It Girls, Boys Next Door, Scream Queens, & Dorothy: An Alternate Pop Culture Timeline

[markedward]

Just curious, who are the fictional celebs in TTL?

I know some are so obscure they almost come off as fictional (ie: Matt Collins is really obscure, but he was an OTL 1970's fashion model who tried to be an actor). The ones who actually are (at the top of my head) are:

-Sam and Harris

-Edward O'Malley, the unreliable director who did those movies for Roger Moore, did a Sam movie and hasn't been able to get anything else made so far due to his antics.

-Arthur Ericson

-Nolan Hendricks

-The Nobel siblings. Ian is very close to Sam and will pop up often.

-Lady Judith (Judith Romano) from Mr Rogers Neighbourhood

-Shannon Gibbs

-Helen Benson

-Shaun K. Davis, the guy who has directed Sam often

And then the fictional offspring of OTL celebrities:

-We've got Annie and Ingrid Peppard, daughters of Sharon Tate and George Peppard. Annie will be a trade-in for an Angelina Jolie level actress.

-The Sinatra kid who changes his name a lot and does soaps later on

-Nate Hunter, who I plan to do more with. Sam thinks very highly of him.

-Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross had a son and possibly a daughter who wasn't mentioned, but she's not the OTL one they had to take a restraining order out on. I butterflied her by having them meet and have kids earlier.

-Unnamed child of Ricky Nelson and Karen Carpenter

And one who died as an infant IOTL but is healthy here:

-Nina, daughter of Jean Seberg

 

[markedward]

Television interview for Winding Stairs (1980)

Narrator: For those of you living under a rock, in 1978, Raquel Welch – she of the cheesecake shots and often movies to match – released an unlikely bestseller: 'Winding Stairs'. Well, director Sal Mineo stars George Peppard, Sharon Tate-Peppard, Olivia de Havilland, Anissa Jones and Linda Blair, who both play fraternal twins who start the scares, sat down with the screenwriter – selected by Raquel Welch herself – Shannon Gibbs to discuss the film.

Shannon Gibbs: We shot on location in Wisconsin. That was the hardest part of the shoot.

Sal Mineo: It was the weather. We needed snow. It was November and we ended up shooting the autumn bits and postponing until the snow arrived.

George Peppard: In mid-December. We spent almost a month and a half waiting for snow.

Interviewer: Was that the hardest part of the shoot?

Olivia de Havilland: Hardest part? There was only one diner in town and it didn’t deliver. If we didn’t get our dinner and breakfast orders in, we had to use the vending machines in the hotel lobby.

(Everyone laughs.)

Sal: She’s right, that was the toughest part. I don’t eat breakfast, but I missed a few dinners. Lunches were delivered on set, though, so we got at least one meal a day.

Sharon Tate: It wasn’t that bad, we stayed at a little house with the kids and made dinners for whoever wanted to drop by.

OdH: I was a frequent visitor.

GP: Olivia is a great cook, don’t let her con you into thinking Sharon and the nanny did all the cooking.

OdH: Thank you, George.

Anissa Jones: I was glad Linda and I shared a room. I hate being by myself at night.

Linda Blair: She came into the room and crashed every night. She never had a chance to hate being alone. I was the one up reading and watching what passed for late-night tv. Can you believe 'Cat People' three nights running after Carson? I was saying the lines by the third night.

Sal: I was more than pleased with the cast, tabloid crap about George and I fighting aside.

ST: That was weird. I wondered where it came from until I realized that the two of them did argue about that staircase scene; you know, the one where Clark is standing at the top of the spiral staircase looking down at his brother who was played by Christopher George. If Christopher hit his mark –

Sal: The cameraman missed his. And then I had to fire the lighting guy and I think he’s the one who sold the stories.

Interviewer: Anissa, were you ok with playing another teenage role? You have expressed wanting to play more mature parts--

AJ: This was my fifth film as an adult; well, since I was seventeen. Here I am, playing a teenager again.

LB: Hey, so was I. Beats being unemployed.

Interviewer: But Linda, you do have another 'Star Wars' film in the works, right?

LB: Yes. George Lucas is working on something as we speak. We have all been busy with other projects and it's been hard arranging it. And he directed the 'American Graffiti' sequel, which took some time. I did 'Roller Boogie' to keep busy. Kurt played Elvis.

Interviewer: Olivia, what was it like working with the younger actors?

OdH: I liked working with all the young people. The hardest part for me was learning the Polish accent. I am fluent in French, but I needed to do a real accent. My teacher was a woman who had been through the camps. Having her around helped me capture that essence, that history that haunted her before she came to the house.

Interviewer: What about stories that the set was haunted? Was that for publicity?

Sal: I wish Harris Walker, who played one of the contractors, was here. He could tell you some crazy stories. The house we were filming at was supposedly haunted and Harris swears he saw a ghost.

AJ: I saw it, too. It was a woman at the sink in the kitchen, you only saw her at twilight. Harris and I both saw her one evening while waiting for the set-up.

ST: I saw her standing in the window from outside a couple of nights after that. I was practicing smoking again. I was in the yard, by the tree swing, and thought I saw Linda at the window, but then I saw her getting into the van in the side yard. I looked back, and the woman just faded away while I watched.

Sharon holds up her first two fingers on her right hand, there’s a burn scar near the nails.

Burned the cigarette down to my fingers while I stood there staring in shock. I couldn’t believe what I’d seen.

Sal: There were other things. We gave up trying to shoot in the master bedroom; the equipment kept acting up, so we used another room for the master and shot the other bedroom on a set we put up in the basement.

LB: I was the only person who didn’t have problems with this ghost. Never saw it. All my scenes went perfectly. Everybody else saw it, just not little Linda here. I was quite put out.

Sal: You kept pulling jokes on everyone, Linda, the ghost was probably scared you’d do something to her.

Everyone laughs

 

[markedward]

From the December 2000 issue of Fangoria

In keeping with our year-long salute to cult filmmaker Roger Corman, we bring you this interview with the four stars of Corman’s 1981 cult classic “Arms of the Stars”: Sam Westwood, Adrienne Barbeau, Kent McCord, and Sandahl Bergman. The movie, about terraforming a new planet, was filmed in 1980, released the following year and was swallowed up by that summer’s blockbusters. We caught up with them at FantaCon in Miami earlier this year.

Fangoria: How did you all end up in a movie together?

Sam Westwood: I owed Roger a movie. I’d signed to do one a few years earlier and we both realized I wasn’t right about the third day of shooting, so I agreed to do another movie and he released me from that one (“Overlords”). I liked the script for 'Arms Of The Stars' and was available. At one point we discussed doing 'Avalanche' which went to poor Kent here. (laughs)

Adrienne Barbeau: Who doesn’t want to work with Roger Corman? It’s just great fun, chewing on the scenery and working with some great people.

Sandahl Bergman: I’d finished “All That Jazz” where I played the Angel of Death and was waiting to hear if I was getting a role in another movie and this one came along. I was young and hungry, I wanted to prove I was more than a dancer.

Kent McCord: I think I was hired because of my looks. (laughs) I played Sam’s younger brother even though I'm older than him.

F: What were the parts? For those who haven’t seen the movie.

SW: The captain while we were in space, basically. Once we got on the planet, I was the CEO, I guess. To establish the characters, Corman started us off on a ship –

SB: Transport ship (All four laugh)

SW: I’d forgotten about that.

F: Forgotten -?

KM: Everytime someone said ship, Roger would correct it to transport ship. It got to be a joke on the set.

SW: To everyone but Roger.

AB: And every time someone referred to the mission, you got -

ALL: Terraforming mission!

KM: I was King of techno-speak. I spent half my takes screwing up my lines. It was because I was playing the Head Engineer for the mission.

AB/SW: Terraforming mission.

SB: I was Kent’s character’s wife, Misty. You had to be married on that – transport ship – if you didn’t have a job.

AB: I was supposedly the doctor.

I hated my costume! The zipper kept breaking because these girls take up some room. Unlike Sandahl here, who got to run around in athlete wear and no bra.

SB: I’ll have you know Adrienne is the reason I didn’t run and get implants. They may be nice to look at, but those babies are heavy.

F: Worst part of the shoot?

SW: For me? Wyoming in February when one of my scenes is to open a door to the outside naked. I’m a beach boy, myself. I wanted a disclaimer for that scene; you know, it’s below zero folks, don’t laugh, you’d look that way, too.

