasn't Saintan zuber reed, No, no, ok, sorry. 0:23:23.240 --> 0:23:24.719 So you got to have vision in heat. So my 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:28.439 first marriage was all heat, my second marriage was all vision, 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:31.520 and finally I have vision and heat in my third marriage. 0:23:32.320 --> 0:23:39.320 Wow, Actress Mary Lou Henner. If you like hearing about 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:42.800 the lives of groundbreaking women in comedy, check out my 0:23:42.960 --> 0:23:46.800 interview with Carol Burnett. Her hit variety show ran for 0:23:46.840 --> 0:23:49.879 more than a decade in the late sixties and seventies, 0:23:50.359 --> 0:23:53.000 and at the height of her success, she had to 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:54.320 tread carefully. 0:23:55.280 --> 0:23:58.639 In that era, the only one who really would speak 0:23:58.680 --> 0:24:02.240 up was Lucy. She was very strong, but It's not 0:24:02.400 --> 0:24:05.240 in my nature to take. 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:07.000 Over confront or anything. 0:24:07.040 --> 0:24:10.760 You know, if a sketch wasn't working or something, instead 0:24:10.800 --> 0:24:14.640 of like Gleason or Sid would say, look, guys, this stinks. 0:24:14.720 --> 0:24:16.280 Now, come on, you got to fix it. 0:24:16.320 --> 0:24:17.600 But but you know they would do that. 0:24:18.440 --> 0:24:21.760 I would say, I'd call the writers down into the 0:24:21.840 --> 0:24:25.679 rehearsal hall and I'd say, you know, guys, I'm not 0:24:25.760 --> 0:24:27.680 doing this too well. Do you think maybe you could 0:24:27.680 --> 0:24:30.320 help me out with a different line here or there, 0:24:31.000 --> 0:24:33.680 because you know, otherwise I would have been a bitch. 0:24:35.359 --> 0:24:38.680 Hear more of my conversation with Carol Burnett in our 0:24:38.880 --> 0:24:43.359 archives that Here's Thething dot org. After the Break, Mary 0:24:43.400 --> 0:24:45.800 Lou Henner talks about how a change she made and 0:24:45.800 --> 0:25:00.800 her approach to auditioning completely opened up her career. I'm 0:25:00.800 --> 0:25:03.640 Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here is the Thing. 0:25:04.440 --> 0:25:08.200 Mary Lou Henner is passionate about encouraging people to take 0:25:08.320 --> 0:25:12.320 charge of their happiness and well being. She's written several 0:25:12.400 --> 0:25:16.159 best selling books on living a healthy lifestyle, often sharing 0:25:16.280 --> 0:25:18.440 lessons that changed her own life. 0:25:19.119 --> 0:25:22.199 What happened was I went with Jerry Katzman, who's the 0:25:22.240 --> 0:25:24.479 head of William Morse at the time, he said, you 0:25:24.520 --> 0:25:26.119 have to write a book. I'm hooking you up with 0:25:26.920 --> 0:25:29.399 Judith Reagan. So Judith and I met at lunch and 0:25:29.440 --> 0:25:31.560 we hung out together all day and everything. I had 0:25:31.560 --> 0:25:34.159 a book deal, so I started working on my autobiography. 0:25:34.400 --> 0:25:37.040 She is a character, and when she started her own imprint, 0:25:37.080 --> 0:25:38.880 she said to me, you have to write a health 0:25:38.880 --> 0:25:41.159 book because you're in such good shape of this. You 0:25:41.320 --> 0:25:43.439 changed so much since blah blah blah. Every time I 0:25:43.520 --> 0:25:45.760 have anything wrong with me my kids, I call you, 0:25:45.920 --> 0:25:48.800 and you always seem to know the answer. So I 0:25:48.880 --> 0:25:52.080 was doing the show Chicago on Broadway and one of 0:25:52.119 --> 0:25:54.560 the guys said, oh, why don't you give us some lectures. 0:25:54.680 --> 0:25:57.359 I was like okay. So in between shows, I would 0:25:57.400 --> 0:25:59.600 do these seminars and I'd have a little, you know, 0:25:59.640 --> 0:26:02.400 like recorder and I'd be, you know, talking to them, 0:26:02.680 --> 0:26:04.760 and then I'd be putting on my eyelashes like the 0:26:04.840 --> 0:26:07.199 evils of dairy products, you know, as I'm putting on 0:26:07.240 --> 0:26:09.879 my eyelashes to go do roxy. And so then I 0:26:09.920 --> 0:26:12.600 worked with somebody who was like a real crafts person 0:26:12.680 --> 0:26:15.600 in terms of like books, and I was so revved 0:26:15.680 --> 0:26:17.920 up from all the fossy, and my boys were very little, 0:26:17.960 --> 0:26:20.000 so I could like give them a bath, go