Meryl Streep likes to get away from it all–on an enormous estate with its own 20-acre lake in Salisbury, Conn. It`s a way for her to buy her privacy. ”Constant recognition” was what led her to give up her Manhattan loft, according to the August issue of Ladies Home Journal. She was tired of
”being scrutinized, with people checking out my hair, my dress or whatever.” It got so bad she couldn`t even go shopping ”without having someone look at what size underpants I buy.”
Exactly when does an actor or actress know he or she is involved in one of the biggest bombs since the movie ”Heaven`s Gate”? In depends, says former ”Saturday Night Live” cast member Laraine Newman: ”When I was making `Wholly Moses!` with Dudley Moore, we both had that terrible, sinking feeling. With `Perfect,` with John Travolta, we thought the story was good but that it would be hard to tell.” But for an actress, sometimes even a bomb pays off–if it`s the right bomb. ”I don`t know who actually saw `Perfect,`
says Newman. ”All I know is, I`ve been working steadily ever since.”
The good part of never being famous is that no one can ever dig up your old clippings. Ronald Reagan has to live with a September, 1941, Modern Screen article because it`s now part of a book, ”The Best of Modern Screen” (St. Martin`s Press). The story has him bathing baby Maureen; digging his toe into the sand while a studio photographer says ”Whee!” as he sees ”Ronnie emerging from the surf at the Santa Monica Beach Club,” his muscles rippling; watching his favorite actor, George Murphy, in ”A Girl, a Guy and a Gob” 34 times; and swearing, ”I`ll spend my life in pictures whether as an actor or what have you.”
REPLAYS
”If there were no contradictions and no struggle, there would be no world, no process, no life, and there would be nothing at all.”
Chairman Mao
”Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself.”
Walt Whitman
”The only man who can change his mind is a man that`s got one.”
Edward Noyes Westcott
