SHIRLEY MACLAINE MAY be more famous these days for metaphysical musings than for movie stardom, but I can’t forget her indelible performances in some of my very favorite sister flicks. (Terms of Endearment? Steel Magnolias?) Today, for her 75th birthday, I want to toast Shirley MacLaine in a way I didn’t really have the chutzpah to do properly the one time I met her. Once upon a time, you see, I worked in Hollywood.
I mostly made movies for cable television, a few good, others, not so. I was not powerful, by anyone’s definition, but it’s an occupational hazard of working in film or television to encounter celebrities, some so-called, some the center of paparazzi-madness. I had many meetings with people whose fame ranged from slightly over the hill (I remember a particularly odd afternoon spent with an aging TV cowboy and several cast members from Dallas) to stratospheric (Brangelina, anyone?)
Near the end of my tinsel-town tenure, the company I worked for acquired the television rights to the first (and, I am pretty sure, the only) feature film ever directed by Shirley MacLaine. Somehow, the completion of the deal necessitated a dinner with my boss, our (lovely) PR guy, Shirley, and me. My 40-something boss was (presumably still is) a nice guy who couldn’t decide whether he was starstruck (Sweet Charity! Terms of Endearment!) or vaguely embarrassed to be seen at a star-packed restaurant with (instead of a starlet?) a legendary actress who still had unbelievably great legs but was now better known for new-age enthusiasms than sex appeal.
I spent most of that evening not enjoying my chopped salad or the opportunity to mine the wisdom of a great actor about what it was like working with Bob Fosse, starring with Jack Lemmon in possibly the greatest comedy ever (The Apartment–you have seen it, haven’t you??), hanging out with the Rat Pack, or getting her big break working with Alfred Hitchcock. I didn’t even figure out how to work in a question, or seven, about what it’s like to be Warren Beatty‘s sister. I worried, instead, about whether my boss would embarrass himself, or worse, me; whether or not I was dressed appropriately for the occasion (what is the prescribed wardrobe for dinner with a movie star, anyway?) In other words, I worried about what Shirley would think of me.
What in the world was I afraid of? I should have kicked up my heels like Charity and enjoyed the experience. Maybe that would have livened up a night that had to have been as tedious for Miss MacLaine as it was anxiety-ridden for me. Today is Shirley’s 75th birthday, and as my gift to her, I’d like to offer an apology for failing to enjoy her company while I had the chance. I’m going to try to take her advice and grow a bit more sage with age.
On the other hand, maybe I’ll get a second chance in the next life? In the meantime, check out our take on some of Shirley’s greatest roles, in our Sister Flicks Master List.
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I went to an “open” high school — classes as such didn’t exist, we worked on our own. Instead of a home room teacher, we had teacher-advisors — the same one for all three years of high school.
Mine looked just like Shirley MacLaine.
She had red hair, cut short. Great legs. She was a nun who had escaped the convent, and had married a man 18 years younger than she was. She had a nifty little BMW that she used to race down the highway.
I think Mrs. Topping must be Ms.MacLaine’s twin sister; a version of herself living in Canada…
I’ve really loved watching Shirley MacLaine over the years — Irma LaDouce (love Jack Lemon!), The Apartment, The Trouble with Harry — I just wish she were still making appearances in film these days. Miss her.
Is Marion Bridge (film) on the sisflix list?