to 0:26:20.000 --> 0:26:22.600 the theater, be revved up, go to an office and 0:26:22.640 --> 0:26:24.800 work on the book. And a few weeks after the 0:26:24.840 --> 0:26:27.600 show ended, the book came out and it went on 0:26:27.640 --> 0:26:30.720 the New York Times bestseller list, and I've sold over 0:26:30.760 --> 0:26:33.040 a million copies of that first health book. But then 0:26:33.119 --> 0:26:35.720 got a contract to keep going and going and going, 0:26:36.119 --> 0:26:37.320 so then I've done ton. 0:26:38.400 --> 0:26:41.359 What's your biggest health concern? You know, growing up in 0:26:41.400 --> 0:26:44.919 my lifetime, everybody was always saying, you know, don't smoke, 0:26:45.160 --> 0:26:47.760 and then when I went through my drug phase, people 0:26:47.800 --> 0:26:49.680 said you got to get sober and stop taking all 0:26:49.680 --> 0:26:54.280 these drugs and drinking, which I've had a very relatively 0:26:54.359 --> 0:26:57.480 brief but white hot period of that for a couple 0:26:57.520 --> 0:26:59.240 of years in the eighties when I was very young, 0:26:59.800 --> 0:27:01.720 and then as I've gotten older. You know, the thing 0:27:01.920 --> 0:27:05.479 that shocks me that is the utter poison in my 0:27:05.520 --> 0:27:08.119 life is sugar, because I was pre diabetic and now 0:27:08.119 --> 0:27:12.159 I'm full diabetic, and which has been so for me 0:27:12.240 --> 0:27:15.760 and demoralizing for me. Yeah, what's your health concerns? 0:27:15.800 --> 0:27:19.200 Now? Like, what do you say to yourself? I never eat. 0:27:19.359 --> 0:27:21.639 I sometimes eat every now and then I cheat, and 0:27:21.640 --> 0:27:24.560 I allow myself to eat. When you want to treat 0:27:24.600 --> 0:27:26.600 yourself to something that you know isn't the best possible 0:27:26.600 --> 0:27:27.919 thing for you, Is it something sweet? 0:27:28.040 --> 0:27:31.000 Is something I'm a savory person. No, I would say 0:27:31.560 --> 0:27:34.040 probably sushy is like my own, my last not so 0:27:34.119 --> 0:27:37.439 guilty pleasure. Yeah. But I haven't had dairy since August fifteenth, 0:27:37.480 --> 0:27:40.119 nineteen seventy nine. It was a Wednesday I gave up 0:27:40.160 --> 0:27:42.840 dairy and have never had dairy since. And it changed 0:27:42.840 --> 0:27:44.719 my life. So I'm always trying to get people off 0:27:44.760 --> 0:27:45.080 of dealer. 0:27:45.520 --> 0:27:48.480 What was the impact other than sinuses and congestion? 0:27:48.520 --> 0:27:50.119 You here, but well that's a lot, but you know, 0:27:50.400 --> 0:27:53.199 sore throats and stomach aches all the time. When I 0:27:53.200 --> 0:27:55.159 lived in New York, I'd live near zay Bars, and 0:27:55.200 --> 0:27:57.159 I would go pick up cheese, and you know at 0:27:57.200 --> 0:27:59.879 zay Bars where they'd cut the cheese a certain way 0:27:59.440 --> 0:28:02.560 and the little rind and stuff. And I'd buy these 0:28:02.600 --> 0:28:05.200 little cheese bags, cheese ends bags on my way to 0:28:05.240 --> 0:28:08.000 unemployment and wondered, why am I not working when I'm fat, 0:28:08.040 --> 0:28:10.840 constanpated and half impulse, you know, I mean, my whole 0:28:10.880 --> 0:28:12.960 stomach changed after I gave up dairy. 0:28:13.080 --> 0:28:14.600 I used to be an ice cream addict. I was 0:28:14.640 --> 0:28:16.960 like Brando, And they say that brand would sit with 0:28:17.000 --> 0:28:18.520 like a half a gallon of ice cream and watch 0:28:18.600 --> 0:28:20.840 TV and you have like a big jug of ice 0:28:20.840 --> 0:28:22.119 cream and lay in his bed and just with a 0:28:22.160 --> 0:28:24.000 spoon and eat like a half a gallon of ice cream. 0:28:24.200 --> 0:28:25.080 That wasn't that bad. 0:28:25.240 --> 0:28:27.960 Yeah, But Darry is always the first thing I talk 0:28:28.000 --> 0:28:30.800 to people about. Always, that's been on my that's my 0:28:30.840 --> 0:28:35.159 soapbox speech. Immediately with people especially, I can read people's 0:28:35.200 --> 0:28:37.080 faces and tell that they're like allergic to it or 0:28:37.119 --> 0:28:39.480 something like that, or they've had trouble. But the big 0:28:39.560 --> 0:28:41.520 killer right now, I think for everybody is the whole 0:28:41.560 --> 0:28:44.560 stress management people. Really, you know, I say three things. 