WEBVTT - Marilu Henner Chooses Joy 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:05.240 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:10.920 Thing from My Heart Radio. People have different definitions of 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:15.480 what makes a star. Is it raw talent, beauty or 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:19.120 is it simply an ex factor, a certain ineffable quality. 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:22.959 Whatever it is, Mary Lou Henner has it, and she 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:28.560 has it in spades. Singer, dancer, actor, and wellness expert, 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.879 Hanner is a multitalented performer who is also simply a 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:36.479 joy to be around. She's like a Christmas tree and 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:40.880 lights up every room she's in. She's starred in over 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:46.320 a dozen films, seven Broadway shows, and two smash hits sitcoms. 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:51.479 She played Ava Evans Newton on Evening Shade alongside Bert Reynolds, 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:56.320 and perhaps most notably, Elaine Nardo on Taxi, a role 0:00:56.360 --> 0:01:01.280 that earned her five Golden Globe nominations. Mary Lou Hanna 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:05.240 has also a New York Times bestselling author and recently 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:09.720 staged a one woman autobiographical show. It covered everything from 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:12.920 growing up in a large family in Chicago to her 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:18.200 preternaturalnemonic skills. Henna is one of about sixty people in 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:21.800 the world who can recall nearly every detail of her 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:25.959 life down to the exact day and date. It's so 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:29.600 funny because you know, I worked with Trump twice on 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.640 Celebrity Apprentice, but he used to start the reboard room 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:36.840 like Mary Lou if I took you to Vegas? Could 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:39.320 you cheat for me? Could you count the cards? Could 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:42.920 you let's go to Vegas. People. I'm sure people assume 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:47.400 that this skill you have, but it's yeah, it's just there. 0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:49.440 It's weird. What do you call it? I call it 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:52.320 a gift. People sometimes call it a condition. It's not. 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:54.560 And that's why they changed the name. They used to 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:56.760 call it hyper tynesia, but then they thought that that 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.600 was like too weird a name, which it really is. 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:01.760 But it's not that they don't call it that anymore. 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:06.920 It's h SAM Highly Superior autobiographical Memory h SAM. And 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:08.960 it's funny you should mention that and my show because 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:11.560 I do a song about it in my show that 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:16.480 my brother wrote the lyrics too. So I'm going to wait, 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:19.240 don't tell me, no, no, you know what it's called. 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:22.280 It's you know the Peggy Lee song because I'm a woman. 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:25.560 You know that song? Okay, So I thought, because I 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:30.119 have h SAM, so this is what we decided. I'll 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:32.280 just do the first one packing them in and bucks count. 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:38.880 It was yeah. I was like, because excuse me, mr. 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:42.079 It was a very successful number and a very successful run, 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:43.280 a lot of fun. They said it was the best 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:45.359 show they've done there in seven years. Well, let me 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:48.440 ask you this. You wrote a biography back in ninety four. 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:52.000 You've written ten books, I believe, including that book. But 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.560 when you do a one woman show, where do you start? Well, 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.680 you need an opening number that sort of grabs people 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:02.120 and sort of sets up the tone. And so I 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:04.120 I wanted everything to start of connect to something in 0:03:04.160 --> 0:03:07.400 my life. And I was watching television and do you 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:10.079 know the Cold Border movie? Not Night and Day, the 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:12.080 other one that they that he did anyway, So all 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:14.160 of a sudden, I'm flicking through channels and there it is, 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:19.000 and it's Elvis Costello singing Let's Misbehave, And I thought, oh, 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:22.480 that's the closing credits to Johnny Dangerously. I'm going to 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:24.440 sing that song as my opener and then tell a 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:28.480 story about Johnny Dangerously, but then say everything is connected, 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:31.520 and then I go into the song about my memory 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:33.320 because I wanted to set that up right away, because 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:36.119 I throw dates around a lot and then I talked 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:39.600 about my childhood, which was so unusual, so you know, 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:41.880 and I do a little whole tribute to growing up 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.000 in a dancing school. Well, yeah, what's funny. When I 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:45.840 think of you, I think of many things. You know, 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.200 when you do the show Taxi. You're someone who is 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:51.840 part of that elite group of people that I know 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:54.760 who were on ahead TV show back when tens of 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:59.240 millions of people were watching TV. But such a remarkable 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:01.040 group of people, all of whom went on to have this, 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:03.800 you know, really heavy duty careers and everything in movies 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:07.000 and TV and theater and so forth. And how did 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:09.480 you get that job? Okay, this is a good story. 