SB: The sex scenes with the creature, halfway through a love scene with Kent, Roger calls cut and then the FX guys come in. I don’t mind being nude -

KM: You were topless, I remember the panties speech. (Everyone laughs) I was nude.

AB: Favorite part of the shoot, right there, the naked men. You may have only seen their asses on film, but we saw everything. Better than my next shoot ('Escape from New York') with my husband (John Carpenter) and Kurt (Russell), no naked men on that set.

SW: In the director’s cut, everybody gets to see what you saw: I’ve gotten fan mail about my gut during that naked jaunt down the hall.

SB: Your body was great, Sam. You did that Grace Jones video a couple years later and, damn!

SW: My ego thanks you profusely.

F: Best part of the shoot – except for Adrienne, who’s already answered?

KM: Finding out I was forging autographs for a good actor every time I was mistaken for Sam.

SW: Finding out I was forging autographs for a good actor every time I was mistaken for Kent.

SB: Finding it good to be mistaken for an actor. (All laugh)

F: Kent, when Sam was outed (without his permission in 1982 by Andy Warhol), did that give you any trouble? There was a bit of a resemblance when you were both younger.

KM: No, I’d done 'Adam-12' and was established in television and my movie career was sporadic, at best. My biggest problem with it was guys giving me their numbers when I was out without the wife and kids. My wife is pulling pieces of paper out of my coat that said things like “Call me anytime – Dave”. Once she knew about Sam, there wasn’t a problem, but before…..

SW: I pretty pissed off when they outed me. That should always be a personal choice.

F: Yes, definitely. Do you think you lost (notorious 1983 Burt Reynolds flop) 'The Man Who Loved Women' because of the outing?

SW: Definitely, Blake Edwards didn’t think I’d be believable as a hetero man at that point in time. He didn’t want to be bothered with it. Blake and the producers thought it would be a joke.

I’m an actor, when I play a scientist, for example, I don’t have to be one. I was really upset. I loved the French version of that movie and really pushed for the part.

AB: Sam’s right; there’s a real problem there. As long as ‘nobody knows’, they’re willing to cast you and they talk about ‘brave’ straight people are to play gay, but if you’re gay, it’s like they think you can only play certain roles.

F: Anything from you, Sandahl, on this topic?

SB: (laughs) I’m from dance. Half the guys I know are gay, never stops ‘em from being cast as the lead in dance. It’s all about ability and your look in dance, not who you sleep with at night – casting couch aside, that it.

F: There’s talk of a sequel, you know. Sam’s and Adrienne’s characters did survive. (Everyone throws something at the interviewer.) Seriously, the next year John Carpenter’s The Thing comes out and every reviewer is comparing the two and ‘Thing’ wins in comparison.

AB: Even though the critics hated ‘Thing’ – ‘E.T.’ was the alien they wanted in ’82.

F: We loved it, and so do our readers.

SW: Everybody likes ‘The Thing’ now; they recognize it for what it is. But, ‘Arms’ was done by Corman and is every bit a Roger Corman movie. That was it’s biggest strength and also it’s weakness.

F: Anybody sorry they did it?

AB: Hell, no. It was fun and fun to film is hard to find.

SB: No, it was like my first real acting role and I was grateful to get it.

KM: No, it’s now paying the bills when I do these conventions. Hard to dislike a movie that pays in more than residual sales.

SW: At the time, I don’t think I appreciated the experience as much as I do now; I was just trying to get my obligation to Roger out of the way. But looking back, it was just before 'Front Runner' and the Interview magazine fiasco, and I worked with people I respected and who respected me; it doesn’t get any better than that on a film set. I like these people, they’re real and down-to-earth and damn good actors to boot.

AB: Aww, Sammy, you’re just saying that ‘cause we’re here.

SW: If I didn’t like you, I’d just call you a professional and leave it at that.

F: Latest projects before we go?

SW: I'm going to direct an adaptation of a graphic novel by Howard Cruz called 'Stuck Rubber Baby' with Ian Nobel producing. I wrote a screenplay, we're just working on pre-production. It's about a young man in the deep south who during the civil rights era comes to terms with his sexuality. It's a very important story that needs to be told.

KM: I’ve got a new series coming up, where Jim Reed (KM’s character from “Adam-12”) is the father of a policeman and he and Jean are helping their widower son raise his children. Just finished the pilot for NBC and we’re waiting to see if it gets picked up.

AB: I’m spoken for. I’ve got twins at home.

SB: I actually played a baddie in Kent’s pilot, but yeah, I’ve got a (does a drum roll on the table) John Carpenter film coming up; I play the female lead.

F: Horror?

SB: Sort of. It’s an adaptation of a Dean Koontz novel, The Door to December. I play a woman whose kidnapped daughter is found.

F: Well, we're all looking forward to these projects from all of you. It was great to catch up!

 

[markedward]

In October 1982, Sam Westwood appeared on the cover of Interview magazine and was interviewed by Andy Warhol. The interview was infamous after tabloids grabbed hold of it and Sam's career was ruined over the course of the following year.

This is not the version Interview magazine published, it is the audio recording that was leaked later on.

(Tape opens mid-sentence when Andy turns the recorder on. At this point he’s just set it out.)

The bolded parts did not make it into the published interview.

Andy Warhol: …I like it here, but I usually only come in much later. This is the first time I’ve come in at lunch. God, I hope you’re paying.

Sam Westwood: I’ve been here with my agent, usually to get me to take a lousy part. And it’s your interview, so it’s your check.

Female Voice (Server): May I get you something to drink?

Sam: The water will do for me until I decide what I’m eating, thank you.

Server: And you, sir?

Andy: Oh, I’m with him, so I’ll wait, too.

Server: Okay, your waiter will be here shortly.

Andy: Yes. Do you think these menus are big enough? I wonder if her face hurts from smiling that wide all day?

Sam: {chuckles} Mine would.

{There is a minute or two of silence, then}:

Warhol: I want to ask you about Mary Rose.

Westwood: That was the first movie I was proud of being in. I almost quit acting before that, you know.

Warhol: No, I didn’t. But you were working with Ingrid Bergman.

Westwood: Yes! She was lovely. Now, I didn't work with her, we only met on set. But That film had a great cast. It was my second film after Disney. The first was a beach picture, 'Fireball 500' that I'd done on loan out to AIP.

Warhol: Yet The reviews were still mixed on ‘Mary Rose’.

Westwood: Pauline Kael was kind when she said I brought a level of "boyish naivety" or some shit to the part. Hitch said he wanted to use a youthful looking actor to make the character appear more like how Mary Rose remembered him. What led him to cast me, I'll never know. Got some good reviews, so that’s why he’s Hitchcock and I’m a member of Screen Actors Guild.

Warhol: Oh, I thought it was a fabulous movie. Sharon Tate was wonderful.

Voice(Male): Afternoon, Gentlemen, I’m Tom. I’m your waiter are you –- [2]

(Thumps heard on audio tape. In a later interview Sam revealed that Tom jumped up and down like a 'small child', causing the sound).

You’re Sam Westwood, aren’t you?

Sam: Yes, guilty as charged.

Tom: Oh my God! I love your movies. You are why I wanted to become an actor! I mean I am waiting tables right now, but I'm auditioning--

Andy: I hate to break up the fan club, but might I place an order for food?

Tom: Oh, yes. Sorry!

Warhol: I'll have the chicken parmesan.

Tom: And you're, you’re, uh, The soup can guy?

Warhol: Yes. And you are a waiter in an Italian restaurant; I dunno, maybe act like one and Sam here can recommend you to Hitchcock.

Tom: Hitchcock died a couple of years ago--

Westwood: He’s Andy Warhol, Tom. We're doing a piece for his magazine. I'll have the tortellini. And don't give up on acting, Tom, if it's what you really want to do.

Tom The Waiter: Thank You! Thank You so much! Salad?

Sam: Yes, house salad, oil & vinegar dressing.

Tom: And you, sir?

Andy: Sure, why not? I’ll have the same.

Tom: And what would you like to drink? We’ve got a House Chianti that will go well with both of your main dish choices.

Sam: Fine with me, Andy?

Andy: Whatever you’re having, Sam. I’m here to talk to you.

(Tom The Waiter leaves)

Warhol: That was very encouraging of you, Sam; says "The Soup Can" guy.

Westwood: I like to encourage my fans. I think it's terribly rude when celebrities are standoffish to people, don't you?