0:28:45.080 --> 0:28:47.280 Learn to love the food that loves you. And we 0:28:47.360 --> 0:28:49.440 know what doesn't love us. Learn to love the food 0:28:49.440 --> 0:28:52.240 that loves you. It's very obviously what does Dairy did 0:28:52.240 --> 0:28:55.040 not love me, Meat did not love me. Sugar does 0:28:55.120 --> 0:28:58.080 not love meat, nor does it love you obviously, So 0:28:58.120 --> 0:29:00.000 I say, learn to love the food that loves you. 0:29:00.320 --> 0:29:03.040 I say, motion is the lotion, because we've got to move. 0:29:03.200 --> 0:29:06.080 You know, your cat stretches, your dogs you walk your dogs. 0:29:06.120 --> 0:29:08.880 Your hamster's got a wheel with this beautiful human animal. 0:29:08.880 --> 0:29:10.480 You've got to walk, You got to do, you got 0:29:10.520 --> 0:29:13.400 to move, move move. Motion is the lotion. And then 0:29:13.440 --> 0:29:15.760 I also say, you better fall in love with your 0:29:15.760 --> 0:29:18.480 stress or it's going to kill you. Because if I 0:29:19.000 --> 0:29:21.160 give I go all over the country open. 0:29:20.920 --> 0:29:23.440 Through stress, you better I can't fall in love with 0:29:23.440 --> 0:29:23.920 my stress. 0:29:24.120 --> 0:29:26.800 Got well, yeah, I mean it's but no, you have to, 0:29:27.000 --> 0:29:29.320 I always say, because I give speeches all over the country, 0:29:29.360 --> 0:29:31.400 I'm always like asked to give you know, could go 0:29:31.440 --> 0:29:34.960 to different things, seminars and stuff. And I always say, 0:29:34.960 --> 0:29:36.880 if every one of you in this audience wrote down 0:29:37.080 --> 0:29:39.240 your problems on a piece of paper and I collected 0:29:39.280 --> 0:29:41.480 them and I started reading them out, and you had 0:29:41.480 --> 0:29:44.160 to pick some problems that are on a list, you'd 0:29:44.200 --> 0:29:47.000 all take back your own because you know the beast. 0:29:47.440 --> 0:29:49.920 You know how to handle it. You just might not 0:29:50.000 --> 0:29:50.840 be doing it well. 0:29:50.840 --> 0:29:53.200 I always tell people whenever i'm especially when i'm speaking 0:29:53.240 --> 0:29:56.280 to people in this profession. Number one, find out how 0:29:56.320 --> 0:29:59.000 much you love acting itself, because you're going to get 0:29:59.000 --> 0:30:01.480 to do so little of it. Oh, the life of 0:30:01.480 --> 0:30:03.960 the actor is all this other bullshit. You know, the 0:30:03.960 --> 0:30:05.840 rest of the year and you're in front of a 0:30:05.840 --> 0:30:07.760 camera at what forty five minutes a day, an hour 0:30:07.800 --> 0:30:09.240 a day. The rest is sitting in your room. You 0:30:09.280 --> 0:30:11.320 do the show, it's two hours at night. If you're 0:30:11.360 --> 0:30:13.800 inclined to do theater, and I said, you don't need 0:30:13.840 --> 0:30:15.640 to find that how much you love it. And number two, 0:30:16.120 --> 0:30:18.520 if you're in get into it. Don't do what I did, 0:30:18.600 --> 0:30:21.240 which is to be like fuck la and fuck you 0:30:21.480 --> 0:30:23.480 and I think you're all full of shit, and you 0:30:23.480 --> 0:30:25.200 know this whole thing is just this business is full 0:30:25.200 --> 0:30:25.480 of shit. 0:30:25.920 --> 0:30:26.600 Be a part of it. 0:30:26.840 --> 0:30:29.680 Join the academy, go to the screening, be a part 0:30:29.760 --> 0:30:32.120 of the business, and don't be cynical about it. 0:30:32.120 --> 0:30:33.200 And if not, then get out. 0:30:33.280 --> 0:30:35.280 Get out. I always say, if something, do it or 0:30:35.320 --> 0:30:37.640 don't do it. If someone can talk you out of it, 0:30:38.280 --> 0:30:41.520 let it, because otherwise you have to really really want 0:30:41.560 --> 0:30:43.640 to do it. And also I always say to people, 0:30:43.800 --> 0:30:46.440 look fall in love with auditioning because it might be 0:30:46.480 --> 0:30:49.600 the only ten minutes you have that job. So if 0:30:49.640 --> 0:30:52.040 you do it, you know what I mean, then it's 0:30:52.080 --> 0:30:54.920 like your job for ten minutes. And maybe you remember. 0:30:54.640 --> 0:30:57.000 All these people from the TV star shelf that we 0:30:57.040 --> 0:31:00.440 always talk about Gregory Harrison, who did an interne Wants 0:31:00.440 --> 0:31:02.120 to Change My Life Gregory Harris. 0:31:02.560 --> 0:31:07.000 I mean we did the Jack Nicholson and Margaret parts 0:31:07.120 --> 0:31:11.560 in Carnal Knowledge at the Pasadena Playhouse. We played those parts, 0:31:11.600 --> 0:31:13.280 so we saw each other naked in a shower. 