GEORGE CHRISTY
George Christy
and I have to work with them.” She was stoned. We hung up the phone.
Oddly,
several nights later we bumped into each other, and we anticipated a n o t h e r tongue-lashing. She was at full gallop, calling me “honey”, “darling” and “sweetie pie.”
Author Photograph © Kurt Smeddon
F
Brian Kellow, the author of Can I Go Now, The Life Of Sue Mengers, Hollywood’s First Superagent, celebrated the publication with Sherry Lansing and Billy Friedkin at their Bel-Air estate.
H
adn’t we heard it all? No? Serving Uncle Sam for three years as we did, our army buddies cursed loud and long and imaginatively. Nothing, however, compared to the invective from talent agent Sue Mengers, when we experienced her Big Mouth.
T
he incident came to mind as we prowled into Brian Kellow’s mightily entertaining and richly readable biography. Can I Go Now? The Life Of Sue Mengers, Hollywood’s First Superagent, about the highs and lows of her tough, screwyou personality. A character with a raging ego that likely underscored a raging insecurity.
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arbra Streisand became Sue’s Big Kahuna client, others included Candice Bergen, Michael Caine, Ryan and Tatum O’Neal, Ali MacGraw, Gene Hackman. When Barbra voiced fear about safety after the Manson murders, Sue countered, “Don’t worry … stars aren’t being murdered, only featured players.”
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er dinner parties were hot stuff. Floating in her designer caftans, Sue never stopped smoking pot in one hand, a cigarette in the other. The press crowned her a Big Deal.
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bout that tongue-lashing we received from Sue, the encounter revolves around fashion empress Diana Vreeland (editor of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar), who was visiting family in Los Angeles.
Page 6 | September 11, 2015
J
ean Howard was hosting a dinner party for Diana. A former Ziegfeld Girl from Texas, Jean had been pursued by Charlie Feldman, a Casanova of a talent agent wooing new beauties for stardom. Charlie represented Greta Garbo, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall. After Jean and Charlie married, their Saturday night parties at the 2000 Coldwater Canyon villa were the talk of the town.
T
he notoriety of the Jean/Charlie good times established Jean as a hostess you should know. Excited about being invited to her first Jean Howard party, Sue asked us to pick her up. We had a complex deadline for our Great Life column in The Hollywood Reporter, planned skipping drinks and arriving later for Jean’s Texas-themed dinner.
“I
’ll let you off the hook,” Sue said. “Do me a favor and find someone who’s young and blond, blue-eyed and straight and hot-blooded as my escort.” We politely sent a taxi to deliver Sue, and asked for an okay to quote her in our column about the Straight and Hot Blooded date.
“Y
ou like that?” she replied. “Be my guest.”
T
he weekday “trades,” socalled of The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, were delivered early to the Hollywood players, and at 9 A.M., the phone rang, and we heard Banshee screeches. Curses with volcanic vulgarity.
“How dare you write I
wanted somebody straight to pick me up. Where the hell have you been all these years, asshole,” Sue screamed. “Hollywood’s full of gay clients,
o r many, Sue’s alias could have been M a d a m Goddam, and we’re convinced the local crowd and global Hollywood fans will relish Brian Ke l l o w ’s r o u n d l y researched biography. More than 200 interviews, with a marathon of anecdote,. Brian has her down pat. Even as to how she spellbounded Israel President Shimon Perez with gossip about the sexcapades of Tinsel Towners.
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avalcades of celebrities parade through Brian’s 326 pages. Diana Ross, Paul Newman, David Geffen, Barry Diller, Robert Evans, Jacqueline Bisset, Joanna and Sidney Poitier, Gore Vidal, Princess Margaret, Jack Nicholson, Steven Spielberg, Julia Roberts, Warren Beatty, Dyan Cannon, Ann-Margret, Burt Reynolds, Rod Stewart, Anjelica Huston, Eliott Gould, Jessica Lange, Cybill Shepherd, Peter Bogdanovich, Steve McQueen. On and on. Dish upon dish.
B
illy Wilder was not a fan, describing her as “nothing worse than a self-hating Jew.” Brian Kellow reports a friend of Sue’s believed, “Her Jewishness was a Jewishness of convenience. She was Jewish when she was with Jews, and wasn’t when she was with antiSemites.” Introduced to a mountain climber, she balked, “You know what? Jews own banks. We don’t climb.”
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n Saint-Tropez one summer, Sue and Jean-Claude were houseguesting with Joan Collins and Robin Hurlstone, with Jean-Claude confessing “his decades-old affair with Jean-Pierre Aumont … and the conversation turned to married men sleeping with other men. ‘Oh, my honey had a few experiences like that when he was a baby,’ Sue sighed dismissively, with Jean-Claude pointing out that at the time of his affair with Aumont he was 28.”
