Thirteen of the Famous People I Have Met

1. Ben Stein. He has my admiration because I am the woman who made him …

2. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Just a handshake. No conversation.

3. The original cast of “A Chorus Line,” including Donna McKechnie and Priscilla Lopez. They had just won the Tony for Best Musical and were walking on air … so happy and elated about their newfound success. A bunch of really talented, delightful people.

4. Valerie Harper and Anthony Zerbe. They gave a lecture to one of my classes. They were appearing in a play, the name of which escapes me now.

5. The Oak Ridge Boys. That was about 1994 … Steve Sanders had replaced William Golden, who later returned to the group.

6. The cast of “Happy Days,” including Henry Winkler (a class act all the way), Marion Ross, Tom Bosley, and Scott Baio. Spent the day on the set at Paramount.

7. Carl Weathers, aka “Apollo Creed”. Sat by him at an Al Jarreau concert.

8. Yul Brynner. He was appearing in “Home, Sweet Homer” in San Francisco which was a huge bomb and I think that’s why he was so arrogant and rude.

9. Sally Jessy Raphael. I was one of the guests on her show in 1987 … we all look really dorky with our ’80’s hair, jewelry, makeup, and clothes. There are a couple of stories that explain my appearance on her show that I haven’t gotten around to writing about yet.

10. Edward Mulhare and Gale Gordon. They were appearing in “Camelot” in San Francisco and were both gracious gentlemen. Mr. Gordon told us, “Oh, I miss Lucy every day of my life,” when we asked him what it was like to work with Lucille Ball. He was very sweet, kind-hearted.

11. Alex Haley. He autographed my copy of the original printing of “Roots” and I met Ralph Nader briefly when I attended one of his lectures.

12. M. Scott Peck, M.D. I attended a seminar and came away with a lot of new insights, as well as an autographed copy of “The Road Less Traveled,” one of my all-time favorite books.

13. The cast of “One Life to Live,” including my friend, Clint Ritchie, and Phil Carey (“Asa”), Bobby Woods (“Bo”), Erika Slezak (“Viki”), Robin Strasser (“Dorian”), Catherine Hickland (“Lindsay”), Erin Torpey (“Jessica”), Kassie de Paiva (“Blair”), Hillary Bailey Smith (“Nora”), Patricia Elliott (“Renee”), Thom Christopher (“Carlo Hesser”), and the rest of the folks who were working on the days that I was at the studio.

Here’s a funny story about Robin Strasser, who is eccentric and wacky. We were standing outside on the steps in front of the studio and she had Scooter with her. She brought him to the studio every day in a shoulder bag. She was telling me that she had put Scooter on a diet, but he wasn’t losing any weight and she couldn’t figure out why. I quizzically looked over at Clint, who had a very goofy, sheepish grin on his face. Turns out that Clint, whose own beloved dogs were back here in California at Happy Horse Ranch, was bringing jerky treats to the studio every day and giving them to Scooter when Robin wasn’t looking! He was so busted!