THIS PAST TUESDAY I SPENT THE AFTERNOON VISITING WITH DEBBIE AT HER HOUSE.
I tried to visit her every three weeks. On this Tuesday's visit, she wanted to talk about death. It wasn't the first time, and it's never unusual for someone who is 84 1/2 to want to talk about it. We talked a long time. It was very much on her mind. It was a private conversation and will stay that way, but it felt good to both of us.
As I got up to leave she said, "It's almost New Year's. I'll see you right after. I love you."
"And you know how much I love you," I replied.
We smiled at each other and I turned and started to walk away. After about four steps I was seized with the feeling that I would never see her again. It was fleeting, but I made sure I turned around and made eye contact with her before I left. Thank God I did, and thank you God for giving me the gift of being with her the day before Carrie was supposed to come home.
Pneumonia leaves you very weak and is a slow recovery. I'm having a typical recovery. Each day I get a TINY (and I mean TINY) bit better. Basically, you sleep a lot and then try to walk. What fun.
FLORENCE WAS FUNNY, BAWDY, SPECIAL, AND SUCH A PRO. WE LAST SAW EACH OTHER IN SEPTEMBER WHEN, THANK GOD, SHE CAME DOWN TO PALM SPRINGS AND WE SPENT TWO DAYS TOGETHER. WHAT A GIFT IT WAS----REMINISCING FOR TWO DAYS AND NIGHTS. I CAN'T WRITE ANYMORE. I'M CRAZED AND DEVASTATED.
Ann Hampton Callaway, Florence Henderson, Florence's manager of over 30 years and dear friend, Kayla Pressman, and Me. ALTHOUGH LUCIE ARNAZ WASN'T IN THIS SHOT, WE WERE ALL TOGETHER.
And, to Kayla Pressman, my heart goes out to you.. I totally get it.
THIS IS THE EPISODE THAT IS "MERRIN'S" SHOW, PEOPLE. THOSE OF YOU IN SHOW BUSINESS WHO HAVE EVER BEEN PART OF AN ENSEMBLE CAST, KNOW THAT THERE IS ALWAYS ONE EPISODE SET ASIDE TO LET EACH CAST MEMBER SHINE.
TONIGHT IS MERRIN'S TURN!
WATCH HER! DVR HER! JUST GO FOR IT AND KNOCK YOURSELF OUT. IT'S A VERY C0NTROVERSIAL EPISODE.
The magnifcent J.P., son of my friend and USC champ football player Ed Blecksmith, died on this day in 2004. He was killed on a rooftop in Falluja while trying to save his men. I will never let him be forgotten.
I'M SAYING IT NOW, BEFORE THE ELECTION, BECAUSE I WANT TO MAKE SURE IT IS INTERPRETED AS AN UNBIASED COMMENT.
THE POPULAR VOTE SHOULD DETERMINE WHO IS ELECTED. PERIOD. THE TIME HAS LONG PASSED WHEN THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION SET UP THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE. DO YOU KNOW THAT AN ELECTOR DOESN'T EVEN HAVE TO VOTE THE WAY THE STATE DOES? READ THE FINE PRINT. THIS IS A LUDICROUS SYSTEM.
Today, on THE VIEW, Kellyanne Conway was hugged and kissed by the very liberal Joy Behar. "I really like you," said Joy to Kellyanne. "You have shown up here every time, and answered everything we've asked. You've been calm and straightforward."
Joy has the attitude we all should have. Someone who is good at their job, is just that---good at their job. It's not about personal beliefs. Kellyanne Conway has gone on every show and behaved well. She was hired by Donald Trump, a new client for her company, to run his campaign and represent him in the media. She was hired to represent a client. No more, no less. I'm sick of people ripping others apart because their beliefs are not the same.
Kellyanne graduated from Trinity College in Washington, D.C. with a degree in political science. She then earned her law degree from George Washington University. Her firm, in addition to political consulting, has also done survey work for ABC News, LADIES HOME JOURNAL, American Express, and Major League Baseball. Kellyanne is married to lawyer George Conway, and is the mother of four children. She is a successful businesswoman, wife, and mother.
No matter who wins the election, Kellyanne's future is as bright as the Hope Diamond. You just watch and see. The big winners through all the morass to which be have been subjected are Kellyanne, Megyn Kelly, Ana Navarro and Nicolle Wallace. Kellyanne and Megyn are more well-known than Ana and Nicolle. Ana and Nicolle are frustrated Republican women who have remained true to their principles throughout this campaign. None of these women has had an easy road. Bravo to all of you for rising above and keeping your dignity.