Andy: I think people should be enthusiastic enough about their choices do not need encouragement, actually. If they don’t maybe they should stick to waiting tables, but what do I know, I just paint soup cans.

Sam: On with the interview. Where were we?

Andy: ‘Mary Rose’ and how much you learned from Ingrid Bergman.

Sam: I loved working on that movie. Sharon was a bit of a newby, too. We were both a little shy until the second week of shooting.

Andy: Shy, how…..sweet.

Westwood: It was still another three years before things really took off, though. I'd got buzz for ‘Coogan's Bluff’ and then took time off. ‘Adam-12’ started about then, I think that's why I get mistaken for Kent McCord. We both played young cops at the same time. When I worked with Kent on The Arms of the Stars, we didn't see any resemblance.

Warhol: Why did you take time off? Time off? Is that a euphemism for “I didn’t get any offers?”

Westwood: No, it’s no. What happened was I started getting pickier. I wanted a decent script. My agent, Dick Clayton, agreed and we decided that we should find some decent roles and make 1970 the year things happened. And, amazingly, it worked. I did ‘The Grifters’ and ‘Never Give An Inch’ that year.

Warhol: ‘The Kill-Off’ was a revelation. It was a side of Debbie Reynolds nobody knew existed.

Westwood: She was great in that. It really made people realize she was capable of so much more. We both had screen images we wanted to change. I still think she would have been great in ‘The Exorcist’, but Jean was terrific. I worked with her too on ‘The Grifters’.

Warhol: She got some serious accolades for ‘Day of the Locust’.

Westwood: She was fantastic in that movie. I was up for 'Locust' and unfortunately had to pass. I thought Bud Cort was great though. Really pulled things out of the character I couldn’t have.

Warhol: And then you couldn’t get arrested in Hollywood – for a while.

Westwood: Guilty. But I changed agents about that time and what Dick was negotiating was lost. And it took my new agent, Helen Benson, a little while to find me something. We were working very hard. Mistakes were made, I'd lost out on some very good roles, some of that was my doing. And I also tried to shoot a film that was never finished. But it all ended up ok when 'Peter Proud' came out. And Helen really busted her ass to get me good roles.

Andy: But you changed agents again.

Sam: Helen liked lower-profile clientele.

Warhol: Speaking of which, you've been listed as a bachelor for a long time. Then there were all those queer rumors, the ones about Valerie Perrine--

Westwood: That was a publicist, though I do really love Valerie as a friend. I just want to make movies.

Warhol: Was it hard for you to play a homosexual in ‘The Front Runner’?

Westwood: No.

Warhol: I know most actors would worry about it ruining their careers. But I can understand how it would be comfortable for you.

Westwood: Andy, I'm an actor. I might play a killer for example, but I don't run out and stab a prostitute to ensure reality for a part. Besides, if it ruins my career, then at least I can say that it was doing a project I felt passionate about. Plus, I really like working with Paul Newman.

Warhol: He is an icon.

Sam: I'm very happy to say he's directed me.

The first time we worked together on 'Never Give An Inch', I was so nervous. I mean, Paul Newman?

Warhol: I understand he had a hard time getting 'The Front Runner' made.

Westwood: Well, unfortunately, it's a very controversial topic. And frankly, it shouldn't be. It's really just a love story. And, a tearjerker. It took him a very long time. In fact, he had wanted to star in it himself back in the 70's. He “outgrew it”. So, that’s how I got the part.

Warhol: I heard you turned down 'Captain America' and 'Flash Gordon'.

Westwood: 'Captain America' wasn't offered to me. You've been reading gossip magazines, Andy! (laughs).

I got offered 'Flash' and was invited to a party at Freddie Mercury's place--

Warhol: Is it true that he covers his doors and furniture in saran wrap? Someone told me that.

Westwood: (laughs) No, no saran wrap in sight. We were offered latex gloves and condoms at the door, though. He has people who walk around with trays of condoms.

Warhol: We?

Westwood: I took a ... friend. Didn't want Freddie to think I was there for anything other than the party. He seems to like to convert nonbelievers, you know. (laughing)

Warhol: You make it sound like a religious experience.

Westwood: Well, the parties do get wild despite the gloves and condoms. It's almost like a fetish thing for him. To each their own. [1]

Warhol: Do you think it's why he wears leather gloves onstage? Germs? I heard something about him getting vomited on as a young man, which would be horribly traumatic.

Westwood: Who knows. There are all sorts of stories going around about celebrities now. I didn't really want to do that film. Sam Jones was good. I did Sci-Fi later though, with 'Arms Of The Stars', a project I am happier to have appeared in.

Warhol: You've definitely had a lot of stories printed about you as well. Is it true that you walked out of that Barbara Walters interview around ten years ago? Are you going to walk out on me too?

Westwood: Yes. It was around 1971. They had to edit it after. I didn't like the questions she was asking. Walk out on you? It depends on what you ask me, Andy. (nervous laughter)

Warhol: Was she asking about your personal life?

Westwood: Yes. The tabloids like to have a go at me once in a while too.

Warhol: Your friendship with Harris Walker has given you some tabloid exposure. I remember he overdosed on drugs about ten years back and you were there and nursed him back to health.

Westwood: I helped get him work as part of the still unit crew on The Thief Who Came To Dinner. If Harris stayed in New York he might not have been alive much longer.

Warhol: You two are very close friends. In fact, you've been very...loyal to him. You've been roommates for several years. And you are in a position where you don't need to have a roommate.

Westwood: Yes, we're friends and living together works for us. It means the house doesn't sit empty when one of us is filming.

Warhol: Tell me the story about how you met him.

Westwood: Well, he did this really awful movie called 'Kiss My Firm But Pliant Lips' and his management at the time quickly rushed him into a film for Robert Altman.

Warhol: 'Kiss My Firm But Pliant Lips'. I just love that title.

Westwood: Elvis was supposed to be in that and he dropped out. He was sick of making movies. Tom Parker was pretty upset. They got this kid who had done a shaving cream ad on TV to replace him. Harris was horribly miscast and he would be the first one to tell you that himself.

Server: Your wine, gentlemen.

Sam: Don’t bother with the tasting, just pour, please.

Server: Yes, sir. Enjoy.

Warhol: Yes. Now going back to Harris...

Westwood: Oh here we go.

Warhol: It's sort of like when Walt Disney found you taking care of plants at the park, don't you think? You were almost like Disney's very own Cinderella. Just without the glass slipper. And for all we know, Prince Charming.

Westwood: Very funny, Andy. Well not quite, Harris had been in front of a camera doing television ads, he'd been modeling. He was very poor early on and needed whatever work he could get.

Warhol: Harris did some physique shots and a solo porn loop that played in Times Square--

Sam: Oh my God. Look, that's something you should bring up with Harris. He is not proud of that but was in a situation at a very young age where he needed money and sometimes anything looks appealing no matter how sleazy it actually is.

To go back to the subject at hand, I was a kid from Arizona working odd jobs who got discovered. Completely different. He will agree that the movie he made was horrible, it wasn't in release very long. I managed to see it and liked his raw talent.

Warhol: Were you attracted?

Westwood: I was impressed, but he needed some training, Andy. That's a BETTER way to describe it. I wanted to meet him.

Warhol: I loved 'That Cold Day In The Park'. Elizabeth Taylor told me that she just loved working with Harris.

Westwood: If only THAT had been his first movie. I met Harris at a party in 1968. He was with Burton and Taylor, but they'd run off. I can't remember who was having the party. Harris was alone and he looked really miserable. I heard he was there and wanted to meet him so I went for it.

Warhol: You have been very...encouraging to him from what I gather. What was that movie he did with Vincent Price?

Westwood: There were two. 'Secret Of The Damned' and 'The Call Of Cthulhu'.

Warhol: Cth-Cha-I can't say it.

Westwood: Cha-Thoo-Loo. It was based on an old H.P. Lovecraft story. Harris had a friend who recommended him to Corman and that got his film career going again.

Warhol: Harris almost died after that, didn't he?

Westwood: That's a very dramatic way to put it. We were at a party after a film premiere and he fell off a yacht. Harris can swim, thank God. He was found and was ok. I don't know what I--what we I mean, would have done if something had happened to him that night.

Warhol: He was pissing off Ms. Catriona Nobel's yacht--

Sam: With Elizabeth Taylor as the audience, I think if Cat had been there, he wouldn’t have tried it.

Andy: Ms. Catriona scares me. She’s so…..stern. You think she’s a lesbian?