W
hen the conversation turned to circumcision, Sue
said, “‘My honey is circumcised.’
“’N
o, I’m not,’ said Jean-Claude.
“’Yes, you are.’ “Jean-Claude was incred-
ulous. ‘For God’s sake, we’ve been married all these years, and you don’t know?’
S
ue purred, “I thought it was rude to look.’”
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he could be fiercely witty, her barbs amused the Who and the Who. She retired during the mid-’80s, her career viewed as passé. Her health waned. Heart disease, a quadruple bypass, throat cancer (that smoking!), diabetes. She lost her life in 2011 at age 79.
“S
ue bathed in her clients’ fame,” recalled Tuesday Weld.
B
rian Kellow arrived from Manhattan this week with partner Scott Barnes. Welcomed and feted they were by Sherry Lansing (forever known as Our Girl), who’s devoting philanthropic energies to battling cancer, and her man about cinema and opera, Billy Friedkin (The French Connection, Exorcist). They celebrated the book’s publication with an at-home drinks party for Brian and Scott at their luxurious Bel-Air hilltop estate.
O
nce you spot the valet runners and their maestro Joel Groves from Chuck’s Valet Parking, you know you’re in the right place. As we were, running into Universal’s Ron Meyer and the reliable health consultant Dr. Wendy Goldberg. In a minute, we were cheerfully embraced by the beloved eventplanner Allison Jackson, who perennially plans Microsoft’s Paul Allen’s yacht soirees during the Cannes International Film Festival. We asked after Allison’s daughter Spencer, one of the best and brightest youngsters we met as a pre-teen who we adored when Spencer charmed the bejesus out of us years ago.
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tepping into the spacious, high-ceilinged salon, we sat by Sidney Poitier and his gorgeous Joanna, who, with her Parisian credentials, created the chateau-esque decor into a polished tableaux of high elegance with antique treasures. Admiring the spacious rooms, we concluded to Sidney that “space and light are the great luxuries of today.” Sidney concurred.
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e discovered that Sidney and Joanna are proud grandparents with daughters Annika and Sydney adding to the family tree, and that unless they are on the town, Joanna puts on the chef’s toque and and apron to cook chez Poitier. “Tonight? Braised veal with vegetables, salad, etc.”
H
ow does she keep in shape with her schoolgirl figure? Kathy Griffin vows it’s “the gym every day,” and that beau Randy Vick, a marketing executive, inspires her.
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he friendly crowd reminded Brian that Sue might be pissed that he’s written the biography without her approval, but, then again, pissed that she was forgotten. Of course, the yea-and-nay talk, talk, talk centered on Sue, Sue, Sue. with Brian Kellow offering that writing Can I Go Now was “exciting and pleasurable.”
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n the chatty mix, Wendy Goldberg talked about being in love with grandmothering daughter Amanda’s charmers Cecilia Jean and Josephine. Next month, Wendy will spring an enterprising surprise on us.
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mong our best-looking Hollywood couples, Mitch Glazer and Kelly Lynch, architectural preservationists who own John Lautner and Richard Neutra houses, pleased us with their news. That they decided to marry during one of our luncheons for the Toronto International Film Festival. They credit our event as the “matchmaker” for their togetherness. “You can’t imagine how madly in love I was over Kelly, and still am,” beamed Mitch. Daughter Sloan bartenders at Jeff Klein’s Tower Bar. Mitch and Kelly informed that Jeff’s transforming the gay San Vicente Bungalows (known as Sin Bin) into a “boutique-y hotel,” where naked guests may roam whenever they want.
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ere and there were Jeff Klein with mate John Goldwyn, Wendy Stark, whose daughter Allison wed this spring, Michael Black, Jay Kantor, who brought Marlon Brando to Hollywood and is now involved on a megabucks project near Florence, Italy, Peter Bart, Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss (daughter Prentiss is now a happy mama), John Burnham, Judy Balaban, Elaine Thomas, Anjelica Huston (best friend of multi-billionaire Jerry Perenchio), Alana Stewart, Risa Shapiro now managing Jennifer Connelly, Cher, Andie McDowell and her modeling beauties Rainey and Margaret Qualley, L.A. Opera’s music director James Conlon with his beautiful wife Jennifer, who were leaving the next day for the Vienna operas.
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s a violet twilight descended on Bel-Air, Brian finished autographing books, with one bozo shouting, “Can we go now?”
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hich was Sue’s signature sign-off after a long conversation. Online at www.bhcourier.com/category/george-christy
BEVERLY HILLS