VAL CHMERKOVSKIY and LAURIE HERNANDEZ danced to "Pure Imagination." It was Laurie who discovered Jane's version and asked the show to let them dance to it. Val and Laurie were standing right next to where Jane and I were sitting (right next to the stage) and when Val introduced Laurie to Jane, her jaw dropped and her eyes opened wide. It was a total surprise to Laurie. I, of course, told Val earlier, that he was Jane's favorite dancer. There was a moment on stage when there was a commercial that Val looked right at Jane and winked at her. Ok So maybe Jane and I felt like teenagers, but it was SO CUTE. Thank you, Val, for getting us the great seats. And you and Laurie really deserved those 10s.
SHARNA BURGESS hurt her knee badly last week and couldn't dance with JAMES HINCHCLIFFE. James had to switch partners and was now dancing with Jenna. What the audience didn't see was Sharna, standing on stage next to James, hugging him, giving him last minute instructions, and wishing Jenna good luck. She literally was on stage until two seconds before they were back live.
RYAN LOCHTE had to be on stage at the beginning of his number ,while Cheryl was on the dance floor. Two male pros were with him because they were dancing at the top of the number. Ryan's arms were shaking and he said, "I just can't relax." With that, one of the two dancers started rubbing Ryan's shoulders saying, "There, there man. You'll be ok."
IF JANA KRAMER AND HER DANCING PRO GLEB aren't having an affair, they should be. Off-camera they were very "familiar." I hope it's true. She deserves gorgeous Gleb.
Just before DEREK HOUGH and MARILU HENNER were going to dance, they took their places during commercial. She was on stage; he was on the floor. He could see how nervous she was, and he ran back to the stage to take her hands and say, "It's ok. You're going to be great." He made it back to his mark with one second to spare before the lights came up.
OK. So, I'm a bit sappy I thought it was all very sweet.
AND, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANE-----
YOUR DANCING WITH THE STARS DREAM CAME TRUE
Hanging in the green room--U-Jung Jung, Jane's bestie, Jane and Me
ALEXANDRA DWEK'S FRIENDS WITH CAUSES SHINES A LIGHT ON ALZHEIMER'S
Patti Davis and Kate Edelman Johnson
"When my father first got sick there was no place I could go for information on Alzheimer's. I couldn't find support groups; there was no one to talk to. People AND hospitals don't really like to talk about it. They think Alzheimer's is a dirty little secret. Awhile back a major hospital in Los Angeles I was working with for a period of time told me that they don't try very hard at all to even seek donations for Alzheimer's because it 'isn't sexy.' Can you believe that?"
Well, Patti decided to take matters into her own hands and founded Beyond Alzheimer's, a support group for the families and loved ones of those with the disease. Wonderful St. John's Hospital is working with her by providing space and experts to talk to her group. Patti has personally been leading a support group every Tuesday and Thursday for years. After losing her father she has chosen to devote her life to helping. I was extremely impressed with the remarkable woman she is.
"My father had Alzheimer's, but his soul did not. I always had a feeling he was 'in there,' and I was right. When he started getting really sick, his blue eyes turned gray and vacant. They were that way for years. Just before he died, my mother and I were sitting on the bed. Suddenly he opened them and looked right at her. His eyes were back to that bright blue and he looked completely conscious and clear the way he did before he got sick. He was absolutely present to say good bye to my mother. I was right. His soul was there all along," said Patti.
But to be successful in keeping a charity going, you need a special angel. When Patti lost the funding of the prior hospital she was with, in stepped Kate Edelman Johnson, whose husband, Deane F. Johnson, also died of the disease.
"My husband was chairman of O'Melveny & Myers, a director of Time-Warner, president of the Pittsburgh Pirates, a trustee of AFI and Cal Tech, and served on many boards. It was heartbreaking watching him be robbed of his life. I am determined to do everything I can to fund research to end this terrible disease. I created a foundation in his name, and when I heard about what Patti was doing I had to help," said Johnson, fighting back tears.
"Alzheimer's devastates families, and another subject people don't talk enough about is caregivers. My sister has been diagnosed now with the disease, and I'm going through it all over again. Fortunately, my husband's caregiver, Anne McEvoy, is taking care of my sister, too. She's here tonight and is one of the most incredible people Ive ever known."
We all started applauding, many of us with tears in our eyes. It was a very moving evening. This is what makes Friends with Causes so great. We get up close and personal with the hands-on people making these private, personal fights to make this a better world.
Caregiver Anne McEvoy and Katy Strouk
Ann Archer
Vanessa Sandin, Donna Antebi, Me, Barbara Grant Jaynes
Lisa Jarien and Joyce Arad
Leslie McMorrow and Heidi Johnson
Hope Smith and Megan Aubrey
Meg Thomas, Alison Bette (standing) and Linda Jensen
Norman Brokaw was my father's friend who took me under his wing when I first became a columnist. He was like my uncle, and we had lunch and worked together for over 40 years. I am heartbroken, but so grateful he is free.