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:11.400 I believe that the key to your life is how 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:13.720 well you deal with Plan B, because so many Plan 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:15.880 B things you plan for Plan A and you think 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:17.159 this is how it's going to work out, and then 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:19.960 all of a sudden forget it. I've been flown out 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:22.240 to Los Angeles to do a screen test for a 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:25.159 movie called Blood Brothers. I auditioned for Robert Mulligan. The 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.880 guy was testing opposite. He didn't get the job, but 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:30.800 they kept me around because they had to find the guy. 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:32.640 And then they found him and it was Richard Gere, 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:35.880 whom I knew through the Grease family because when I 0:04:36.080 --> 0:04:39.200 my first day in show business professionally, I was in 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:41.479 the First National Company of Greece and I walked into 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:45.120 that first rehearsal and it was Jeff Conaway playing Danny Zuko, 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:49.160 Jerry Zachs playing Knicki, Michael Lembeck playing Sonny, Judy Kay 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:54.080 playing Rizzo, Johnny Travolta playing Duty, and Richard gear rehearsing 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:57.520 for the London Company to play Danny Zuko. Anyway, so 0:04:57.680 --> 0:04:59.880 Richard Knight crossed paths again because we ended up getting 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.440 Austin Blood Brothers. So I came up to Los Angeles 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:04.760 and then I ended up staying because I had a 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.039 contract with CBS at the time, and they offered me 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:09.720 money every month to stay away from the other networks 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:13.000 while they found something for me holding holding deal. I 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:15.720 had a holding deal for a few years. Now, all 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:18.960 of a sudden, they're starting to audition for Taxi and 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:22.800 Joel Thirm he really liked me. They wanted a thirty 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:25.680 five year old Italian New Yorker because they wanted her 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:28.240 to have like a sixteen, seventeen, eighteen year old daughter 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.280 and because unmarried woman and Goodbye Girl, those were all 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:34.240 out then, so they like the mother daughter dynamic. But 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:36.600 Joel said, I'm telling you this is the girl. I was. 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:39.360 He said, this is the girl because she can hold 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:41.719 her own with somebody like a Judd Hirsch. She was 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:44.960 one of the guys, but you'd believe her having art aspirations, 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:46.840 and I'm telling you, this is the girl. So he 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:50.039 kept bringing me back with all these older actresses. But 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:52.560 in the meantime, my mom was dying in the hospital 0:05:52.600 --> 0:05:55.000 in Chicago, so I would literally fly back and forth 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:57.400 and back and forth and back and forth. So what 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:00.400 happened was they really liked me, and at that point, 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:03.480 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 --> 0:06:08.599 picked up for a season, and they said, okay, she 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:12.200 tested higher than even John Houseman, we have to give 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:15.919 her a contract. And my agent said, well, there's this 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.520 other show, Taxi that you know, so we have to see. 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:21.960 So my agents were able to play one against the other. 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:23.960 And I really wanted to do Taxi because the idea 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:25.599 of doing a sitcom was more appealing to me because 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:29.080 it's like a stage play, you know. So Taxi said, well, 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:31.920 she's too young. We see this teenage girl with her 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:33.920 daughter boa blah blah blah blah. And they said, look, 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:35.680 you're gonna lose her the paper Chase if you don't 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.479 do it. And so they said, okay, we'll do it. 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:40.840 She's a Laine. We'll give her two little kids. So 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:44.400 that's what they did. So how it was Houseman Paper 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:47.200 Chase And what was his name, Timothy something, Timothy Bottons. No, 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:50.680 he didn't do the TV show. Tim Bottoms did the movie. Yeah, 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:52.760 that was a good movie with Lindsey Wagner and everything. 0:06:52.960 --> 0:06:55.760 John Houseman was a real character. At the rap party 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.040 for the pilot, he tried to French kissed me. I mean, 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:00.840 he was like one of those guys. Well you can 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:03.800 be canceled now I know. Oh my god, I've got 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:06.159 I mean I never had like I'm sure you have 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:09.720 a few stories who probably deserved to be canceled at 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:12.360 some point in your life. Actually, I was very protective 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:14.080 of myself. I've been the kind of girl that I 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.640 think most well whatever, I don't want to say. You know, 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.440 I had brothers, so I knew men are pigs, so 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:23.920 I was like, on the defense, I was paying attention 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:26.480 some of them. Are you know it's funny you say, 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:28.880 because in that casting holding deal, I went out to 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:30.560 l a I've told the story before, I think, but 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:35.440 I'm there and Chris Guest's mother, Jane Guest, who I worshiped, 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:38.960 Gene Guest, was in charge of casting Loveliest Woman in 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:40.920 show 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 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:44.760 in there with you. And she brings me into a 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:47.520 meeting and they put me on a holding deal because 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:49.880 I did a pilot for them that fizzled, and they said, 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:52.440 we're gonna sign this holding deal because we really believe 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:54.240 in you. We're gonna just keep throwing it against the 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:56.880 wall until something sticks. And then he says, we want 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:02.800 you to be the next Bill Bixby. I was like, wow, 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:05.880 that sounds great. Did you ever honored the deal? Did 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.040 you ever have to or did you get something else? 