November 15, 2006 |
|
|
|
"THERE IS nothing like a dame, nothing in the world/There is nothing you can name that is anything like a dame!" wrote Oscar Hammerstein.
The Peninsula Hotel serves high tea but may never be the same again since 20th Century Fox had me meet there with three of my favorites, as they promoted the company's new release of five famous films offering words and music from "The Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein Collection." Buy it for its quintuple threat.
This DVD includes Shirley Jones in "Oklahoma!" in 1955 and in "Carousel" in 1956, Rita Moreno in "The King and I," 1956, Mitzi Gaynor in "South Pacific," 1958 and Julie Andrews, who wasn't available to join us, in "The Sound of Music," 1965.
Shirley, Rita, Mitzi and I didn't have tea. We were too busy "dishing" show biz, past and present. These women represented several Oscars, Emmys and other awards. Shirley won an Oscar for "Elmer Gantry" in 1961 and then an Emmy only recently. Rita is one of only nine people in show biz history to have won the Oscar (for "West Side Story"), the Tony, the Emmy and the Grammy. Mitzi was nominated for a Golden Globe and stopped the show at the 39th Academy Awards singing and dancing "Georgy Girl." The audience gave her a standing ovation and refused to sit down.
Shirley, fresh from "Oklahoma!" onstage 50 years ago, was tapped for the movie version, even though Hollywood had tested hundreds for her ingenue role. She then went on to make "Carousel" in which she was to co-star with Frank Sinatra. She and Sinatra had already pre-recorded the score. But when Frank discovered the movie was being filmed in two processes, he left the set, refusing to return. Shirley tapped her pal Gordon McRae to play the role of "Billy Bigelow" and the rest is cinematic history.
Sinatra figured also in Mitzi's life. She became one of his pets and when they were making "The Joker Is Wild," she got a chance to audition for "South Pacific." The director refused to let her go but when Sinatra heard about it, he simply said, "We'll shoot around her." Mitzi, already a popular musical star, got the job and played "Nellie Forbush" to international acclaim. She has never forgotten how Sinatra schemed to teach her co-star Rossano Brazzi naughty words, which he thought were good English and Mr. and Mrs. Brazzi went around Hollywood saying vulgar things.
Rita had great tales of working with Yul Brynner when she played "Tuptim" in "The King and I." Yul advised her to do her part with more feelings of womanly resentment and racial pride. So Rita went to the set and let loose a perfect Puerto Rican accent. Yul didn't find this funny and Rita revised her vision of "Tuptim" to be more Siamese.
I could write a book on these three dames and also include my pal Julie Andrews, but better you try this DVD. These great talents bring back the film glory of those American musical stage giants, Rodgers and Hammerstein.
I SEE in the business pages that the insurance mogul Maurice R. Greenberg, the former chairman of American International Group, is interested in buying the Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times.
Mr. Greenberg is raring to get up and go. He is said to have recovered from the rather nasty shock he received when Eliot Spitzer accused him of accounting tricks. He denied the charges and now several of the civil charges in the suit have been dropped. But Mr. Greenberg had to resign from his company. And, Mr. G. hasn't forgotten the people who dropped him over his troubles. I hear tell he has written the kind of slashing tell-all book that will leave his enemies and some of his former friends on the ropes.
Now he seems to want his own newspaper. Listen, he's only 81.
HERE'S ONE I picked up from the elegant Joseph Lucin of the Stella del Mare restaurant. They say Athina Onassis Roussel and her hubby, "Doda," the Brazilian Olympic equestrian medalist (his real name is Alvaro Alfonso de Miranda Neto) have rented a house in Wellington, Fla. That's just west of Palm Beach. The Netos are renting but looking to buy. They already have a house in Brazil. She is the granddaughter of the late Aristotle Onassis and one of the richest young women in the world.
IF YOU like "America's Funniest Home Videos" with ordinary people making one big boo-boo after another, you'll love Barbara Walters' special titled "30 Mistakes in 30 Years." This airs Nov. 16 and 17. Barbara's errors and those of others will be aired. Who? Well, Ronald Reagan, Al Pacino, Will Ferrell, Jim Carrey, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Halle Berry, David Letterman and on and on.
"ALWAYS A godfather, never a god," wisecracked Gore Vidal. Now I see Rosie O'Donnell has become the godmother of a ship, "The Norwegian Pearl." Does she know she has to see to its religious upbringing?
(E-mail Liz Smith at MES3838@aol.com, or write to her c/o Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207.)
©2006 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
|
|
© NEWSDAY INC. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES INC.
|
|
