George Christy 6-25-2010

BEVERLY HILLS COURIER — “When PBS called and asked if we could do a show, it took less than thirty seconds for me to say yes.” So reveals Diahann Carroll during her PBS concert, The Lady, The Music, The Legend, that screened at the Screen Actors Guild Foundation Theatre. Through the years Diahann’s talents have enhanced our theatrical memory bank, richly evident in this performance that airs in July.

The hour-long concert’s a re-cap of an exceptional career, as Diahann swings and sways through her memorable musical oeuvre. We’re reminded that she starred in the Broadway musical, House of Flowers, written by Truman Capote about competing bordellos in the West Indies, with the score and lyrics by Harold Arlen. Pearl Bailey starred as a madam, with the virginal Diahann (Ottilie) under her tutelage. The tender ballad, A Sleeping Bee, became a signature song for Diahann, and House of Flowers was the first Broadway musical with its blues and calypso score to employ the steel pan that’s popular in the Caribbean tropics.

She recalls her 1962 meeting with Richard Rodgers, who’d written both the score and the lyrics for No Strings, his first time without a collaborator. “Again, it took less than 30 seconds to agree to be in the musical.” Diahann starred as a model living in Paris, who falls for novelist Richard Kiley. Conceiving of this interracial romance, Rodgers was ahead of the times.

The Lady, the Music, the Legend is executive produced by Jim Casey, with assists from producers Kim Waltrip and Jeffrey Lane. Acknowledging Diahann’s workaholic energy during the filming, Kim added that director Chip Miller was a gem, bringing in the production under budget.

At the post-screening reception, Diahann was surrounded with praise. Ann Turkel brought her 1962 No Strings “collector’s item” theater program, which Diahann autographed. Meeting and greeting were Screen Actors Guild Foundation’s executive director Marcia Smith; Debbie Allen and Norm Nixon; Hal Kanter; Richard Chamberlain; celebrity hairstylist Yuki Takei; makeup sorcerer Mark Richard; investment-savvy Connie Stevens beaming that she’s a grandmother, with daughter Joely having five children and daughter Tricia with three; India Irving with Mario Rivelli; Dani Janssen; Elliott Gould; Richard Helfrich, who shares our appreciation for Belgian Shoes; Susan Fales-Hill; Gina Fishburne; Barry Krost with John DeShane, who’d returned from a month in Haiti and relief work with Sean Penn.

We visited with Jolene and George Schlatter, with George remembering Diahann, early on in her career, performing at Ciro’s, the nightclub on the Sunset Strip, a favorite hangout for Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, Lana Turner, Marilyn Monroe, President Kennedy. Ciro’s, where the Comedy Store is now, was created by Hollywood Reporter publisher and entrepreneur William Wilkerson (he additonally launched that fine Italian restaurant, LaRue, also on Sunset Boulevard, and is credited with discovering Lana Turner). “The morning after Diahann sang at Ciro’s, our phones didn’t stop ringing,” says George, who booked entertainers for the club. “Hollywood loved her.”

Only fitting that Diahann was paged to appear in films and on television – Carmen Jones, Porgy and Bess, Julia, Dynasty, Grey’s Anatomy, A Different World. We were fortunate to be in Toronto during the ’90s when she starred as Norma Desmond in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard, delivering a colossal performance.

A breast cancer activist and survivor, she’s featured in UniGlobe Entertainment’s 1 a Minute, a docudrama about cancer. Trooper that she is, Diahann invited cameramen into her hospital treatment room to broadcast attention to the disease.

Rona Barrett is back. For those from a certain generation, Miss Rona was the gospel of entertainment news on Today, NBC, KABC, and her specials interviewing major stars the likes of the Beatles and Clint Eastwood became a forerunner of the Barbara Walters specials. “I’m proud,” she says, “of having opened opportunities for women in broadcasting.”

Her recent evening, which she’ll tour in the U.S. and book on cruise ships (the first being on the Cunard line in February), is titled Nothing But the Truth, a quote from a video tribute with Sherry Lansing that we viewed during the premiere at the Paley Center for Media, where Rona was introduced by the Center’s v-p Craig Hitchcock.

A winning raconteur, Rona, looking great, reflects on her Queens childhood, where the silver screen was, as it is for most teenagers, a passion. (“I loved watching Shirley Temple sing and dance.”) After writing profiles for Photoplay and movie magazines, Rona was lured to Hollywood, conquered television, and became more famous than many celebrities that she gossiped about. Although her breaking news did create confrontations. Having been a loyal friend of Nancy Sinatra, Jr., she was ostracized by the Sinatras when she broke a scoop about the family, and the friendship was never repaired. A furious Ryan O’Neal mailed Miss Rona a live tarantula.

Clips from her in-depth television interview with Cher are screened, also a visit with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, where she ended up doing a mini-interview with Johnny. Why did he go into showbusiness? “I began doing my own little shows in Nebraska at 13, and I liked that the audience laughed … which made me feel good, since I was shy.” Inquiring if Johnny ever delved into why he was shy, he laughed, “I bought it in Chicago!”

Rona and husband Daniel McNeet live in the Santa Ynez Valley, where she grew lavender and where her entrepreneurship launched a lavender company, marketing lavender beauty and bath products, inspired by Paul Newman’s Own. Proceeds went to the non-profit Rona Barrett Foundation, as will funds from this tour which will assist seniors in need.

Nothing But the Truth is produced by marketing and PR dynamo Dick Taylor, who’s relocated to L. A. after several decades in Palm Springs (“desert life was too quiet”), with David Galligan directing. The consensus from insiders was unanimous. Charming and likeable as Rona is, her two-hour-long recollections will benefit from judicious editing.

Meanwhile, HBO kicked off the ten-episode seventh season of its Emmy-winning Entourage at the Paramount Theatre on the studio lot, with the entire cast and series creator Doug Ellin partying afterward on the lawn, and where designing genius Billy Butchkavitz created another of his inviting tableau.

Guests queued for the Wolfgang Puck-catered buffet, and one discussion linked Entourage to the Our Gang comedies from way-back-when. “Somehow, the ‘our gang’ kids remind me of these guys in Entourage, who behave like kids, ” recollects a Hollywood veteran. “The difference is that in Entourage the f-word’s everywhere, along with boozing, doping and sex.”

Curiosity persists about Tent City at L.A. Live, with hundreds of fans arriving earlier this week from dozens of states and inhabiting hundreds of tents, salivating for a glimpse of the Eclipse stars arriving for last night’s premiere. Photographers believe this may be a clever promotion from Summit Entertainment that’s probably underwriting expenses for security, maintenance and Port-a-Potties.