0:31:13.480 --> 0:31:16.560 Yeah, oh my god, I'm sure you both look pretty good. 0:31:16.640 --> 0:31:18.640 We do. We still do. 0:31:21.560 --> 0:31:23.560 He did an interview once years ago, was a million 0:31:23.680 --> 0:31:26.200 years ago, like TV guide or some stupid thing, and 0:31:26.240 --> 0:31:28.640 he did an interview where he said, basically I'm paraphrasing, 0:31:28.680 --> 0:31:30.840 he was like, you know, his whole energy changed, his 0:31:30.880 --> 0:31:33.640 whole career changed when he walked into auditions and his 0:31:33.680 --> 0:31:34.400 attitude was like. 0:31:34.360 --> 0:31:37.480 How can I help you? Like you called me here, right. 0:31:37.520 --> 0:31:39.040 I didn't put a gun to your head and make you, 0:31:39.080 --> 0:31:41.080 but it come to audition me for this part. I 0:31:41.160 --> 0:31:44.120 have something you want? Yes, you're looking for something and 0:31:44.120 --> 0:31:46.600 whether and once he stopped giving the energy of like 0:31:46.680 --> 0:31:50.440 oh and being fawning and obsequious with them, everything changed. 0:31:50.640 --> 0:31:52.360 It's so funny you're saying this because I tell a 0:31:52.400 --> 0:31:56.800 story in my show again about how I auditioned for 0:31:56.800 --> 0:31:59.720 forty commercials before I got one, and the reason I 0:31:59.720 --> 0:32:01.680 find got Then I booked seventy two in two and 0:32:01.720 --> 0:32:03.480 a half years. It was quite crazy. I was doing 0:32:03.480 --> 0:32:07.000 commercials constantly, but it took me forty auditions to get 0:32:07.000 --> 0:32:10.000 my first one because on the thirty ninth a friend 0:32:10.040 --> 0:32:11.840 of mine called me and it was for mister Coffee. 0:32:11.880 --> 0:32:13.800 I still remember the jingle and I had to sing it. 0:32:14.120 --> 0:32:16.600 I was so wrong for the part, but he called 0:32:16.640 --> 0:32:18.400 me in and he called me that night and he 0:32:18.440 --> 0:32:21.200 said he knew I was having trouble with auditions, and 0:32:21.240 --> 0:32:23.040 he said, are you this way the way you were 0:32:23.040 --> 0:32:25.400 today with me in your auditions? And I went, oh, 0:32:25.440 --> 0:32:27.720 my gosh, no, are you kidding. I was just so 0:32:27.840 --> 0:32:30.640 myself because you were there. He said, we almost changed 0:32:30.680 --> 0:32:33.560 the whole concept of the commercial because you were so original. 0:32:33.800 --> 0:32:35.760 He said, that's what you have to do every time 0:32:35.800 --> 0:32:38.360 you go into an audition. Stop giving people what you 0:32:38.480 --> 0:32:40.640 think they want. Just go in there and it's going 0:32:40.680 --> 0:32:42.080 to hit. It's going to hit. And he was right. 0:32:42.200 --> 0:32:44.360 And then I booked one right after the other and 0:32:44.400 --> 0:32:47.040 I became this body parts model and it was just 0:32:47.120 --> 0:32:49.200 like crazy that I did a lot of different parts 0:32:49.240 --> 0:32:49.800 of the body. 0:32:49.960 --> 0:32:52.560 I was which parts of the body did you do there? 0:32:52.840 --> 0:32:55.479 Which party this is in my show? I said, I 0:32:55.520 --> 0:33:00.000 did four playtext broad commercials. It's got sash here and seamless, 0:33:00.480 --> 0:33:01.480 two play text panties. 0:33:01.840 --> 0:33:03.720 You were wearing a bra, you were a bra model. 0:33:03.840 --> 0:33:06.200 I was a bra model, but sometimes I had like 0:33:06.240 --> 0:33:08.600 a shirt on, you know, and you could see certain things. 0:33:08.720 --> 0:33:12.040 But it was just like I'm exactly. And then I 0:33:12.040 --> 0:33:15.200 did two play text panties commercials or all you saw 0:33:15.360 --> 0:33:15.840 was my butts. 0:33:15.840 --> 0:33:19.160 And these were separate commercials, separate. The bra and the 0:33:19.200 --> 0:33:21.000 panties were two. 0:33:21.080 --> 0:33:23.560 There were separate shoots because if I was the producer, 0:33:23.600 --> 0:33:25.080 that's what I would have said, and we need to 0:33:25.080 --> 0:33:28.080 shoot these separately, and we need to shoot them over five. 0:33:27.920 --> 0:33:31.400 Days or and I did do yes. And then I said, 0:33:31.440 --> 0:33:33.440 but all you see is my button, my crotch, walking 0:33:33.480 --> 0:33:36.960 my dog, walking around Lincoln Center, getting on a bus. 0:33:37.000 --> 0:33:40.280 Both the polaroids when you walk into the audition for 0:33:40.360 --> 0:33:42.840 a panties commercial, it's amazing because you see all these 0:33:42.840 --> 0:33:45.640 polarids of just people's crotches and butts and side views 0:33:45.640 --> 0:33:47.560 and everything else. And then I was even the Fruit 0:33:47.560 --> 0:33:49.920 of the Loom panty host girl inside of a giant 0:33:49.920 --> 0:33:53.360 apple with my legs sticking out, and so I did 0:33:53.400 --> 0:33:55.520 like different carts. But then I also did like I 0:33:55.560 --> 0:33:58.840 did an exce on Bicentennial Minute where I played Annie Sullivan. 