Spotlight By Fritzi Cohen.

Ihave a friend who is positively hostile about show business celebrities. She's a nurse in the business of saving lives, and she says nobody asks for HER autograph.

Recently we flew to New York together to see LILY TOMLIN in her one-woman show, THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE, for which she deservedly won aTony award. I interviewed Lily several years ago on television when she was in Portland. We became quite friendly and she asked me to help her check the acoustics before her show at City Hall that night. Well, after seeing her brilliant show in New York my friend did me a big favor by going backstage with me to say hello to Lily and congratulate her on her stupendous performance. Dozens of fans were waiting at the stage door for a glimpse or an autograph, but Lily came right o~t to greet me and reminisce about Portland. She was warm and gracious and loving and my cynical friend was bug-eyed. She later admitted that

SPOTLIGHT

BY FRITZI COHEN

"That was really neat. What a terrific lady! I'm impressed." So it seems that there is truly something interesting and magnetic about show biz luminaries that even the most jaded of us will admit. On that premise, SPOTLIGHT will be telling you everything you ever wanted to know about many local and international celebrities.

For instance, would anyone be interested to know that the late distinguished director OlTO PREMINGER was really as caustic and difficult as his reputation made him out to be? I worked with him in TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME, JUNIE MOON, starring LIZA MINNELLI and KEN HOWARD. NANCY MARCHAND (publisher of the newspaper on TV's LOU GRANT), ROBERT MOORE (director of many NeilSimon Broadway hits) and DONNA McKECHNIE (the original Cassie in CHORUS LINE) were also in it, and nobody escaped Preminger's vicious tongue. He could reduce an actor to tears, and in spite of his many huge successes I found him to be a director who really didn't know what he wanted from an actor - but he certainly knew what he didn't want. The other side of the coin was his gentle, sweet devotion, which he constantly demonstrated to his lovely wife and twins who visited him on the set.

Would you be interested in knowing that Hollywood's most prominent and

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prolific film maker, STEVEN SPIELBERG, treats his actors with the most loving care and consideration? When I auditioned for him for a role in JAWS, he was 24 years old and just at the beginning of his incredible career. He saw every actor personally and could not have been friendlier. I was about to read from a script handed to me when he waved it aside and said, "Let's do an improvisationinstead. You're an islander and this guy (another actor) isn't. He wants to rent the Katharine Hepburn suite in your hotel. Who does he think he is? Okay, you know the attitude. Go!" And go we did, and got the parts simply on Steve's gut feeling that we could do it. Our month's work on Martha's Vineyard was no glamorous picnic. It was May and freezing on the beach and in the water (-when it was actually supposed to be in the heat of July), but Steve was always helpful and encouraging. Afte; my audition, as I shook his hand, tsaid, "I have a feeling that you are going to have a dynamite career." To which he replied, "From your mouth to God's ear!" And, of course, JAWS, the obscure story of a big fish entrusted to a young novice director, was a blockbuster and the rest is history.

Would you care at all to know that I was not a bit surprised by Tina Crawford's novel, MOMMY DEAREST, about her mother JOAN? I knew Tina years ago when we were both working at the Kennebunkport Playhouse and I worked briefly with superstar JOAN CRAWFORD at Poland Spring, Maine in SAME PICTURE, DIFFERENT FRAME, an episode of the television series ROUTE 66. At the time Ms. Crawford was married to the Pepsi Cola magnate and she was Lady Bountiful, dispensing Pepsi to the peons on the set. I played a librarian in a scene with PATRICK O'NEAL. The scenario is that he sees me and remembers Crawford in the same setting years before. There's a dissolve and I become Joan in his mind. I had had my hair done, lots of makeup, the works. The word came down that Ms. Crawford needed no competition, so my makeup was removed and my hair waN3ulled back off the face and dowdy. Only then was the star pacified, without ever saying one word of any kind to me. Oh well, the residuals keep coming!

Would you like to hear an amusing Continued on page 22

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Continued from page 21 story about Oscar- T ony-Grammy-Emmy award winner RITA MORENO? We were in a production of Neil Simon's smash hit PRISONER OF SECOND

A VENUE at the Northshore Music .Theatre in Beverly, Massachusetts. JESS CAIN, Boston's hottest radio personality and actor, played the male lead. After each performance fans by the dozens crowded outside to get autographs. Rita seemed to take forever to leave, but I got out quickly each night without bothering to remove my makeup. I was thrilled and flattered when they rushed over to me since I was not the "star" until I realized that they thought I was Moreno. It was quite dark, and she and I are about the same size and coloring. So I said nothing and just signed "Best wishes, Rita Moreno." I told her about this after opening night and suggested she get outside faster, but she never did. So, I started signing

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"Best wishes, Chita Rivera." You see, Rivera and Moreno were often in competition for roles and were well-known rivals. When I told Rita what I was doing, she scooted out of that theatre so fast each night you'd have thought it was on fire!

I did the same play with wonderful ART CARNEY at the Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, Connecticut and found him to be a quiet, serious, gentle man who may very well be the most hard-working, professional craftsman in the business. Each night before the curtain rose, Mr. Carney would check to see that every prop was in place, that every piece of furniture was where it should be. It was a nightly ritual, and that curtain did not move until he was satisfied that all was well. He is a brilliant actor who is incapable of a wrong stage move beeause he does not have a phony bone in his body. Completely real and honest, the world now knows his h\ige talent goes far beyond the comieal Ed Norton. Carney told me he never considered himself a comedian ... only an actor who did comedy.

Future SPOTLIGHTs will cover the local performing arts scene along with in-depth interviews of electric, intriguing personalities. Should the local crea- . tive cupboard be bare, you might just want to know some more about show biz characters that I have worked with, reviewed, or interviewed during many years as actress, television critic, and reporter.

Just to name-drop a few that might pique your curiosity are PAUL NEWMAN, TALLULAH BANKHEAD, IMOGENE COCA, JOAN FONTAINE, MERV GRIFFIN, ED ASNER, MICHAEL NOURI, JANE MORGAN, ROBERT DeNIRO, ELAINE STRITCH, GEORGE C. SCOTT, PHYLLIS DILLER and SIDNEY POITIER.

Any suggestions? Send them in and we'll give them our best shot. Surveys proclaim that right now Maine, particularly Portland, is where it's happening. We'll try to fillyou in on what and when it's happening. They are right on the money. This is a dynamite town!

And I've just realized, as I sit at the typewriter in my study wearing jeans and no makeup, that this beats television, stage, and filmby a mile. It doesn't matter how I look!

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