Dish Night
From page 5 of the January 1979 issue of Take One, here’s their regular gossip column. It’s mainly the stuff about aborted franchise The Ferret that interests us, but the whole thing is certainly worth reprinting in full.DISH NIGHT
WALDO LYDECKERMOTHER’S DAY: So many Moms crowded the promenade of the State Theater at Lincoln Center for the opening of the New York Film Festival that Priscilla of Boston would have been proud. Spurred on by the spirit of the Festival opener, A WEDDING, were Carol Burnett, who brought her mother (as well as he best friend, bubbling Beverly Sills, who brought her mother), Maureen O’Sullivan, who isn’t in the movie but whose daughter, Mia Farrow, is, and the mother of us all, Lillian Gish. Non-maternal types included Gordon Parks and Dina Merrill, Vittoria Gassman, François Truffaut and little Amy Stryker, who came without her braces but with her mother. Phyllis George recorded the whole event for the People TV show and afterwards, Bob Altman led a gaggle of his gang over to NY’s Number Two disco, Xenon, for a post-party-party at which Lauren Hutton (wearing a trenchcoat over an evening gown) danced for photographers with Craig Richard Nelson. She is not camera shy.
THE DISCO FRONT: Bianca Jagger, still threatening to make her movie debut, has now announced that she will settle for making her singing debut instead. Having just served the divorce papers on Mick in London, she hopped the midnight express over to Casablanca Records, where she will shortly be cutting a disco album, a subject on which she is emminently qualified. Meanwhile, an ex-X-rated movie impresario and current love in the life of Ali Macgraw, Larry Spangler, has also thrown his hat into the ring by getting involved with a forthcoming disco environment, probably influence by Ali’s much-talked about performance on the floor of 54.
THE LEGIT FRONT: Where else to turn when you’re washed up in Hollywood but to the East? Broadway, now a Living Late Show, is looking forward to the stage debuts of Gina Lollobrigida, in a musical re-write of her old flick BUONA SERA, MRS. CAMPBELL, as well as Gene Hackman, who will replace Jack Lemmon in TRIBUTE. Liza Minnelli, no stranger to the boards, has expressed an interest in playing Lillian Hellman in an off-Broadway docu-drama about the McCarthy era, ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN…?
COVER STORIES: The week that animal John Belushi was scheduled to appear on the cover of Newsweek, he informed sources that he would only believe it when he saw it. “The Pope will probably die,” he speculated. Lo and behold, His Holiness did, and Belushi had to wait for a couple of weeks until his kisser hit the newsstand. Speaking of covers, it was a toss-up between John Travolta and Mickey Mouse for the cover of the second issue of the new Life magazine. Mickey won.
TOGETHER: Liza Todd and Joe Bottoms, who met while Joe was co-starring with Liza’s mom, the ever-in-peril Liz Taylor Warner, in a made-for-telly movie.
STILL TOGETHER: Bob Evans and Liv Ullman, who were practically everywhere this month, including the big party that the CAA agents threw at Elaine’s for the entire New York movie community.
TOGETHER AGAIN: Marthe Keller and Al Pacino, who re-united for the Actor’s Studio benefit at Roseland and fought a losing battle with the local papparazzi. Marthe is now off to Paris to star in THE THREE SISTERS.
IS / ISN’T: Dudley Moore is playing the lead in Blake Edwards’ 10 opposite Mrs. E., Julie Andrews, now that George Segal isn’t… Paramount isn’t divulging the plot of the big book they just bought by Collins and Lapierre from Simon and Schuster and no one else is either… Ryan O’Neal is in training for THE MAIN EVENT but isn’t on the Scarsdale Diet. Barbra Streisand is.
MORE ON MOORE: Having just come from a literally million-dollar battle front over 10 (see above), Dudley Moore and Blake Edwards will re-team (five times) for a series of pictures based on a character called THE FERRET, a distant cousin of The Pink Panther. The Hanna-Barbera people have already made a licensing deal for Ferret objects and spin-offs, and now all that has to be decided upon is just what the Ferret is.
THINGS LOOK SWELL, THINGS LOOK GREAT for Bette Midler, who, now that she has her ROSE in the can, opened a big show at the London Palladium (attended by, among others, Warner Brothers’ two white hopes, Superman Christopher Reeves and Shining Jack Nicholson), Miss M’s upcoming movie agenda will include a re-make of GYPSY as well as a re-make of TWO FOR THE SEESAW. By then, it will be time for her to re-make THE ROSE.