He was a beloved man who took me to Hillcrest Country Club, the Beverly Hills Hotel, or Spago many times a year. He was also Kim Novak's agent (among many other huge stars) for her entire career.
"Even though I knew it was coming, I am in shock at the loss of my friend," said Kim. "I've known him since he was the messenger who delivered scripts to my house and then rose all the way to chairman of the board. He will be in my heart forever. All my love to his wife, Marguerite, and their family."
And a special thank you from Kim and me to Mary Feinberg, Norman's assistant for decades, who, until this very morning, was still at her desk doing an extraordinary job for Norman. God bless you, Mary.
Norman Brokaw, Innovative, Powerful Agent at William Morris, Dies at 89
AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
William Morris
agent Norman Brokaw, who rose from the mailroom of the fabled agency to
chairman-CEO in a career that spanned seven decades, has died at home
in Beverly Hills. He was 89.
Brokaw packaged talent for radio, paving the way for similar, highly
lucrative agency efforts in television and, indeed, helped start WMA’s
television division, luring major film stars to TV. His contract
negotiations for actress Kim Novak led to increased profit participation
deals for talent, and he guided the career of Bill Cosby. Brokaw was
also a pioneer in signing sports stars to talent deals.
In 1943, the 15-year-old Brokaw was employed delivering mail for
Morris at $25 a week, and he became the first employee to use this route
to becoming an agent, paving the way for countless other agents and
executives including Michael Ovitz, Barry Diller, Sue Mengers and David
Geffen. He was the nephew of Morris agent Johnny Hyde and rose by
getting to know the inner workings of the agency.
One
of his duties was to travel across town to the major studios to
retrieve weekly paychecks for the agency’s clients. This job not only
gave him entree to the hallowed offices of top studio executives but
made him privy to the salaries of both major and minor players. That
information proved to be his ticket out of the mailroom. “One day, while
I was serving coffee at a motion picture department meeting,” he
recalled, “one of the agents was discussing a particular actor’s asking
price, which he said was at $4,500 a week. Without thinking, I blurted
out, ‘Four thousand.’ ”
His
knowledge and attention to detail was rewarded. He was initially
assigned to help out with vaudeville and radio clients as Morris’ first
junior agent under Ben Holzman, who represented such talents as Al
Jolson and Eddie Cantor.
Brokaw developed radio programs by integrating talent repped by the
agency — writers, producers, stars and directors — work that provided
the foundation for TV packaging.
In the early ’50s he was commandeered by then-agency head Abe
Lastfogel to help start the agency’s television division. “My first
thought was, Is this a step backwards?” he once recalled. Lastfogel
assured him that television was the future.
(Photo by Catherine Leroy; Courtesy of Brokaw family)
Brokaw was a pioneer in coaxing major feature film names to the
medium, starting with Loretta Young and Barbara Stanwyck. He later
personally guided the enormously successful career of Bill Cosby. Among
his other clients were Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, Clint Eastwood,
Andy Griffith, Kim Novak, Danny Thomas and Hank Aaron. His contract
negotiation for Novak in the mid-’50s was a turning point for actors,
increasing their power to command profit participation in their films.
When the agency was looking to further expand its base of operation
in the 1970s, Brokaw signed major sports figures like Mark Spitz, skater
Linda Fratianne and baseballers Hank Aaron and Steve Garvey and
political names such as former president Gerald Ford and his wife under
the agency umbrella, developing multimedia, multimillion-dollar deals
for them that went beyond the typical product endorsements. He added
similar clients in former surgeon general C. Everett Koop and Israel’s
Menachem Begin and negotiated international deals for President Jimmy
Carter and Henry Kissinger.
In 1976, he broadened his duties by signing television news
personalities starting with Kelly Lange. The agency later signed Hugh
Downs, Jane Pauley, Leslie Stahl and Geraldo Rivera. In later years he
also signed O.J. Simpson prosecutors Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden
to major book and television deals. More recent clients included Brooke
Shields, Priscilla Presley, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Ivana Trump, Tony
Randall and Mary Hart.
Brokaw was born in New York and moved to Los Angeles in his teens. By
1951 he was a senior agent in motion pictures and television and in
1974 was named a worldwide vice president of William Morris.
Taking actors with some film profile like Barbara Britton, Diane Lynn
and Wanda Hendrix as well as B-movie directors who could work on tight
budgets and abbreviated schedules, Brokaw helped fill the rosters of the
fledgling medium of television. By packaging major names like Young and
Stanwyck for TV, he helped legitimize the medium for bigscreen stars
and extend their careers well into middle age. Other Brokaw clients soon
followed, including Susan Hayward and Ann Sothern.