Sam: No. I don’t know why she scares you. I love her. You know exactly where you stand with her, no guessing at all.

Andy: She skipped my showing and won’t come to the Factory, always busy.

Sam: That doesn't need to be brought up here, Andy. I am supposed to be talking with you about 'The Front Runner' and some of my other films over lunch. Not my best friend's film career and personal life or comments on someone else’s attitude. Look, Harris used to have some problems with drugs and alcohol but he's cleaned himself up. I don't think he'd be thrilled that you keep bringing him up. You aren't like this with your other subjects.

Andy: But how we interact with others says a lot about us, don’t you think?

Sam: We’re interviewing for YOUR magazine, not Psychology Today!

Andy: Right. Do you get sick of the stuff that gets printed about you and Harris or Sal Mineo?

Westwood: You had to go there didn't you? Sal is one of my oldest friends in the business. I met him through Roddy McDowell doing 'That Darn Cat.' I've never distanced myself from Sal. Sal is very brave regarding his sexual orientation. He's gotten a lot of flack, had a hard time getting films made. He is a very good director.

Warhol: Hollywood can be very cruel to people who are different.

Westwood: Yes it can. I wish I could be as brave as Sal.

Warhol: So you're saying you relate to Sal struggling with his sexuality?

(Food arrives)

Westwood: Thank You. This looks delicious.

Tom The Waiter: I'll be sure to tell the kitchen. Parmesan?

Westwood: Sure, Thank You

Tom: Parmesan for you, Mr. Warren?

Andy: Who?

Tom: I'm sorry, Mr. Worehale, would you like some grated on yours as well?

Andy: No, thank you.

{another pause}

Warhol: (softly) No tip for you. (Normal voice) You didn't answer my question, Sam.

Westwood: Well, the waiter showed up. I wasn't going to be rude to the waiter. I relate to Sal struggling as someone who has also had a lot of speculation, yes.

Warhol: Is it true that Marilyn Chambers did Traffic Jam because her only other offer after The Last Picture Show was a porno film?

Westwood: Who told you THAT?! I'm trying to do a nice interview with you here, Andy and you're asking a lot of...trashy questions.

Warhol: Marilyn Chambers told me. I remember some critics saying you didn't have a lot of chemistry with Marilyn Chambers.

Westwood: Well, there you go. You got your answer directly from the source. No need to ask me now, is there?

They also said I had chemistry with other actresses, one of which was Jackie Bisset, who is pretty smoking hot.

Warhol: But you do have a slightly...soft quality in some of your roles. And I think you know full well what that means, Sam.

You seem to be in touch with your feminine side, Sam. You haven't touched your food, Sam.

Westwood: I'm trying to figure out if you're complimenting me or insulting me.

Warhol: I would never insult you. That would be rude.

Tom the waiter returns

(It's at this point where he accidentally knocks Andy’s wine glass into Andy’s lap).

Tom: I'm so sorry, Mr. Worehale!

Warhol: Who are you blackmailing to work here? I'm sending you the cleaning bill, you little--

Tom: I am so sorry, let me--

Andy: Do you know what these pants cost?

Sam: God, Andy, I’ll buy you another pair! It was an accident. Jeez.

{sounds of the clean up}

Andy: {After Tom leaves again} I despise incompetence.

Sam: You want to wait the tables? Someone has to do it.

Warhol: I just wish they’d find someone competent. Do you have any other projects lined up?

Westwood: I just shot a movie for Art Ericson co-starring Linda Manz as my daughter. I've never played a father before, so that's different. It's in the can as we speak.

Warhol: You don't look 37. You still look like you did ten years ago. Do you think people will buy you as the father of a young adult?

Westwood: Why thank you, Andy, that’s the nicest thing anyone’s said to me in a long time. If you’re right, then my make-up artist is going to have earn her money. Yeah, I think they’ll believe it.

Andy sighs

Sam: Is there a problem, Andy?

Andy: I was hoping for something more than the just the usual Hollywood tripe from you. I was hoping you’d be braver.

Same: Braver?

Andy: About you and Harris.

Westwood: I think we're done here.

Andy: But you could do so much more for a community that’s misunderstood by being honest.

{Sound of chair being pushed back}

Sam: You’ve got the check, right?

Andy: You haven’t finished your pasta, Sam!

Sam: Bye, Mr. Worehale.

[1] The eccentric behavior saves Freddie's life. He's still alive as of 2018 in this TL universe.

[2] After Endless Love, Tom was cast in the film Taps as David Shawn. After skipping the required military training to spend time in his hotel room, the young actor was fired by director Harold Becker and replaced with another actor.

Within a year, Tom Cruise was in New York to look for acting work and was waiting tables.

 

[markedward]

From Sam Westwood's Hollywood

Sam: I won a Golden Globe for 'In The Booth'. My agents were pushing for a third Oscar nomination but it never happened.

I followed up with 'Swag' and 'Arms Of The Stars' and a few other things before Paul Newman approached me. [1]

Interviewer is heard in the background

Sam: Well, 'Swag' did well, but it was really more of the same, you know, a continuation of my 70's films. People were expecting that from me. I'd hit a formula.
Anyway, how did Paul Newman approach me about 'The Front Runner'?

Well, Paul wanted to play it himself, with I think Richard Thomas which I imagine would have been--

Sam pauses

Look, he was typecast as John Boy Walton and I imagine all Hell would have broken loose (laughs)

Paul felt he was too old for the part he wanted to play and he asked me. CAA were begging me not to do it. They were promising me all sorts of projects to change my mind. I think refusing those put me on their shitlist.

Harris: I was nervous that he wanted to do it. Not because it was a gay romance, frick, I would have killed for a script as good as that one. But the fact that he was willing to risk everything and possibly get outed was scary. Sam had a really good career going. I knew we were going to have backlash. Sam moreso.

Sam: Harris begged Helen to get him a series, 'Parts Unknown' so he would have steady employment. He went out on his own and bought a more professional wardrobe for public appearances and interviews. I wasn't sure what to make of it. I realize now he was taking precautions and trying to be more mature.

Harris: It was a smaller part and I wasn't on every week so it allowed me to make films on the side. Richard Roundtree was in it as well and we were able to get the producers to work around our schedules so we could do 'Q' for Larry Cohen. The series was steady employment in case things went to Hell for Sam. That way, we had cash coming in. If I had to I could have done unit still work on the side. I know the way I handled things, they might have looked reactionary to him.

Sam: At the time, I felt like he was worrying way too much and not being supportive about me accepting the role.

Harris: It was a great role for you. I was just worried about the aftermath. People can be a**holes and it wasn't common for someone as big as Sam to agree to film a gay romance in those days. Matt Collins did that film with Sal, which was quite controversial in it's day but it got relegated to art houses and it came and went and Matt still had a few offers. 'Front Runner' was a mainstream Hollywood movie.

Sam: Well, also with Matt, he hadn't quite been able to properly follow up his first movie and, you know, I don't think things would have been much different had he not done that film.

There were other gay themed movies in '82. 'Personal Best' was similar to 'Front Runner' and there was also 'Making Love'. Just you know, none of them starred closeted gay men--

[1] There will be a full write up on In The Booth for the second draft.

*This was supposed to go before last post, but was accidentaly deleted.

 

[markedward]

Version of the interview that was actually published by Interview Magazine

Thursday, September 15, 1982, 12:00 p.m. Andy Warhol is dining with Sam Westwood in Manhattan. Westwood, the star of The Front Runner, a film in the vein of Personal Best is wearing a grey cable knit sweater and jeans. He speaks mostly about his career and isn't keen on being addressed about his personal life. [1]

Warhol: I want to ask you about Mary Rose.

Westwood: That was the first movie I was proud of being in. I almost quit acting before that, you know.

Warhol: With Ingrid Bergman.

Westwood: Yes! She was lovely. Now, I didn't work with her, we only met on set. But That film had a great cast. It was my second film after Disney. The first was a beach picture, 'Fireball 500' that I'd done on loan out to AIP.

Warhol: Yet The reviews were still mixed on ‘Mary Rose’.

Westwood: Pauline Kael was kind when she said I brought a level of "boyish naivety" or some shit to the part. Hitch said he wanted to use a youthful looking actor to make the character appear more like how Mary Rose remembered him. What led him to cast me, I'll never know. Got some good reviews.

Warhol: Oh, I thought it was a fabulous movie.

