Starfuckers rejoice: I doubt there ever has been a better line-up than these folks, mostly show biz, spilling the tea about their relationships with the entertainment lion, Elaine May's other half, the man with the golden touch, the Broadway and Hollywood wunderkind and the refugee from Nazi Germanywho proved that living well is the best revenge. Oh, and Mike Nichols bred horses, too.
In an oral history filled with terrific anecdotes, here's my favorite. Entirely, irrevocably bald EVERYWHERE after a childhood bout of scarlet fever, Nichols wore bad hairpieces until he cast Elizabeth Taylor as Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, the role that won her an Oscar. Liz insisted he consult with her Cleopatra hairdresser who created 30+ wigs for Mike, each a little longer than the previous one. He changed them sequentially, returning to the shortest at the beginning of each month, as if he'd just gotten a haircut! How genius is that?
If you're a fan of The Graduate, the behind-the-scenes peek at its making, is as good as it gets. And let the truth finally be told: Nichols broke up Simon & Garfunkel by casting Art in a starring role in Carnal Knowledge after cutting Paul from Catch 22.
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