But his greatest coup was guiding Cosby’s career into an
entertainment empire, starting with Brokaw’s suggestion to producer
Sheldon Leonard that he sign Cosby as Robert Culp’s co-star on the
series “I Spy.” That made Cosby the first African-American cast as a top
star in a network television series By the mid-’80s Cosby was back and
bigger than ever with “The Cosby Show,” which generated more than $1
billion in revenues.
Cosby left WME for CAA in 2012, ending his 48-year association with
Brokaw. That concluded one of the longest agent-star relationships in
the history of the business.
In 1989 Brokaw was elected president and chief executive officer of the agency and in 1991 he moved up to chairman and CEO.
In the wake of the 2009 merger of the William Morris Agency and
Endeavor, Brokaw was named chairman emeritus of the newly christened
WME. He was still actively representing his roster: Cosby, Presley,
Ivana and Ivanka Trump and Novak, as well as some writers.
In August 2010 Brokaw received the Academy of Television Arts &
Sciences’ Governors Award, which salutes an individual, company or
organization that has made a substantial impact and demonstrated the
extraordinary use of television. He became the first agent ever to
receive the honor.
“Norman’s extraordinary career achievements have helped shape the
entertainment industry and its ‘best practices’ rules of business,” TV
Academy chairman-CEO John Shaffner said.
Brokaw also maintained a profile as a philanthropist, serving on the
board of directors of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and St. Jude
Children’s Research Hospital. In addition Brokaw was president and
co-founder of the Betty Ford Cancer Center.
He was a long-standing member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
Brokaw leaves behind his wife, Marguerite Longley, six children and four grandchildren.
LISTEN TO THIS STORY. WHAT YOU HEAR ON THE NEW CAN HAPPEN TO YOU
I was driving down a main street today taking a friend to the airport. I had made a turn fro a side street onto the main street. Within a few seconds a small yellow sedan started following me, honking, and trying to cut me off. He followed too closely from behind and was honking; he went to the side and tried to push me to the side; he went in front and tried to block me. Then man inside was yelling. I had to stop at a light and he held up an LAPD badge, but it wasn't in the customary small black folding case or the black holder. The badge was on a long strap at the top, and the letters LAPD were on bold, vertically below. I put down my window a bit and he yelled, "Pull over. I've been following you since that turn." He was very angry. I looked around very carefully. He was not driving a police car. It was a yellow, not-made-in-US car, and IT HAD NO LICENSE PLATES. You know how when you have a new car and drive it off the lot it has paper where the plates are supposed to be? I also noticed there was no ID sticker on the windshield. Without getting into too many traceable details, he was not born in the U.S. I could tell by his accent. He was wearing plain clothes that looked like they came from Brooks Bros. In no way did he look like any kind of policeman. When he yelled again to pull over I yelled back, "No! I don't believe you are a policeman! I am not resisting arrest. I'm going to call the police on YOU!" He kept yelling, and my window was down enough so he could hear. He saw me dial my phone and I held it up to him as he heard me describe him and his car to the police. "Do you hear me? I'm talking to the police right now!" I shouted and pointed to the phone. And then he drove off. I made sure that I gave the police my name, number, car type, and license, so in case he tried anything funny, or in case another "policeman" or real policeman came by, my report would be on record and no games could take place. The police on the other end of the line were sending officers to find him and his car. I gave them his location. You see things like this on the news and you hear about fake policemen in uniform pulling women over to assault them. Well...............not on my watch. I don't care who you think you are, or what badge you flash. You've heard the expression "safety first?" Well, where I'm concerned it's MINE.
JANE MONHEIT'S SONG, 'PURE IMAGINATION" HAS BEEN CHOSEN BY LAURIE HERNANDEZ AND VAL CHMERKOVSKIY TO DANCE TO THIS MONDAY NIGHT
OMG!!!! OMG!!!!
Olympic Gold Medalist Laurie Hernandez is a huge fan of Jane's, and suggested the song to Val. God Bless Laurie's good taste. She's giving Jane an incredible present. Jane is "Dancing" freak, and has watched every single episode. And, her favorite dancer is Val. For years, each time I go to the show and see Val, I send her a picture of us. It has become a "thing." For us to be able to go together now to see them dance to her song....
DO YOU THINK I'M KIDDING? I'M NOT. IF A WOMAN CAN HAVE A VAGINAL "REJUVENATION" WHY CAN'T A MAN "BEAUTIFY" A NOT NECESSARILY LOVELY PART OF HIS BODY, TOO? SCROTOX------BOTOX FOR THE SCROTUM. IT'S REAL AND IT'S HAPPENING NOW. IT'S SMOOTHS OUT THOSE UNSIGHTLY WRINKLES......
Why I am I posting things like Talluluah Willis' disgusting porn shot or talking about SCROTOX right now? Because I'm sick of politics and we all need some distractions.