Westwood: It was still another three years before things really took off, though. I'd got buzz for ‘Coogan's Bluff’ and then took time off. ‘Adam-12’ started about then, I think that's why I get mistaken for Kent McCord. We both played young cops at the same time. When I worked with Kent on The Arms of the Stars, we didn't see any resemblance.

Warhol: Why did you take time off?

Westwood: I wanted a decent script. My agent, Dick Clayton decided that we should find some decent roles and make 1970 the year things happened. And, amazingly, it worked. I did ‘The Grifters’ and ‘Never Give An Inch’ that year.

Warhol: ‘The Kill-Off’ was a side of Debbie Reynolds nobody knew existed.

Westwood: She was great in that. It really made people realize she was capable of so much more. We both had screen images we wanted to change. I still think she would have been great in ‘The Exorcist’, but Jean was terrific. I worked with her too on ‘The Grifters’.

Westwood: She was fantastic in ('Day of the Locust'). I was up for 'Locust' and unfortunately had to pass. Bud Cort was great though.

Westwood: We were working very hard. Mistakes were made, I'd lost out on some very good roles, some of that was my doing. And I also tried to shoot a film that was never finished. But it all ended up ok when 'Peter Proud' came out. And Helen really busted her ass to get me good roles.

Warhol: You've been listed as a bachelor for a long time. There were all those rumors about Valerie Perrine--

Westwood: That was a publicist, though I do really love Valerie as a friend.

Warhol: Was it hard for you to play a homosexual in ‘The Front Runner’?

Westwood: No.

Warhol: I know most actors would worry about it ruining their careers.

Westwood: Andy, I'm an actor. I might play a killer for example, but I don't run out and stab a prostitute to ensure reality for a part. Besides, if it ruins my career, then at least I can say that it was doing a project I felt passionate about. Plus, I really like working with Paul Newman.

Warhol: He is an icon.

Westwood: I'm very happy to say he's directed me.

The first time we worked together on 'Never Give An Inch', I was so nervous. I mean, Paul Newman?

Warhol: I understand he had a hard time getting 'The Front Runner' made.

Westwood: Well, unfortunately, it's a very controversial topic. And frankly, it shouldn't be. It's really just a love story. And, a tearjerker. It took him a very long time. In fact, he had wanted to star in it himself back in the 70's.

Warhol: I heard you turned down 'Captain America' and 'Flash Gordon'.

Westwood: 'Captain America' wasn't offered to me. You've been reading gossip magazines, Andy! (laughs).

I got offered 'Flash' and was invited to a party at Freddie Mercury's place--

Warhol: Is it true that he covers his doors and furniture in saran wrap? Someone told me that.

Westwood: (laughs) No, no saran wrap in sight. We were offered latex gloves and condoms at the door, though. He has people who walk around with trays of condoms.

Warhol: We?

Westwood: I took a ... friend. Didn't want Freddie to think I was there for anything other than the party. He seems to like to convert nonbelievers, you know. (laughing)

Warhol: You make it sound like a religious experience.

Westwood: Well, the parties do get wild despite the gloves and condoms. It's almost like a fetish thing for him. To each their own. [1]

Warhol: Do you think it's why he wears leather gloves onstage? Germs? I heard something about him getting vomited on as a young man, which would be horribly traumatic.

Westwood: Who knows. There are all sorts of stories going around about celebrities now. I didn't really want to do that film. Sam Jones was good. I did Sci-Fi later though, with 'Arms Of The Stars', a project I am happier to have appeared in.

Warhol: You've definitely had a lot of stories printed about you as well. Is it true that you walked out of that Barbara Walters interview around ten years ago? Are you going to walk out on me too?

Westwood: Yes. It was around 1971. They had to edit it after. I didn't like the questions she was asking. It depends on what you ask me, Andy. (nervous laughter)

Warhol: Was she asking about your personal life?

Westwood: Yes.

Warhol: Your friendship with Harris Walker has given you some tabloid exposure. I remember he overdosed on drugs about ten years back and you were there and nursed him back to health.

Westwood: If Harris stayed in New York he might not have been alive much longer.

Warhol: You two are very close friends. In fact, you've been very...loyal to him. You've been roommates for several years. And you are in a position where you don't need to have a roommate.

Westwood: Yes, we're friends and living together works for us. It means the house doesn't sit empty when one of us is filming.

Warhol: Tell me the story about how you met him.

Westwood: Well, he did this really awful movie called 'Kiss My Firm But Pliant Lips' and his management at the time quickly rushed him into a film for Robert Altman.

Warhol: 'Kiss My Firm But Pliant Lips'. I just love that title.

Westwood: Elvis was supposed to be in that and he dropped out. He was sick of making movies. Tom Parker was pretty upset. They got this kid who had done a shaving cream ad on TV to replace him. Harris was horribly miscast and he would be the first one to tell you that himself.

Warhol: Yes. Now going back to Harris...

Westwood: Oh here we go.

Warhol: It's sort of like when Walt Disney found you taking care of plants at the park, don't you think? You were almost like Disney's very own Cinderella. Just without the glass slipper. And for all we know, Prince Charming.

Westwood: Very funny, Andy. Well not quite, Harris had been in front of a camera doing television ads, he'd been modeling. He was very poor early on and needed whatever work he could get.

Warhol: Harris did some physique shots and a solo porn loop that played in Times Square--

Sam: Oh my God. Look, that's something you should bring up with Harris. He is not proud of that but was in a situation at a very young age where he needed money and sometimes anything looks appealing no matter how sleazy it actually is.

To go back to the subject at hand, I was a kid from Arizona working odd jobs who got discovered. Completely different. He will agree that the movie he made was horrible, it wasn't in release very long. I managed to see it and liked his raw talent.

Warhol: Were you attracted?

Westwood: I was impressed, but he needed some training, Andy. That's a BETTER way to describe it. I wanted to meet him.

Warhol: I loved 'That Cold Day In The Park'. Elizabeth Taylor told me that she just loved working with Harris.

Westwood: If only THAT had been his first movie. I met Harris at a party in 1968. He was with Burton and Taylor, but they'd run off. I can't remember who was having the party. Harris was alone and he looked really miserable. I heard he was there and wanted to meet him so I went for it.

Warhol: You have been very...encouraging to him from what I gather. What was that movie he did with Vincent Price?

Westwood: There were two. 'Secret Of The Damned' and 'The Call Of Cthulhu'.

Warhol: Cth-Cha-I can't say it.

Westwood: Cha-Thoo-Loo. It was based on an old H.P. Lovecraft story. Harris had a friend who recommended him to Corman and that got his film career going again.

Warhol: Harris almost died after that, didn't he?

Westwood: That's a very dramatic way to put it. We were at a party after a film premiere and he fell off a yacht. Harris can swim, thank God. He was found and was ok. I don't know what I--what we I mean, would have done if something had happened to him that night.

Warhol: He was pissing off Ms. Catriona Nobel's yacht--

Sam: That doesn't need to be brought up here, Andy. I am supposed to be talking with you about 'The Front Runner' and some of my other films over lunch. Not my best friend's film career and personal life. Look, Harris used to have some problems with drugs and alcohol but he's cleaned himself up. I don't think he'd be thrilled that you keep bringing him up. You aren't like this with your other subjects.

Andy: Do you get sick of the stuff that gets printed about you and Harris or Sal Mineo?

Westwood: You had to go there didn't you? Sal is one of my oldest friends in the business. I met him through Roddy McDowell doing 'That Darn Cat.' I've never distanced myself from Sal. Sal is very brave regarding his sexual orientation. He's gotten a lot of flack, had a hard time getting films made. He is a very good director.

Warhol: Hollywood can be very cruel to people who are different.

Westwood: Yes it can. I wish I could be as brave as Sal.

Warhol: So you're saying you relate to Sal struggling with his sexuality?

(Food arrives)

Westwood: Thank You. This looks delicious.

Tom The Waiter: I'll be sure to tell the kitchen. Parmesan?

Westwood: Sure, Thank You

Tom: Parmesan for you, Mr. Warren?

Andy: Who?

Tom: I'm sorry, Mr. Worehale, would you like some grated on yours as well?

Warhol: You didn't answer my question, Sam.

Westwood: Well, the waiter showed up. I wasn't going to be rude to the waiter. I relate to Sal struggling as someone who has also had a lot of speculation, yes.

Warhol: Is it true that Marilyn Chambers did Traffic Jam because her only other offer after The Last Picture Show was a porno film?