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:10.000 And I went to do a pilot and then I 0:08:10.040 --> 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 --> 0:08:16.720 In the eighties and the early eighties, the one with 0:08:16.760 --> 0:08:19.679 Stephanie Zimbolist. You were so good in that that was NBC. 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:22.400 Remember that, My god. Yeah, I could tell you the 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.920 day we met and how we met. What it was 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:30.160 May May the twenty two of it was a Wednesday, 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.040 and this is how we met. I knew Tuck, your roommate. 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:35.440 So Tuck and I went to dinner one time and 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:38.079 in Venice and right where you guys used to live. 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.800 So I went over to your house. And now we 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:45.360 are both. I'm in New York doing the junket for Perfect, 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:47.200 and I'm on a bunch of shows and I'm on 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:51.280 Live at five with Sue Simmons, remember yeah, and you're 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:53.160 and so you and I were both in the room, 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:55.040 but I didn't see you because I didn't really know you. 0:08:55.080 --> 0:08:57.440 And all of a sudden, you, I could feel you 0:08:57.480 --> 0:09:00.080 over my show, this person over my left shoulder, and 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:02.160 then all of a sudden, Susiman says, and coming up 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:05.120 next Alec Baldwin and later Mary lou Hanna, and it 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:07.600 was like we looked at each other and I went, 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:10.080 oh my gosh. I was like, oh my gosh. And 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.160 you and I actually had lunch the day of the 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:16.720 big Perfect opening, and you were a hundred days Ober 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:19.480 that day and you showed me your coin. Yeah, I 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:21.920 have thirty six years now and fabrary, I'll have thirty 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.920 seven years and then unbelievable. It's incredible. And even last night, 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:28.840 I want to have a drake. Last night I thought, 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:33.560 let me just have a gigantic glass slurpea glass of 0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:36.080 red wine. Tell me good, because I have horrible insomnia. 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:39.280 I've always had hard me with these kids. It's horrible. 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:40.839 You know. I wrote a book called I Refused to 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:42.600 Raise a Brat, and I wrote it with a brilliant 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:45.960 planalist because I had these two kids, and I listened. 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:48.680 Every time I listened to her, didn't the kids, it 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:50.840 was all good, and then when I didn't, it was like, okay, 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:52.520 it's gonna bite me on the us at some point. 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:55.679 But it's so funny because having so many. I grew 0:09:55.760 --> 0:09:57.360 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 the third third 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:06.600 I was third. We came up with this concept, the 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.120 concept of hamper, you know, because our houses were like 0:10:09.120 --> 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, 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:15.840 so you put a pin over it. That that's hamper. 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:17.960 You know, your glasses are broken, so you put a 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:20.160 pin in it. That's hamper. You know, you do you 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:24.400 put a paper clip, paper clip, your uniform had staples 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:26.680 in it or tape or something. You know. It's like 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.280 I remember growing up, our phone court was always like 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:32.040 so you had to like hold it. If you read 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:34.079 If you read my memoir, it opens up with how 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:37.160 my mother's bedroom was filled with plastic pails filled with laundry. 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:41.520 It was laund her bedroom. Her bedroom was a hamper. 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:43.320 But she had an ironing board at the foot of 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.480 her bed and an iron and she had like these 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:49.000 plastic hampers, these collapsible plastic things that were just and 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:51.080 they were like falling off of each other. I said, 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:52.920 if you, if you came to my house and you 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:54.520 didn't know better, you thought this was in an illegal 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:57.560 laundry thing that was running out of their house. My 0:10:57.600 --> 0:10:59.559 mother used to do her lime tree on Tuesdays. It 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:02.040 was seven teen loads, you know, and she always had 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:04.080 like seventeen loads from all of us. Because when you 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:05.959 think about it, a house full of kids like that 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.600 the beginning of the pandemic. I was home. My boys 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:11.360 were here, my brother, his two children, my husband, we 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:13.680 were here. I never did more cooking and cleaning and 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:17.640 laundry and scrubbing grout in my life because I'm very 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:19.720 you know, I like to be very organized. But we 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:22.080 had a rule that everybody. My wife hates it. She's 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:25.120 really angry with me that you're so meticulous that I'm 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:28.280 so crushed by an o c D at that level 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:30.400 with my kids, like I'm always cleaning my household, and 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:32.160 long with my wife was like, this is going to 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:34.240 kill you. Well, with kids, you gotta let it go. 