0:33:59.200 --> 0:34:01.480 I got a Cleon nomination for that. And I did 0:34:01.480 --> 0:34:04.760 everything from Reese's peanut butter to gleam toothpaste, so many 0:34:04.760 --> 0:34:08.040 different times. I was the Ponderosa Steakhouse girl, the samson 0:34:08.120 --> 0:34:10.719 I luggage girl. So I just kept doing it and 0:34:10.760 --> 0:34:12.799 doing it and doing it because every time and I 0:34:12.880 --> 0:34:14.520 learned this the heart. I mean, I learned the hard way. 0:34:14.800 --> 0:34:16.799 You walk in and you'd bring something to it, like 0:34:16.840 --> 0:34:19.080 Gregory says, how can I help you? Let me show 0:34:19.120 --> 0:34:20.640 you something like I would do with it. 0:34:21.080 --> 0:34:23.879 But what did you study at you Chicago? You studied theater. 0:34:24.239 --> 0:34:26.640 No, they had a theater department, but they had no 0:34:27.120 --> 0:34:30.480 theater degree. So even though did you take so, I No, 0:34:30.560 --> 0:34:32.759 I was a political science major and so in the 0:34:32.800 --> 0:34:34.799 first two years is mostly the core curriculum. 0:34:34.840 --> 0:34:36.280 So where did you learn to sing and dance? 0:34:36.760 --> 0:34:39.000 Well? I grew up in the dancing studio and I 0:34:39.040 --> 0:34:41.560 always sang because my two older sisters were in choir 0:34:41.600 --> 0:34:43.520 and stuff like that. So I'd go to their practices 0:34:43.560 --> 0:34:45.840 and stuff, and it was just something I always wanted, 0:34:45.920 --> 0:34:47.759 you know. I was on stage at two and a 0:34:47.800 --> 0:34:49.000 half at a father Gym, was the. 0:34:48.960 --> 0:34:50.680 Lead in Chicago, like a pinnacle for you? Was that 0:34:50.680 --> 0:34:51.520 a big dream country? 0:34:51.600 --> 0:34:55.839 That was a big gena. They called me on March 0:34:55.880 --> 0:34:58.520 the four, nineteen ninety seven, Walter, whom I knew from 0:34:58.520 --> 0:35:00.880 the Greece family, and they called me and they said 0:35:01.400 --> 0:35:03.880 Annie Ranking is leaving Chicago and she thinks she'd be 0:35:03.920 --> 0:35:07.480 a good replacement. What kind of dance shape are you in? 0:35:07.880 --> 0:35:10.680 And I said, ooh, I haven't had my legs up 0:35:10.680 --> 0:35:13.280 over my head except for childbirth or a good weekend 0:35:13.400 --> 0:35:16.680 for about five years, so I better get my ass 0:35:16.680 --> 0:35:18.839 back into class. So I went to class for ten 0:35:18.920 --> 0:35:20.840 days and then I went to audition and then he 0:35:21.000 --> 0:35:23.680 said go home, work on the fosse, and I did. 0:35:23.760 --> 0:35:25.720 And I went back and there were like twenty seven 0:35:26.200 --> 0:35:29.400 potential actors in the room and they kept eliminating, eliminating 0:35:29.480 --> 0:35:32.319 until they told me I had the job. So I 0:35:32.360 --> 0:35:34.839 did four hundred and eight performance, four hundred and eight 0:35:35.040 --> 0:35:38.120 performance on Broadway Broadway, but I also did Vegas because 0:35:38.160 --> 0:35:39.759 they asked me to come to Vegas and I was like, no, 0:35:39.840 --> 0:35:41.279 I don't want to go to Vegas. And then my 0:35:41.320 --> 0:35:43.400 agent said, well, let's have some fun with your quote. 0:35:43.520 --> 0:35:44.960 And then he called me back. He said, they made 0:35:45.000 --> 0:35:46.920 you an offer you can't refuse. You're going to Vegas. 0:35:47.000 --> 0:35:49.040 It was like, okay, So I went to Vegas. But 0:35:49.160 --> 0:35:51.719 my favorite Vegas story because people always said, what's the 0:35:51.719 --> 0:35:55.160 difference between Broadway and Vegas? Although it's not this anymore, 0:35:55.160 --> 0:35:57.680 I'd say, oh, yeah, cup holders, because back then you 0:35:57.719 --> 0:36:01.360 could this was ninety nine. In two thousand you couldn't. 0:36:01.480 --> 0:36:03.200 You could drink in Vegas, but you couldn't do it 0:36:03.239 --> 0:36:06.960 on Broadway. So I'd been there two weeks and they 0:36:07.000 --> 0:36:10.640 said we love you here. I said, really, you've seen 0:36:10.680 --> 0:36:12.920 the show and I was like all excited and he said, no, 0:36:12.960 --> 0:36:15.120 I haven't seen the show yet, but your crowd drinks 0:36:15.160 --> 0:36:21.600 a lot more Belvedere than most people. Okay, we love Belvedere. 