Westwood: Who told you THAT?! I'm trying to do a nice interview with you here, Andy and you're asking a lot of...trashy questions.

Warhol: Marilyn Chambers told me. I remember some critics saying you didn't have a lot of chemistry with Marilyn Chambers.

Westwood: Well, there you go. You got your answer directly from the source. No need to ask me now, is there?

They also said I had chemistry with other actresses, one of which was Jackie Bisset, who is pretty smoking hot.

Warhol: But you do have a slightly...soft quality in some of your roles. And I think you know full well what that means, Sam.

You seem to be in touch with your feminine side, Sam. You haven't touched your food, Sam.

Westwood: I'm trying to figure out if you're complimenting me or insulting me.

Warhol: I would never insult you. That would be rude.

Tom the waiter returns

(It's at this point where he accidentally knocks Andy’s wine glass into Andy’s lap).

Tom: I'm so sorry, Mr. Worehale!

Warhol: I'm sending you the cleaning bill.

Warhol: Do you have any other projects lined up?

Westwood: I just shot a movie for Art Ericson co-starring Linda Manz as my daughter. I've never played a father before, so that's different. It's in the can as we speak.

Warhol: You don't look 37. You still look like you did ten years ago. Do you think people will buy you as the father of a young adult?

Westwood: Yeah, I think they’ll believe it.

Andy: I was hoping for something more than the just the usual from you. I was hoping you’d be braver.

Westwood: I think we're done here.

Andy: You could do so much more for a community that’s misunderstood by being honest.

[1] When Warhol did interviews, as with this one featuring Cher, he was more fixated in what the stars were wearing in his intros and when the interview took place. Others would just mention the subjects career, etc.

 

[markedward]

From Sam Westwood's Hollywood

Sam: I remember CAA were worried about how the interview might turn out.

'Interview' wasn't a publication mainstream America read. It wasn't like 'Profile' or 'People'. My management thought they could bury it. But the way they attempted to bury it, which I stupidly went along with at first SUCKED. I remember a publicist had me go to some other premiere around October 1982 with Michelle Pfeiffer, who was new in town. I was miserable about it because this was when 'The Front Runner' was released and the interview first hit.

(Sam goes silent)

You could do so much more for a community that’s misunderstood by being honest. That's what Warhol said in the last line. I knew my cover was blown after reading it.

Interviewer: Would you still have come out?

Sam: Later on, yes. Definitely. Just, well, 1982/83 wasn't a great time for it. We both had friends dropping dead like flies. There was a huge stigma over being gay during the AIDS epidemic.

Harris: He should have been able to come out when he felt like it.

Sam: Exactly.

The tabloids somehow picked up the story. CAA stuck with me...at first. Then I was dropped from 'Man Who Loved Women'. After that, they dumped me. I went back to Helen. My other movies in release were either buried or they flopped. There were no more film offers. Helen had a hard time selling me. I did that interview for the Advocate alongside Harris.

Harris: We discussed it at length with Helen. She knew it wouldn't affect me as much as it would Sam. She wasn't going to drop us.

Sam: I had Harris involved because I didn't want to out him. It was his choice if he wanted to tell people we'd been a couple for a decade.

Harris: And I wasn't going to throw my man under the bus.

Sam: The tabloids picked that up. Grace Jones decided to help me out a little. We'd sort of shut everyone out that was part of the Warhol crowd.

Harris: Grace was best buddies with Andy but when the interview hit she was furious with him. I really don't know if they ever spoke again.

Sam: Andy had some backlash from the LGBT community over it. But there were also people who thought I was a coward for not coming out. And then we had the--

(Sam pauses)

Now I don't have an issue with religious people per se. It was the fanatics like Jerry Falwell and that ilk that made things Hell for us. I'd get hate mail from the religious right, angry fans, you name it. Letters telling me to go rot in Hell...

Harris: I got some too. But I was used to hate mail. Sam wasn't so much. I thought it was weird that he was keeping it because it upset him a lot.

Sam: I just...did. I don't know why. Most of it was really nasty. But then, you'd also get a few letters saying things like "Thank You". So there was that. I almost quit showbiz. Ian and Cat told me they'd kick my ass if I stopped acting--

Interviewer: Going back to Grace Jones, what exactly happened on Saturday Night Live?

Sam: Well--

From a 2015 documentary short: "The Infamous Tampon Sketch"

Cut to footage of "Grace Jones, singer/actress/model": I was asked to host Saturday Night Live as the musical guest alongside Sam J. Jones who had a film out.

Cut to "Lorne Michaels, Saturday Night Live producer": One of our writers got this idea for a skit mocking Andy Warhol after he outed Sam Westwood.

It was supposed to be Grace and someone playing "Andy" at a restaurant. "Andy" spills the ending of 'Citizen Kane' to the people at the next table, and then Grace was to mention "Sam's here, I think he wants to see you" and Andy gets all scared thinking she means Sam Westwood.

Sam J. Jones was to come up and say "I'm Sam, I'll be your waiter" and then keeps mentioning he's Sam the waiter while two or three people were to yell at someone named Sam across the room and "Andy" keeps getting jumpier and jumpier and Grace is either not noticing it or ignoring it. And then she says "Oh, here comes Sam" and Andy dives beneath the table and it's Sam Shepard in a cameo, who wants to talk to Andy about a play he's doing. Grace tells Sam Shepard he's not there. "Andy" was supposed to pop up and his wig is sideways a real mess and Sam Jones comes up and says "I'm your waiter, Sam, is there anything I can do?"

Then "Andy" was to run from the restaurant as the screen went black. We actually did a read through of the entire thing.

GJ: I didn't want to do it. I love Sam. I had been close friends with Andy Warhol up to the point where Sam was outed. I just didn't like the idea of making fun of either of them, really. What Andy did to Sam was unforgivable, but I didn't want any part of this sketch.

LM: Sam Shepard had booked time to do his cameo, so he wanted to do something on our show. At the very last minute, the writers slapped together what became the tampon commercial sketch.

Footage from the infamous sketch is shown.

LM (voiceover): It only aired once. Some people didn't see it because some NBC affiliates cut to commercials and when it aired on the other side of the country, it was cut to a break before even airing. That sketch became a myth.

GJ: To fill in time later, I did this funky jam session thing with the band.

That jam session became a single (laughs). I liked the beat!

(starts singing and moving her arms)

Cut to footage of the jam session. Grace Jones is on the SNL stage dancing around wildly while singing Come and play with me, play with me...

LM: Look, we liked Sam Westwood. He'd hosted a bunch of times. So when Grace refused to do the sketch, we listened. And Sam Shepard was willing to do the absolute worst sketch of the season because he was a fan of Sam Westwood too.

Cut to Sam Westwood, actor/director: I appreciate that they didn't do it. I was really grateful towards Grace for refusing, she didn't have to.

GJ: There were jokes about Sam everywhere. He wasn't doing anything wrong!

SW: At the time, I was over being in every joke and every tabloid. You'd turn on Carson and there'd be jokes about me being let go from "The Man Who Loved Women" (Sam facepalms)

GJ: It was not a good time for Sam.

Chris Blackwell saw the jam session and told me I had to record it. So we went into the studio and Sly and Robbie threw something together for me which became 'Come Play With Me'. There had to be a video to be shown on MTV. And I wanted Sam for it.

SW: They got this idea for Keith Haring to paint my entire body and I was this...human jungle gym. I loved doing it.

From Sam Westwood's Hollywood

Sam: What shocked me was that MTV actually aired the video in rotation. I was worried for Grace that if I did her video, nobody would show it.

I think what made it work was, I no longer had anything to hide and was just really relaxed the whole time. That wasn't the only music video I did during that time period.

Interviewer: Are you talking about Vanessa Williams?

Sam: Yes. Harris played 'Holiday' for me when it came out. We were fans.

Right before she made her first record she'd taken some nude photos--

Harris: When that scandal hit, I could relate. Sam and I reached out to her. We weren't expecting her to give us the time of day. She's the one of the Queens of Pop! Sure enough, we got a really kind letter back and we started corresponding.

Sam: I didn't know very many pop stars. Vanessa is incredibly down to earth.