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:36.240 I mean because I was always and I was tested 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:37.480 for o c D because that was part of the 0:11:37.520 --> 0:11:39.480 whole memory thing. They take blood, they do all kinds 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:41.000 of tests for you. I don't have o c D. 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:44.720 I call mine o c O obsessive compulsive order because 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:46.760 one kid in the family had to have it with 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.560 six kids, and my bedroom was off the kitchen and 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.160 had no door, so people could be on the phone 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:54.080 or at the kitchen table and look in at a 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.320 little girl sleeping and I didn't care. I I was 0:11:57.400 --> 0:11:59.760 My oldest sister shared it with me. Then my younger 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:03.000 sister than my brother. I mean, but always my room 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:05.079 had no door. So I think that's how I ended 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:06.840 up in show business. I think the same. I'll tell 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:08.760 my wife, I go, don't you want to let's go 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:10.520 to the opposite here. Don't you want to commend me 0:12:10.559 --> 0:12:12.480 for how neat I am? But would you would you 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:14.760 rather have a husband who didn't want to clean? No? No, 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:18.480 you that you have two biological children, to biological children, 0:12:18.480 --> 0:12:21.280 and they're how old now? They're twenty one is twenty seven, 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:23.480 the other one is five and a half and you 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:25.559 have them doing what phase of your career? What were 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:27.400 you working on at the time you decided to put 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:29.560 the brakes on and have kids? Oh well I had 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:32.560 I had finished um okay, so I finished evening Shade. 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:34.360 I do tell this in my club act because I 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:36.920 always say I couldn't talk about the eighties and nineties 0:12:36.920 --> 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 --> 0:12:44.520 probably why we were able to work together so often. 0:12:44.679 --> 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 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:54.920 go to work and Burt 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 --> 0:13:01.360 leaping over like a fence on a in a like 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:05.160 football stadium stand and I land and then you know, 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:07.120 run up to the team and he says, do it again, 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:09.480 do it again, Do it again, do it again. So 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:11.920 that night I was sitting in a restaurant, and this 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:14.520 is after three and a half years, sitting in a restaurant, 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:16.600 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, 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:22.520 I'm telling you. Contact was made and sure enough I 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.000 was pregnant. So I always tell people Burt Reyll's got 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:27.440 me pregnant, even though he's not the father of my kids. 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.480 He's the spiritual frother Spa. And when you worked with him, 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:34.040 he you did Cannibal too with him. Well, I first 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:36.000 did the man who loved women, and we had such 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.880 a great chemistry the very first day. But he called 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:41.880 me the night that we we met, the very night, 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:43.240 and he said, I want you to come down to 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:46.920 the Dinner theater in Jupiter, Florida. I want you to 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.440 do their playing our song, he said, And I want 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.120 you to do Cannonball Run too, but I want a 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.480 rewrite of the script. Do you know anybody, any of 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:58.240 the guys from Taxi that might be willing to take 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:00.880 a crack at it? I was like, okay, So originally 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:03.880 the Countball I've never told this story before. The Countball 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:08.240 Run to script was about the Dom and Burt sort 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.040 of rescue this girl who's hiding out in a sanitarium 0:14:11.280 --> 0:14:13.560 and she's an heiress, and then they rescue her, and 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:15.880 then she and Burt end up in a thing. And 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:18.360 so then I get Harvey Miller, who was a taxi 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:20.840 writer the job, and he turns it into two women, 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:25.120 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 --> 0:14:29.760 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 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:34.600 movie was so stupid. But there were a couple of 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.440 days where we had like twenty three wagon trains in 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:42.720 the desert outside of Tucson, Arizona, because it was a 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:45.680 hundred and seventeen degrees. So we started hair and makeup 0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:47.480 was at two o'clock in the morning so we could 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:49.600 be on the road before four, and we pulled the 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.480 plug at one. But then everybody hung out at the 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.320 pool at the Arizona Inn. So it was Sammy Davis Jr. 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:57.520 And Dean Martin, all these guys and even Frank for 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:00.200 a day. And to be with Shirley, who My had 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:03.800 always loved and always idle, to play her friend and 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:05.800 then to have her hanging out with the rat pack. 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:07.160 It was like, you know, I was this little girl 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:09.880 from Chicago who's watching these people at drive ins and stuff. 