I hate myself at least a little for posting this, but it’s been driving me nuts.
I just read Rita Mae Brown’s autobiography Rita Will (which I don’t recommend- she’s a self-exonerating insensitive egomaniac who for all her literary pretensions resorts to the old “screw n’ tell” formula to sell copy). When discussing her late 1970s-early 1980s relationship with Fannie Flagg, she mentions Flagg’s earlier live-in lover. She calls her Katie O’Reilly but points out this isn’t her real name and gives these hints as to her personality:
-She’s a blonde actress with a “heart shaped face” who was around 40 in the late 1970s (b. ca. 1935-1940)
-She was on a long running TV show prior to the mid-70s but left it for a “prominent role in a major movie”, after which her career dried up
-She was back on TV in the late 1990s
-She was never married and while not exactly openly gay never lied about her sexuality
-She’s described as very intelligent and very kind
-She’s of Irish ancestry
Scurrilous as it is, I’ve been trying to figure it out. I can think of several people who match a few but nobody who matches all. Best bets:
Lily Tomlin (left LAUGH IN for NASHVILLE then had a career slump and was on Murphy Brown in the late 1990s; certainly seems intelligent but she’s not blonde or beautiful and I think she was already with Jane Wagner in the late 1970s)
Estelle Parsons- she had a prominent role in Bonnie & Clyde then lots of nothing, and she was on a TV series in the late 1960s (Roseanne), but I don’t know of any previous TV work. The imdb doesn’t tell if she’s ever been married.
Polly Holliday- was in a character role in some major movies, left ALICE and was on TV in the late 1990s; she’is attractive and never married, but the timing is off.
Of course, also always the chance that Brown may have lied about one or more of the clues as a red herring. Still, any clues?
And she’s the shittiest dialogue writer I’ve ever read. I didn’t know she wrote anything but the Sneaky Pie Brown novels, which are all I’ve read, but when I first started to get serious about writing, she was the first author I read that had to go. Her dialogue is the worst, and I was literally throwing the book across the room when I realized how bad it was.
Sorry, don’t have a clue who she’s talking about, though.
For me that was Anne Rice; how she’s sold 100 million books I’ll never know. (OTOH, Fannie Flagg has one of the best ears for dialogue since Flannery O’Connor.)
Kate Mulgrew is Irish Catholic, has a heart shaped face, was in her 30s (not 40s) by the mid 1970s. Was on “Ryan’s Hope” and did the “Mrs. Columbo” stuff in the 1970s. Then did not have any really significant roles (but was working plenty) until she got the role of Capt. Janeway on “Voyager” in the 90s.
Alas, not blond and I can’t really think of a filmatic “prominent role.” Oh, and I think she was formerly married. (So that definitely takes her out of the running if the mystery woman was “never married”.)
I read that book and hated it! It’s the only one of Brown’s books I’ve read and, frankly, it didn’t show me much. What pissed me off was Brown’s implying that she ghost wrote Flagg’s first book. My response upon reading that, was to think: “Sure, honey – dyslexic or not, Fannie Flagg can write circles around you!”
As for the mystery lady – well, my first thought was Joan Blondell. She had a movie career, then did TV in the late '60s - early '70s (Here Come the Brides). I didn’t know her age, nor her sexual preference, nor anything else about her, but the description in the book just put me in mind of her.
Well, I just did a little research and I was totally barking up the wrong tree with Miss Blondell… She was too old (born in '06 I was surprised to see) and died too early (in 1979) to be the mystery lady. She did have blond hair and a heart-shaped face, though, and a warm and friendly on-screen persona – I suppose that’s why I thought of her. Here she is in a cute shot from the early days of her career. Isn’t she adorable?
Donna Douglas was my first guess too, but she’s been married twice. Second guess was Barbara Eden, but she’s also been married. Third guess was Shirley Hemphill, but she was born too late.
Hence, I said it takes her out of the running. The mystery woman was never married, and Mulgrew was married a long time ago (though that one didn’t last). I didn’t know she’d remarried, but my original observation remains.
El Mariachi that’s what I was thinking too. It’s hard to tell though exactly what is meant by “long running series” and if her role was a big one on it.
I’m thinking that something like the hair colour was a red herring to throw folks off the scent. Or perhaps it was “Spanish descent” instead of “Irish” or some similar switcheroo to confuse us.
Shirley Hemphill and Fannie Flagg… thank you for that charming image. I’ll have to do something for you one day (and it may involve invoking a mental image of Sammy Davis Jr. and Buddy Hackett in a dinner theater production of DELIVERANCE).
[QUOTE] Originally posted by Jess
**What pissed me off was Brown’s implying that she ghost wrote Flagg’s first book. **
Especially when the book was based on Flagg’s aunt and appeared a decade after they broke up. I was also pissed at her continual assertions that “Fannie is the person I love the most” and “Fannie is as much a sister as a lover” and blah blah mingled with stories about how “Fannie isn’t secure enough to be openly gay”. Okay, if you love somebody so much and you know that they don’t want to be outed, why do you out them? Plus, every bad thing that has ever happened in her life was the result of somebody else’s stupidity, every break up was because of the other person’s immaturity, every screenplay that didn’t work was because of the director or actor, etc.- just a very “I’m so wonderful it’s a shame that more aren’t me” piece of crap.
Except for the blond hair, it sounds a lot like Sheila James (Kuehl). She’s about the right age (b. 1941), had a role in a long-running TV show (Dobie Gillis), and while she did not leave the show for a movie role, she had been slated for a spin-off, but that show didn’t get off the drawing board. She later appeared in a couple of Dobie Gillis sequels.
She’s extremely intelligent, having taught law. I don’t know if she’s a nice person, but why not?
The only reason I’m even mentioning this is because Sheila James is now openly gay. I have heard her say in interviews that she kept that a secret while she was working on Dobie Gillis, but I don’t know when she came out, or, for that matter, if she ever had a live-in partner.
You should try world history according to Rita Mae and Jessica Salmondsen( no they didn’t write a book together)… I fell over laughing at assertions of past female equality during the early Medieval Period. My favorite was about a condotteiri troop of some 12 THOUSAND women! Honey there werent 12, 000 women in France at one time during the Middle Ages. Much less ones that were professional soldiers.
It can’t be Kuehl, as she hasn’t acted in the late 1990’s (she’s been in the California Legislature since 1994), and, as far as I know, hasn’t appeared in any major films.