Harris: The ones we did know also did other things. Grace made movies. I knew Barry Bostwick through theatre and movies, Anson Williams--

Sam: About a year after I did the video for Grace, Vanessa had a new record ready. Her label begged her to hold off until the scandal cooled. But a radio station started playing 'You're My Hero'. [1]

So, they did this Medieval video really quick. She insisted on me doing a cameo. Her label wasn't thrilled because she was having her own scandal, but I wound up being in it. She's a princess and there's a knight on a horse. At the end, he takes his helmet off and it's me. That also got heavy rotation.

So, on MTV, I was fine! (laughs)

[1] I don't want this to take away from Sam's story, so in a nutshell: TTL version of Madonna's 'Angel', lyrics by Williams, melody by Stephen Bray. And no, Vanessa didn't try for Miss America ITTL. Suzette Charles wins here.

 

[Finn Morgendorffer]

These updates are great, the reveal (unless I missed/forgot something) that it was Warhol who outed Sam is a good twist. And while they were all right to turn down that SNL sketch, objectively speaking it's hilarious.

 

[markedward]

These updates are great, the reveal (unless I missed/forgot something) that it was Warhol who outed Sam is a good twist. And while they were all right to turn down that SNL sketch, objectively speaking it's hilarious.

@Finn Morgendorffer Thank You!

It was Warhol. The skit probably would have been a classic had they kept it. Sam may or may not be a member of the SNL five-timers club, so they were going to have his back.

 

[markedward]

From Sam Westwood's Hollywood:

Interviewer: What were you doing in between the two music videos?

Sam: Well, I had shot another film in Japan. That was my third, I'd shot another film over there sometime before 'Front Runner'. It wasn't released over here, but I understand someone has uploaded it to YouTube. (chuckles)

I did some dinner theatre, off-Broadway plays, TV appearances...

Interviewer: But there weren't film offers?

Sam: Before all the shit hit the fan, I had an offer from Paul Newman, for 'Harry and Son'. He started filming it a few months after 'Front Runner' was released. I politely declined. Paul and I stayed good friends. I think he felt bad about everything to the point of offering me another movie, which...none of it was his fault.

After the shit hit the fan, I read for the Peter Coyote role in 'The Legend Of Billie Jean' but was passed over. I read for another movie during this time too and the director, who I won't even bother naming, suggested I go see some guy to make my voice sound more "masculine". My voice was the same as it had been twenty years earlier. I was pretty hurt over the way I was being treated.

Interviewer: You did do some directing work yourself, right?

Sam: How that came about was, I got asked to direct a music video. It fell through, but I stuck with the idea.

Offers for acting jobs weren't really coming in and it was a way to reinvent myself and not have to be gone for long periods of time. I did a handful of those and eventually directed some television commercials. In between, I would do conventions, live theatre, television.

I enjoyed doing it because it allowed me to reinvent myself. When it came out that I was directing videos and commercials, there were media outlets that tried to make light of it. You know, "Sam Westwood is now directing cough syrup ads!" (laughs)

Interviewer: How long did you do this before you had another film offer?

Sam: Two years? I continued on with it after that, of course. Until around the time film offers started coming through again.

I hadn't had a film out since late 1983. I had two movies out after 'Front Runner'. One was a movie directed by Art that kind of got tucked into limited release and the other bombed. The other one was some action movie my agent rushed me into. By the time it came out, I'd been dumped by CAA and I was with Helen. And everyone knew my little secret. So, I had a five year gap between films outside of Japan.

Honestly, not sure if my career would have fared much better had I not been outed. There were a lot of new actors on the scene and I was getting older.

Anyway, Ian called me up about a movie he was producing for Tony Scott called 'Grace Under Fire'. Shaun had written the script. Another actor dropped out, and they'd had a hard time casting it. Finally, Ian asked me about it and I said yes.

The interviewer is head asking something about Heather Rourke

From People Magazine:

Co-Stars Save Their “Daughter”

In 'Grace Under Fire', a film set for a 1988 release date, Sam Westwood, 42, and his co-star and movie wife Anissa Jones, 29, play a couple who are trying murder his ex-wife (Natalie Wood). Instead the three actors wound up saving a life. The trio insisted that 11-year-old Heather Rourke (playing Westwood's daughter from his first marriage) go to hospital.

When the doctors at Kaiser Permanente said Rourke was fine and suffering from Crohn’s Disease, Westwood, Wood and Jones insisted over her parents’ agreement with the doctors, that the girl undergo a more thorough examination. Dr. Dorothy Thomson, “just to shut them up” in her own words, re-examined Heather and found an intestinal problem that could have killed her.

Dr. Thomson found a congenital stenosis that could have led to intestinal stenosis and eventual bowel blockage. Thomson says that the insistence of the trio probably saved the girl’s life--

From Sam Westwood's Hollywood:

Sam: Natalie and Anissa were the ones who weren't comfortable with the diagnosis Heather got. They both knew people who had Chrons and felt like her symptoms were different. I backed them because they knew what they were talking about.

Next: Who is Nolan Hendricks?

 

[markedward]

Video interview for Nolan Hendrick's High School alma mater on his 10-year class reunion joined in-progress.

(Interviewer is Molly Johnson-Ching, a local station reporter)

Nolan: I've known I was adopted all my life. I mean, of six kids, only one of us was biological. My folks married straight out of high school and tried for ten years and never even had a miscarriage, so they turned to adoption. I'm in the middle, I've got three older and two younger. Son, daughter, daughter, me, daughter, daughter.

MJC: That's a pattern. So being adopted wasn't different in your family?

Nolan: No, but it turns out I was different. I was "the family secret", by that I mean I knew I was adopted - of six kids, only one was biological and she was the youngest but when I was a junior in High School and Aunt Christy was a little tipsy, she made some comment that she could have been my mother if she hadn't lived in Omaha. I think I asked her what she meant and she said "Your birth mom was our cousin, mine and your mother's. She was Aunt Lily's daughter."

MJC: And you didn't know?

Nolan: Not a clue. I immediately went to the family Bible that my mom had inherited from Granny Suzanne and read the family line. Aunt Lily had one daughter: Julie Marie Marshall O'Neill Hernandez, who had a date of death listed - the year before.

MJC: That's terrible...that's how you found out after her death?

Nolan: Yes, I found out after my birth mother's death that not only is she dead, but I'd met her at the family get-together's we had in the summer. I had so many questions, but when I asked Aunt Christy, she denied saying it. So, later, I asked my mother about it and she confirmed it: Julie was my mother. She told me what she knew: that Julie had gotten pregnant during her junior year of high school, went to a Catholic mother's home and gave birth in August - and then started the school year late, telling everyone she'd been in Omaha where her granddad was sick and she was helping her grandmother. Apparently, her grandfather Marshall had just died in early September, so it was believable. She went on to become class valedictorian.

MJC: How did you find out about your father?

Nolan: Aunt Lily died when I was a kid, cancer - breast cancer, I think. Her husband was named Victor and all I remembered about him was how mean he was. He was still alive, but he'd remarried and retired to Florida. Nobody seemed to know where he was. But my oldest sister - who's a great story in and of herself - remembered that Julie's sister still lived here in Topeka. So, between the two of us, we tracked Beth down and found out that Julie dated only one guy at a time and just before she found out she was pregnant, she was dating "Harrison Somebody". She pulls out the yearbook for her senior year and we don't find a "Harrison Somebody", but we do find a "Harris Walker" and Beth says "Yeah, that's the guy." And she tells me what she knows: that he went to Hollywood after graduation and became an actor.

MJC: Did you know who Harris Walker was, had you seen any of his stuff?

Nolan: Oh yeah. My sister was the fan. She loved B-movies and knew the name. She knew he'd done porn and that he had recently been outed as gay.

MJC: How did she 'know'?

Nolan: She's lesbian and a devoted activist. She was also the reason half the people in this town think I'm gay. I used to go around with her to events. I got beat up because some guys mistook me for gay, which broke up my first serious relationship.

MJC: How so?

Nolan: I was going to gay events. I was in college and had friends who were gay and my girlfriend at the time, her friends convinced her she was being used as a 'beard' to cover up my homosexuality. I was just helping my sister, who was like a second mother to me. My sister thought it was her fault, but it was a lack of trust and communication between us - the couple - that led to the break-up. And I was thinking I was going to propose!

MJC: You had your father's name and, then what? I know you found him because you've interviewed him.

Nolan: My idea was to call every Walker in Topeka and the surrounding towns. Fortunately, my sister had a better idea, which came in handy later when I started in journalism: see if Harris Walker is listed with Screen Actors Guild or Actor's Equity. And through her girlfriend's sister, who was in one of those, we found out the name of Harris Walker's agent. And contacted her.