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:12.640 So it was like a lot of fun. Yeah, I 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:15.760 met him. For those people who don't know this, and 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:17.520 I wasn't on a big devotee of this, but I 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:21.160 went a few times. Is that Norby Walter's famous record executive, 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:24.920 Norby Walters had his card game and the legendary card 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:27.840 game at his apartment Wednesday nights and West Wednesday nights 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:29.840 in West Hollywood. You go up to the apartment of 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:34.640 his near Holloway, Yeah, Halloway in last Annaga, Lasiannaga, on 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:36.360 your way to Barney's Beanery and on your way to 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:40.160 the Sunset Marquis and you go to his house. And 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:42.360 I went there. I went a handful of times. You know, 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:48.880 velvita cheese and no alcohol. That was no alcohol, and 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:50.600 you bought a hundred dollars where the chips and when 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:52.760 you were finished, you were done. There was no serious gambling. 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:55.160 And you went there. And I remember sitting there one time, 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:58.680 and there was Harvey Korman and Tim Tim Conway Conway, 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:01.120 the two of them were there one time. Kathy Lee 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:03.640 Crosby would go every now and then Rod Steiger was 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:05.480 there with a couple of times. He was when you 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:08.120 were there, was there when I went. One time he 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:11.360 seemed like he was in the throes of his kind 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:15.240 of medicated agony. But but he but then to the 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:19.240 right of me one time was Don Adams. And Don 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:23.040 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 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:27.000 do this and do the Don Adams thing. So somebody 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:30.640 will puts down two pairs, you know. So he puts 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:32.600 down two pairs, and I put down and I say 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:37.440 I have three kings. I do, and everybody laughs, and 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:41.040 he doesn't laugh. And then finally he smiles and nods 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.280 to be like, Okay, good for you. You you saw 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:45.840 the opportunity and you took it. But he was very 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:50.120 serious and very really super antiseptic and very He was 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:52.280 there to play cards. He didn't want to talk about 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:54.720 his career or chit chatty. Was there to play cards 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:57.280 with a bunch of schmocks. We weren't hard players, were 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:02.800 eating Velvida and Hersy's kisses and drinking on punch. It's 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:05.160 funny you're bringing up Norby Walters because you probably don't 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:07.320 remember this, but we were both supposed to be there 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:12.520 on It was. It was June the seventh of two 0:17:12.600 --> 0:17:15.320 thousand one. Okay, it was a Wednesday at June the 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:19.920 six of two thousand one, seriously, and you called up 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:21.800 and said you weren't gonna make it. He put me 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:24.080 on the phone with you, and I said, you said, 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:25.440 how are you doing? Blah blah blah, And I said 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:29.560 something about I just I'm filing for divorce. And you said, oh, 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.520 can I talk to you about divorce? I said, you said, 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:35.080 let's meet tomorrow. So you and I went to Sushi 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:38.280 Roku on Third Avenue and you were telling me there 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:41.080 was all the pitfalls. This was two thousand one. It 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:43.720 was what happened was we got together because I was 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:47.159 avoiding the process servers because everybody said, oh, you have 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:49.480 to let the woman serve first, because otherwise it looks 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:51.280 like she cheated. Blah blah blah blah blah. And we 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:53.160 were having a friendly divorce, you know, we went away 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:55.520 that weekend and read about it ourselves in the paper. 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:57.679 Rob and I were still friends. You know, I do 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.760 things weird, but he were still like really good friends. 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.399 But anyway, we sat at the sushi roku for like 0:18:03.440 --> 0:18:06.280 two and a half hours and you told me everything 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:08.399 that was going on in what I should watch out for. 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:11.919 I know you remind me your energy and my feelings 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.440 if you remind me of when I was around streisand 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:16.719 once and I said to her, you know, you and 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:18.919 I would be the greatest divorced couple. You know, we 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:20.960 would be married, we'd be in love, maybe we'd have 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:23.639 a kid. Of course, we get divorced. It just has 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:25.640 to be that way to show business. But I come 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:30.400 over every Sunday. We'd have Chinese food screen on exactly. 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:31.800 And I feel the same way about you. You and 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:36.520 I would have made great x. We think very similarly, 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:39.400 and that we have that big family kind of thing. 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:43.240 This is a trite word and This is a trite idea, 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:45.680 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 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:55.080 always been this, like staggeringly positive healthy. What's the secret? Well, 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:57.119 A couple of things come to mind. I had a 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:00.000 really great family. We're still super close. My parents both 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.000 died tragically, both of them very young, and I think 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:05.400 it bonded the family. I did a lot of therapy. 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:08.439 I got my whole family involved in therapy. My my 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:11.800