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wowOwow.com: “Rona Barrett Steps Back into the Spotlight”
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www.wowowow.com
May 17, 2010
Rona Barrett Steps Back into the Spotlight
By Liz Smith
FROM ABOUT 1969 to 1980, a tiny woman with frosted lips and frosted tips pretty much ruled the Hollywood gossip world. I do mean Rona Barrett. Miss Rona, as she preferred to be called, began as the teenage founder of Eddie Fisher’s fan club. She worked that into covering events, befriending other stars, writing gigs and eventually TV and her very own, very popular self-named magazines, Rona Barrett’s GossipRona Barrett’s Hollywood. Not even Hedda or Louella ma and naged that journalistic trick!
Rona was famous for her withering tongue and her tendency to sit, on TV, as she delivered the dish, in static three-quarter. She made many enemies, as all good gossips do, including, but of course, Frank Sinatra, who was even harsher about Rona than he was about yours truly. He really hated Rona. She loved it.
Rona always felt, what with her drive, intelligence and her glossy high-rated TV specials, that she paved the way for, among others, Barbara Walters, but being a gossip columnist she didn’t get respect. Well, who could ever forget the opening line of her autobiography: “Please, let me put it in an inch, please, Miss Rona!” (That was actor Hugh O’Brian, trying to get to third base with young Rona.)
Rona glided out of showbiz for good in 1990. She raised horses, went into real estate, planted fields of lavender and formed her own company, distributing lavender-scented products.
But the roar of the greasepaint has called Miss Rona back. On June 17 at the Payley Center in Los Angeles, the woman who caused Ryan O’Neal to threaten her with bodily harm will appear in a one-woman show, “Rona Barrett: Nothing But the Truth.” Rona will tell all about her adventures in Tinseltown and include a lot of stellar film clips from her TV specials – Bette Davis, Raquel Welch, Cher, John Wayne, Bette Midler, etc. Proceeds from this night go to the Rona Barrett Foundation, which provides various forms of assistance to seniors.
And yes, she’s gonna take her show on road.