0:36:22.400 --> 0:36:24.320 Yeah, I'll never forget. 0:36:24.600 --> 0:36:27.520 Someone was connected to like one of these big phizzy 0:36:27.640 --> 0:36:29.759 musicals and they were doing like some kind of a 0:36:29.800 --> 0:36:32.160 cast replacement, and they wanted all this stunt casting with 0:36:32.239 --> 0:36:36.160 somebody famous, and this actress walks into audition for the 0:36:36.239 --> 0:36:36.799 lead role. 0:36:36.920 --> 0:36:38.000 She's this famous. 0:36:37.680 --> 0:36:40.120 Actress and she comes in and she does her audition 0:36:40.560 --> 0:36:42.440 and she leaves and everyone's just kind of standing there 0:36:42.480 --> 0:36:45.200 slack Jode after she leaves, and the director turns over 0:36:45.280 --> 0:36:48.120 and goes, she can't sing, she can't dance, she can't act. 0:36:48.320 --> 0:36:52.200 She's a star, you know, like we're going to hire her, 0:36:52.400 --> 0:36:54.120 even though she gets a D. 0:36:54.320 --> 0:36:56.960 Or an F in all three categories based on what 0:36:57.000 --> 0:36:58.399 they saw there in that room that day. 0:36:58.560 --> 0:37:00.840 It's so funny because there's all these stories that you 0:37:00.880 --> 0:37:03.279 know that sort of shape your life, like that one. 0:37:03.520 --> 0:37:05.440 You know, and you just write, you hear it and 0:37:05.480 --> 0:37:07.960 you understand it and you know it right away. When 0:37:07.960 --> 0:37:11.080 I was first on taxi, somebody at ABC cany he goes, 0:37:11.239 --> 0:37:13.720 I've got a movie for you, Mary Lou. I said, really, 0:37:13.840 --> 0:37:16.799 what is it? And he said sizzle? I said, what's 0:37:16.800 --> 0:37:21.440 it about? He said, who cares sizzle? So Johnny and 0:37:21.480 --> 0:37:23.799 I always used to say we would like joking like 0:37:23.920 --> 0:37:26.279 people were like, you know, who cares sizzle? You know, 0:37:26.360 --> 0:37:27.799 it's just that thing that you do. 0:37:29.920 --> 0:37:33.960 New York Times best selling author Mary Lou Henner. If 0:37:34.000 --> 0:37:37.680 you're enjoying this conversation, be sure to subscribe to Here's 0:37:37.719 --> 0:37:42.840 the Thing on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts or wherever. 0:37:42.600 --> 0:37:43.719 You get your podcasts. 0:37:44.239 --> 0:37:47.760 When we return, Mary Lou Henner talks about finding lasting 0:37:47.840 --> 0:38:04.000 love the third time around. I'm Alec Baldwin and this 0:38:04.080 --> 0:38:07.680 is Here's the thing. Mary Lou Henner recently developed and 0:38:07.800 --> 0:38:12.600 performed a one woman autobiographical show. It's filled with songs 0:38:12.640 --> 0:38:15.800 and stories from her remarkable life. 0:38:16.080 --> 0:38:18.160 I sing a song about my sons and show a 0:38:18.239 --> 0:38:21.000 video of like pictures of them and little videos. Oh 0:38:21.040 --> 0:38:23.000 it kills me every time if I watch it, I'll 0:38:23.040 --> 0:38:25.279 cry just thinking about it. I cry. And it's a 0:38:25.280 --> 0:38:28.560 mash up between nick of Time because you know it's 0:38:28.560 --> 0:38:30.200 funny Nicky took me three and a half years to 0:38:30.200 --> 0:38:32.800 get pregnant Joe, like immediately I didn't even get my period. 0:38:32.840 --> 0:38:35.920 It was like bam, I'm pregnant again. So and so 0:38:35.960 --> 0:38:38.319 I do nick of Time and happiness is just a 0:38:38.360 --> 0:38:41.200 thing called Joe and that's it. And also I sing 0:38:41.239 --> 0:38:44.520 a song about Freddie, my first husband. I do Desperado 0:38:44.840 --> 0:38:47.120 because that's kind of who he was in my life. 0:38:47.160 --> 0:38:49.520 And that song always gets to me too. So it's 0:38:49.560 --> 0:38:51.879 like telling some of those type stories and talking about 0:38:51.880 --> 0:38:54.520 Bird was very emotional to a couple of times. So 0:38:54.600 --> 0:38:56.520 it depends, you know, it depends on the crowd. 0:38:56.840 --> 0:38:58.560 When you come and you're gonna camp, bet he is 0:38:58.600 --> 0:38:59.600 your husband going to come with you? 0:39:00.080 --> 0:39:03.400 Yeah, he's great. That's he's another whole story. 