• August 02, 1976
• Vol. 6
• No. 5

Chatter

A Cloris Line
She may be publicly penitent for putting down chubbies, but Cloris Leach-man's still prosletyzing in private—and now close pal Joanne Woodward's a believer. Not only does Joanne, shooting a TV flick, Sybil, prefer a nearby health food restaurant to the studio commissary, but recently she observed the crew and found herself "just disgusted watching all those men eat doughnuts. I finally couldn't take it any longer and made a speech: 'Look at your guts. I can tell how long you've been in the business by the size of your stomachs.' " Woodward then ordered in some organic snacks and bran muffins. "It absolutely delighted me to see how the crew wolfed them down," she reports. "The only trouble was, they kept eating doughnuts too."

Grave Dance
When Sir Stanley Baker, who played tough guys in films like The Guns of Navarone, died in June, his widow received a telegram from Richard Burton: "Can't speak, can't speak, can't write, can't write." Burton's anguish was real—he and Baker were boyhood chums in Wales, broke into acting together and remained close until the mid-'50s, when Richard and his first wife, Sybil, godparents to two of the Bakers' children, went Hollywood while their friends stayed in England. Still, Lady Baker was riled when the unquenchable Burton broke his silence with a rambling eulogy in the London Observer that recalled how he and Baker "smashed windows, broke trains and lusted after the same women." Sighed Lady Baker, who was married to Sir Stanley for 26 years, "It's terribly sad, because we were such deep, deep friends. I know Richard very well. It is typical of him that he should do this."

Let Him Without Sin...
Perhaps because he's directed films on Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Mahler—not to mention Tommy—Ken Russell fancies himself a music maven. In any case, showing up at London's Royal Opera House (in tasteful sequined T-shirt and sandals) for Hans Werner Henze's new work, We Come to the River, Russell stood at the final curtain to bellow, "Rubbish...rubbish." Outside the house, Russell continued to fume about "pretentious crap." But when asked about his own next film (Valentino, with Nureyev and Michelle Phillips), Russell, who himself hasn't had many favorable notices of late, smiled: "It'll be the greatest ever."

Chain Male
For all his rep as a womanizer, Peter Sellers is purportedly a textbook case of the serial monogamist. He has married three times (including Britt Ekland) and has had an endless chain of liaisons. But Peter has now thrown himself at the mercy of London's Sunday Mirror, maintaining that he has been "inconstant" just twice in all his 50 turbulent, strangelove years. The first time, during his maiden marriage to actress Anne Hayes, was with Sophia Loren; the second, amid his affair with model Titi Wachmeister, starred Liza Minnelli. That's all, he wrote.

Furthermore

•The buyer lights it up, and gets an eight-hour glow—yet the goodies that Dominic Sicilia is pushing in his Hollywood shop are legal. He's selling luminescent jewelry, necklaces et al that are filled with "liquid neon" (a short-lived lighting material heretofore used mainly in highway emergency kits). So far, those turning on include Jack Nicholson, Diana Ross, Wayne Newton, Julie Christie and, natch, Elton John.

•To many Californians headed for splitsville, the state's community property rules are the grapes of wrath. But professional sourpuss Jack Klugman, though estranged from actress wife Brett Somers for two years, voluntarily shares a joint checking account with her. Explains the ex-Odd Couple star: "Anyone who could stay married to me for 18 years deserves half of what I've got."

•Wayne Hays's flaming exit as chairman of the powerful House Administration Committee has been followed by a shakeup of the staff. When the ashes settled, the man who inherited Liz Ray's bright red IBM Selectric typewriter found the machine wouldn't work. A secretary came over, examined it and gave the reason: "The Ribbon cartridge is upside down."