Rodney Dangerfield has a legitimate beef. Although he makes potfuls of money, he really does not get any respect. Dangerfield was recently trying out some new material at a comedy club when the spotlight was stolen from him by Dennis Miller of ”Saturday Night Live.” Miller took one look at
Dangerfield`s let-it-all-hang-out shirt and said, ”If I were making $50 million, I wouldn`t wear shirts that looked like I`d ripped off my dental hygienist.”
Some books are like stew; they get better the longer they sit around. Take ”The Image,” by Daniel J. Boorstin. Its observations are just as true if not truer today than when the book was first published 25 years ago. Boorstin wrote then that we live ”in a society where anyone can become a celebrity! And where any celebrity (boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, singer Elvis Presley, lawyer Joseph L. Welch) may become a star! Once the star has been established as a celebrity or the celebrity established as a star, he can
`perform` in almost any kind of piece-a war movie, a musical spectacular, a murder mystery or a gangster story-provided he is paid enough and can preserve his `real` personality.” Imagine, this was written before Vanna White.
It takes a comedian to know a comedian. Billy Crystal knows a lot of them, and he says what he thinks of them in the March issue of Playboy. About Mel Brooks: ”One on one, there`s no one funnier than Mel.” Robin Williams:
”Explosive. Picasso. He`s opinionated, has great self-focus, knows who he is-not unlike (George) Burns or (Jack) Benny.” Freddie Prinze: ”I was jealous of (him) because he made it big so suddenly.” Eddie Murphy: ”Not a lot of guts or soul, but a talent that was extraordinarily electric. . . . He walks to the beat of his own drum section.” Gallagher: ”Crawling on the floor in vegetable juice-what is that?”