0:39:03.400 --> 0:39:03.560 You know. 0:39:03.600 --> 0:39:06.000 We wrote a book. We got together. He was my 0:39:06.080 --> 0:39:08.759 roommate's boyfriend. I didn't dare twinkle in his direction. But 0:39:08.800 --> 0:39:11.359 then when he called me out of nowhere, six months 0:39:11.400 --> 0:39:13.960 after my divorce from Rob was final, we got together. 0:39:14.040 --> 0:39:15.520 Within a week. We're saying I love you, We're going 0:39:15.560 --> 0:39:17.520 to spend the rest of our lives together. And two 0:39:17.560 --> 0:39:20.560 months later he's diagnosed with two cancers, bladder cancer and 0:39:20.640 --> 0:39:24.000 lung cancer. And we ended up doing a whole protocol 0:39:24.040 --> 0:39:26.600 for him that didn't involve chemo or radiation. They wanted 0:39:26.600 --> 0:39:29.279 to remove his bladder, his prostate, run a hose up 0:39:29.320 --> 0:39:31.279 his penis, and we could pump it up six times 0:39:31.280 --> 0:39:33.799 if we wanted to have sex. They were pushing all 0:39:33.840 --> 0:39:36.600 of this. I was like, no, and we always say. 0:39:36.640 --> 0:39:38.719 He's done with the penis pump by the way, he finished, do. 0:39:39.120 --> 0:39:41.919 It for fun. No, he doesn't need the pump at all. No, 0:39:42.120 --> 0:39:47.280 my husband, thanks, No, no, not at all. He saved 0:39:47.400 --> 0:39:49.759 all of his organs. He saved his organs and he's 0:39:49.760 --> 0:39:52.520 been in remission. It'll be eighteen years November the twenty fourth. 0:39:52.600 --> 0:39:56.280 It's pretty remarkable. And he didn't he did immuno therapy, 0:39:56.320 --> 0:39:58.839 but he went completely vegan, and he went got rid 0:39:58.920 --> 0:40:01.440 of I mean he did every He shot himself with iscador, 0:40:01.480 --> 0:40:04.080 which is extract of missiletoe. He got rid of all 0:40:04.080 --> 0:40:07.600 of the mercury fillings in his Mouthculation therapy, high colonic 0:40:07.840 --> 0:40:11.640 lymphatic massages, infrared saunas, and he stays on this protocol 0:40:11.760 --> 0:40:14.279 and he has been in remission almost eighteen years. It's 0:40:14.320 --> 0:40:16.719 pretty remarkable, you know, pretty cool. 0:40:16.960 --> 0:40:18.319 When I went to the doctor and he was going 0:40:18.400 --> 0:40:22.279 to do the anterior hip replacement process, and he says 0:40:22.280 --> 0:40:23.560 to me, now, I want to just review with you 0:40:23.600 --> 0:40:25.880 that you know that that when you do the anterior procedure, 0:40:25.880 --> 0:40:28.200 when we go in the front as opposed to the side, 0:40:28.320 --> 0:40:30.759 it's the quickest to heal. But there are some complications. 0:40:30.880 --> 0:40:32.440 Is like point zero two percent that we're going to 0:40:32.520 --> 0:40:34.759 nick some nerves in there. There's some material to it, 0:40:34.800 --> 0:40:36.680 which I said, what nerve? He took his finger and 0:40:36.680 --> 0:40:40.520 he went like this, no, And I turned to her 0:40:40.520 --> 0:40:42.160 mind and said, oh you can just tear that out, 0:40:42.200 --> 0:40:42.759 just with that. 0:40:42.800 --> 0:40:45.319 Nerve right down. I'm done. You can just yank there, 0:40:45.360 --> 0:40:46.440 get a pair of pliers and. 0:40:48.239 --> 0:40:50.200 Come on you. And we have an expression in my 0:40:50.239 --> 0:40:53.640 family PF. Okay, we have this expression. My brothers and 0:40:53.680 --> 0:40:55.840 I made it up and it's like measures the sexual 0:40:55.880 --> 0:40:57.799 cuotient of things like, oh man, there was so much 0:40:57.840 --> 0:41:00.000 PF at that party, or man I saw that movie. 0:41:00.160 --> 0:41:02.680 No PF between the two of them. And PF stands 0:41:02.680 --> 0:41:06.520 for pussy factor or penis factor, right, because things have PF, 0:41:06.680 --> 0:41:09.000 you know. And I don't like BD for big dick 0:41:09.120 --> 0:41:11.520 energy because that is sexist and sizest, do you know 0:41:11.520 --> 0:41:14.040 what I mean? But you and Hilaria obviously have tons 0:41:14.080 --> 0:41:18.239 of PF. Obviously six kids, but you still want to 0:41:18.280 --> 0:41:19.719 have You're still gonna have PF. 0:41:19.520 --> 0:41:21.239 Even I don't want you. 0:41:21.239 --> 0:41:23.400 I don't want to retire from that, but yeah, please, 0:41:23.560 --> 0:41:25.440 but six kids, it's really been. It's been like a 0:41:25.440 --> 0:41:29.000 student six and eight years is six kids in seven years. 0:41:28.840 --> 0:41:31.080 Seven years and seven years old. Oh that's right, seven years. 