Rich and Famous

Merry? Where did you go?

What are you doing in the closet?

I thought it was the housemother.

For God's sake, the taxi's waiting.

- Come on. Are you ready? - I'm ready.

- Are you taking him? - You think it's silly?

Just because you don't want to graduate.

He's been here three and a half years. Maybe he'd like to.

I couldn't leave Hamburger. He's been my family...

- ...ever since I was little. - Shh. Come on.

Give me this.

-Liz? -Yeah?

I guess he could stay and be some sort of company.

It's okay.

- Come on, Merry. - Okay, okay.

Liz, tell me. Aren't you just a little bit jealous?

Are you crazy?

Well, in a way, Doug's

far more your type than mine, you know.

He likes the same old boring books.

A real brain.

Did I tell you he started smoking a pipe?

I swear on everything you consider holy, I do not envy you and Doug.

Well, he was your date.

Oh, Liz. Next time we meet I'm gonna be a married lady.

What do you think?

I'm gonna be an unmarried lady.

Oh.

- There he is. - Oh!

Doug.

Doug.

Hi.

Hello, Doug.

- You been good? - Flawless.

Do you see what I mean?

We better go.

I'm not stealing your roommate. She's following me...

...all the way to California.

Yeah. You rats.

Have a wonderful life...

...trip, everything.

You owe me one.

To talk about debuts being auspicious...

...is to talk about the career of Liz Hamilton.

She came to our attention with her very first novel, Night Song.

A remarkable achievement...

...because it won the National Writer's Award...

...and she was then only early in her 20s.

Since then her essays have appeared in reviews and in journals.

And her second novel is promised to us for later this year.

Or maybe early next year in 1970, if she gets to it.

Oh, look. Oh, God.

Although she doesn't... - Hi. Liz.

...identify herself specifically with feminist politics...

...her works are themselves an evocation of the feminine life.

A plea for the feminine ethic...

...a demand for a space to be just that, female.

I'm very pleased that she's with us today.

Please, help me greet Liz Hamilton.

Thank you.

My sincere thanks to Professor Fields.

My thanks, also definitely sincere, to the Women's Caucus...

...for sending me a ticket to come to this warm climate.

And receive such a warm reception.

I'm not sure it's an exclusively feminine instinct...

...but I need a lot of warmth.

Perhaps it is true, as Professor Fields has said...

...that I do not involve myself specifically in feminist politics.

Why not?

Yeah.

Perhaps I am too exclusively involved in work.

That is, in writing and the paralysis that seems to come with it.

I don't know why it is, but writers, many writers...

...must face some daily barrier of fear.

But then, a dear old man, James M. Cain said that:

"If your writing doesn't keep you up nights...

...it won't keep anyone else up either."

I have a confession to make.

All my life, I've had a love for old men.

My father was old when I was born.

Older still, when he died.

My first novel was a memory of him.

And I am damn sure not going to apologize for that.

And this is, sort of, the entertaining area.

It's just a little thing, but, you know...

...little tiny houses out here on the beach...

...they cost as much as a mansion down home.

- Doug. - Hi, Daddy.

In case you've forgotten, that handsome man is my husband.

- Well, what do you think? - What?

- My house. - Terrific.

Doug resents we don't still live near the lab.

But I could not take it, I tell you, Pasadena. Whew.

Go see your daddy.

Look, honey, look who's here.

- Hi. - Hi, Doug.

- You're looking great. - Oh, you're the one.

- You're beautiful. - Is she?

Let me look?

Oh, my God. You don't look bad. And a celebrity too.

Debby, take your hands out of your pants.

You should have seen the admiration of all those girls.

Debby, we all have interesting things under our clothes...

...but we don't stand around and pick at them.

So you were a big hit on campus.

They tarred, but did not feather me.

What we call boffo box office.

Oh, now Douglas, don't you start.

Here in Malibu, we all talk show-biz talk.

Liz is not interested in any Hollywood silliness.

She's a New York authoress. Right, hon?

She takes her coffee every day at the Plaza Hotel, Palm Court.

And she eats her steaks at the Four Seasons on Park Avenue.

I'm impressed.

I take my coffee to go at a deli on Sixth Avenue.

Heh. I'm even more impressed.

If he had his way, we'd be over at Caltech all the time.

But those college people, they're like Atlantics...

...except they lie even more.

When do I get to see more of your husband?

Later. We're having a party for you.

And he's agreed not to work for just a minute or two.

A party?

You're my only friend who's a celebrity.

- A very minor celebrity, Merry. - Oh, hell.

It'll do these folks good. They're all such major ones.

Oh, Liz, honey, look, this is Kent.

This is Kent, this is Liz.

Hi.

Don't fall all over yourself because it just embarrasses him.

Don't worry. I only know how to embarrass myself.

I'm sorry I haven't read any of your books.

Oh, there's only been one.

But, it's marvelous though, even the parts I don't understand.

What parts?

Parts unknown.

- Isn't she special? - But, Merry, wait, I, I--

How're you doing?

- I'm drunk. - Let me catch up.

You shouldn't be talking to the help. Half of Hollywood's here.

Yeah?

You wanna go for a walk?

- You get time off? - She likes me to rebel now and again.

Hey, your turn.

I'm right in the middle of a story.

How's the book coming?

Well, the first hundred pages? Terrific.

I've written them over five times in five years.

Is that how you normally write?

I don't write normally.

I'm what is called blocked. Isn't that humorless?

What about the Frenchman?

You still into him?

Into him? You talk hippie talk?

That's California talk, I think.

Are you?

I used to be very young.

Paris was very old.

He was intense. I was shy.

- He did all the work. - And now?

They ought to warn you before they let you fall in love.

I mean, for the first time.

You can pick the God-awfullest one.

And you don't recover. Not from the first. Never.

What comes after the Frenchman?

Nothing for the moment.

I got no lover, but I got a therapist.

Now, that's humorless.

Well, he says, "When I start writing again, I'll start loving."

What he said was, "fucking again."

Excuse me, Doug, the man's a Freudian.

Maybe it's the other way. Start loving, you'll start writing.

- I suggested that. - What'd he say?

He said, not writing was my problem.

We missing the party?

- The party's over. - I'm sorry.

It's the habit of this community to be suspicious.

When a married man goes off with a married woman's best friend...

...that's the occasion for suspicion.

We better move, because I'm not changing my habits.

It's my fault.

You know that.

Anyway, tomorrow night David Steinberg will be here.

And on Friday, Joe Namath, who's gonna be a--

[AUDIENCE CLAPS AND CHEERS OVER TV]

Joe will not do a monologue, because it takes him too--

Kiss? I'm not mad at you anymore.

- Better. - That's my best.

- Thank you, Doug. - Thank you.

Good night.

- Good night, honey. - Good night.

Merry, thank you.

What for?

For being there.

One year I come running from Paris, and you-- You're there.

Another time, I want to crawl into a hole until the reviews come out...