0:41:31.520 --> 0:41:31.719 You know. 0:41:32.239 --> 0:41:33.920 I don't know if you remember this day, but we 0:41:33.920 --> 0:41:37.080 were all all the kids because Ireland is close to 0:41:37.160 --> 0:41:40.919 my Joey's age. He's born November twelfth, nineteen ninety five. 0:41:41.480 --> 0:41:45.319 So she's like the So we were all at a 0:41:45.400 --> 0:41:47.800 meet because Joey was like the real athlete in the family. 0:41:47.960 --> 0:41:50.640 But Joey was at this meet and Caitlyn Jenner was 0:41:50.680 --> 0:41:55.960 there and her kids and you know, Ireland and my 0:41:56.040 --> 0:41:58.480 Joey and they were all doing their sports thing. And 0:41:58.520 --> 0:42:00.680 you walked up to my son Nick, who is about 0:42:01.000 --> 0:42:03.480 thirteen at the time, fourteen at the time, and you said, 0:42:03.520 --> 0:42:05.200 and what are you going to be besides the Ralph 0:42:05.239 --> 0:42:08.200 Lauran model? Because he's very cute. 0:42:08.239 --> 0:42:09.080 What does he doing now? 0:42:09.120 --> 0:42:11.960 He's a director. He's a director. He went to Columbia 0:42:12.000 --> 0:42:14.480 and he directs all these videos. And he directed this 0:42:14.560 --> 0:42:17.720 short that has now been bought by Will Ferrell's company 0:42:17.800 --> 0:42:19.920 and he's turned it into a two hour movie and 0:42:20.239 --> 0:42:22.720 he might be directing it, we'll see. But it looks good. 0:42:23.280 --> 0:42:25.160 Can I just say what my son Joey's doing too? 0:42:25.280 --> 0:42:27.920 Because he's yes, okay, because I said about Nick. So 0:42:28.000 --> 0:42:31.000 Joey lives in Brooklyn. He does his improv troupe that 0:42:31.040 --> 0:42:33.640 they do whatever. But he's an international bridge player. He's 0:42:33.640 --> 0:42:35.600 one of the top bridge players in the world under 0:42:35.600 --> 0:42:38.719 twenty five, and he became a life master at twenty four. 0:42:38.960 --> 0:42:41.080 And he has all these women that he plays bridge 0:42:41.080 --> 0:42:43.040 with and they pay a lot of money to play 0:42:43.040 --> 0:42:45.360 with him because he's so cute. And he's writing a 0:42:45.360 --> 0:42:51.160 script called Bridge Jigglow because I'm a comedy writer and 0:42:51.200 --> 0:42:54.920 I have a director. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, I'm sure. 0:42:54.800 --> 0:42:58.960 Telling telling me should read Jonathan Ames's book The Extra 0:42:59.120 --> 0:43:02.399 Man that was made into a film with Kevin Klein 0:43:02.480 --> 0:43:05.480 and Paul Dano, and that's your son, the Paul Danel. 0:43:05.800 --> 0:43:07.960 He is a character because because it's about a boy 0:43:08.000 --> 0:43:09.880 that meets like a guy who's like a who's like 0:43:09.920 --> 0:43:10.400 a walker. 0:43:10.480 --> 0:43:13.239 He's like a male prostitute, and he doesn't necessarily sleep 0:43:13.280 --> 0:43:13.920 with the women. 0:43:13.719 --> 0:43:15.520 But he's like he like takes old of these old 0:43:15.520 --> 0:43:18.120 biddies to like Palm Beach, Cotillions and all the ship. 0:43:18.200 --> 0:43:22.160 I'm thinking that my son is talking about them as 0:43:22.160 --> 0:43:24.040 old biddies because you know, someone. 0:43:23.760 --> 0:43:26.879 Who know not his not his bridge part. 0:43:27.280 --> 0:43:27.440 Yeah. 0:43:27.480 --> 0:43:29.920 Anyway, my love to you, and I look forward to 0:43:29.960 --> 0:43:30.640 seeing you in New York. 0:43:30.680 --> 0:43:35.759 Okay, and you're killed one. Sometimes it's called Mary Lou. 0:43:35.840 --> 0:43:38.919 I know, so I forgot that. 0:43:39.000 --> 0:43:42.040 I know we literally they my wife calls are Mary Lou. 0:43:42.160 --> 0:43:45.040 I know she does Maria Luthia, but my wife calls 0:43:45.040 --> 0:43:45.560 her Mary. 0:43:45.400 --> 0:43:46.839 Lou, daughter Mary. 0:43:47.840 --> 0:43:49.480 It's on the back of her little. 0:43:50.840 --> 0:43:51.080 I know. 0:43:51.160 --> 0:43:52.120 See I pay attention. 0:43:52.480 --> 0:43:52.600 Well. 0:43:52.640 --> 0:43:55.440 My name is Mary, Lucy, Denise, ce Celia, Hannah Forrest, 0:43:55.520 --> 0:43:59.960 Lieberman Brown, good Luck vision and heat. 0:43:59.760 --> 0:44:02.240 Good on that share I love to use, Sweetie. 0:44:02.239 --> 0:44:07.799 We'll talk to you down the road, okay. Actress and 0:44:08.000 --> 0:44:13.720 author Mary Lou Henner. This episode was produced by Kathleen Russo, 0:44:13.960 --> 0:44:18.520 Carrie Donahue, Maureen Hoben, and Zach McNeese. Our engineer is 0:44:18.560 --> 0:44:22.160 Frank Imperial. I'm Alec Baldwin. Here's the thing is brought 0:44:22.160 --> 0:44:24.160 to you by iHeart Radio.