From Sam Westwood's Hollywood:

Sam is at a table with a woman identified as Helen Benson and a man who looks like a slightly younger (and smaller) Harris 'Nolan Hendricks'

Harris: Helen rang one day and told me she neded to see me, that it was urgent.

Helen: It was right after the guys did that piece for 'The Advocate'. I recieved a phone call from a young man claiming to be Harris Walker's son.

Harris: Helen knew my past, that I had been more fluid with my sexuality as a young man.

Helen: I met up with Harris over coffee and told him.

Harris: There were two times where I could have helped conceive a child. A girlfriend in high school and in New York, I'd engaged in a threesome with a couple and there had been a scare which came back as me not being the father. Helen said the kid sounded like a teenager. So, I kind of backtracked in my mind--

I knew it would have happened in Topeka in my senior year. And I had to tell Sam. We kept it between the three of us.

Helen: I didn't want this getting out until we all knew for sure. Sam already had his career take a nosedive and while this wasn't something I felt would ruin anyone's career, we didn't know for sure if this was all true or not. Sometimes you'd get people claiming to be children of clients. This seemed legit. He came off as a very smart young man who knew what he was saying to be the truth.

Sam: When Harris told me. I was in shock about it, but trying to stay composed. I already had a lot of stuff going on.

I just paced around and around until Harris was done. And I said, "Do you remember when you started crying about a baby about eight years ago after we had a party?"

And Harris said "Yeah but that was a different time. Helen said this guy was a teenager".

Harris told me that back in his senior year in Topeka, he'd had a girlfriend, Julie something. Harris never kept his yearbooks, so we had no point of reference.

Harris: Well, she only dated one guy at a time. We'd had sex. I can't say it was enjoyable and I think she was on to me. Last I'd heard, she just sort of went AWOL before I graduated. From what I had heard from one of my younger sisters back in the day, she came back for senior year a little late. I wasn't ever told much else. Never knew what happened to her, but I realized that had to be it. I was curious to know what this his intentions were, we weren't really trusting a lot of people at this point, Sam and I.

Nolan: I just wanted to meet my dad. (shrugs)

I contacted Helen in my senior year, which probably wasn't a great time. Sam was going through the ringer and then Harris finds out he has a son--

Harris: That turned out to be a bright spot, Nolan.

Nolan: I didn't meet them for a couple more years. I came out to California at the tail end of 1986.

Harris: Nolan was doing activist work with his sister. He'd been mistaken for gay and was attacked. I spoke with his parents and we agreed that he should come out here. They were both hesitant at first because of Sam and I, but they eventually let him go.

I was really scared when Nolan told me that had happened to him. The activism work was something I felt he needed to do. Liz talked me into doing AIDS activism after Rock Hudson died and that was something Nolan and I had in common. It broke some ice between us.

I encouraged Nolan to come out here to attend UCLA with the intent that I'd get to know him better and catch up. I knew we'd probably have a relationship more like best friends rather than father and son.

Nolan: I have to give my family credit. They did allow me to communicate with Harris and talk with him on the phone all throughout the rest of my senior year.

Harris: I didn't have any documents with my name proving that Nolan was my son, but he sent me some photographs--

Sam: My reaction was "HOLY SHIT!" because aside from a few cosmetic details...this was the 80's--

Everyone laughs

Sam: He looked like a smaller version of the Harris I'd met years earlier in the corner at that party--

Harris: Talking to Nolan his senior year, I asked him what he wanted to do and he said he wanted to write.

Sam: I didn't want to meet Nolan until I was in better shape, but Harris constantly told me about the writing. Finally, he put me on the phone with him. I was a little nervous. I didn't expect to be a stepfather of sorts at any point.

Nolan: I was staying with my sister at the time. It was summer. She about freaked when she realized who was talking to me on the phone. (chuckles)

Sam: I remember the hysteria in the background and thinking "I still have fans?" (laughs)

Harris: Sam thought everyone including some of the gays hated him.

Sam: I get why certain fractions of the gay community weren't warming up to me after I was outed. I had been a closeted gay man when I shot 'The Front Runner'. And I'd done a few "tough guy" roles. So I basically pissed off multiple groups of people by admitting my sexuality. Better to do it all at once, I guess. It didn't hit Harris as hard.

Harris: I think people just knew with me.

Sam: Anyway, I'd always wanted to be a writer. Harris wanted me to talk to Nolan about pursuing that path.

Nolan: So I went to college in Kansas for two years, and then graduated and was working when I was attacked. When that happened Harris and Sam both talked to me about attending UCLA and getting a degree and taking film studies.

Harris: Nolan was always talking about films. Sam and I being actors didn't even play into it. He was a true film buff.

Sam: Nolan came out here about nine months before starting school.

Helen: Harris came to me and asked if I'd rep Nolan. Which I thought was...I didn't want accusations of nepotism. And I wasn't a literary agent.

Harris: I had to explain to her that I just wanted him to have a job on a film crew or as an extra. Or working in the offices or something.

Nolan: I came out here and answered the phones at Tina Sinatra's office. I was sort of a big brother to Martin. Once school started though, I quit and got a more conspicuous job. I was pretty private in school. People just assumed I was really focused on my studies. Which I was.

It was Tina who suggested I go volunteer at The Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.

Harris: We asked him to come live with us, but he decided against it.

Nolan: I took an apartment with this guy a few years older named Brad who dropped out of journalism school at the University of Missouri and came to town wanting to be an actor.

Brad had this conversation with me about journalism that inspired him to go back to school. He went for broadcasting. He's one of the few friends I made who knew early on who my biological father was.

Harris: When Nolan first came to town, we gathered a bunch of our friends and told them about him. And we had a party. It was something of an open secret.

Nolan: I got to meet a lot of people.

Sam: They liked talking to him. He wasn't out to get dirt.

Nolan: I just wanted to talk about movies with people who made movies. I wanted to meet crew people, not just actors. Volunteering at the Motion Picture Home, I was able to know elderly people who had been in the business years earlier. It was a great experience.

Sam: Harris was about to go public about Nolan when the Enquirer hit with a photo of me with him saying I was his biological father. So we hit back with a lawsuit and settled out of court.

Harris: The general reaction was positive, but we kept doing our own things. Later on, we talked about doing YouTube videos together. He'd interviewed us both for books at some point.

Nolan: Harris and I have a relationship more like brothers than a traditional father and son setup, but we are very close--

 

[Unknown]

I could see Sam doing "Murder, She Wrote", assuming it's made ITTL (and keep Angela Lansbury, if it's still made ITTL; she made that show (1))...

(1) Jean Stapleton (aka Edith Bunker) was offered it originally, but she turned it down because she feared typecasting, so the producers turned to their second choice, Angela Lansbury, who accepted it; IMO, she is Jessica Fletcher...

 

[markedward]

I could see Sam doing "Murder, She Wrote", assuming it's made ITTL (and keep Angela Lansbury, if it's still made ITTL; she made that show (1))...

(1) Jean Stapleton (aka Edith Bunker) was offered it originally, but she turned it down because she feared typecasting, so the producers turned to their second choice, Angela Lansbury, who accepted it; IMO, she is Jessica Fletcher...

It's staying as IOTL for now at least. But yeah, Sam probably does some guest shots on the usual hit network shows of the day.

 

[markedward]

Just wanted to touch base with everyone.

Sorry for the long hiatus. June is crazy for me due to work, which is why there was that mass post dump at the end of May. Stay tuned for a mini postscript and then over the next couple months I will hopefully start posting V.2.

 

[markedward]

Postscript

Excerpts From Sam Westwood's Hollywood

"I kind of accepted that, you know, my career was over. Then about people like Tarantino and younger actors that I had worked with, Andy Garcia, and some of those guys started praising me in interviews--"

"Some of my films hadn't been seen in years. I'm not even sure some of them had a VHS release. I know 'Traffic Jam' didn't. And a bunch of people put up funding and the films that had been forgotten were restored and put on television in the mid-90's and then I was suddenly getting offers again--"

"I knew I had really come back when Ian and a bunch of other people campaigned to get me a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame--"

Sam: Directing a movie was something I had always wanted to do and Harris had told me about 'Stuck Rubber Baby'. The subject matter had hit a nerve with him--"

Harris: I always read comic books and graphic novels or whatever. They just held my attention better than books.

Sam: I got permission and purchased the rights. I worked on a script and it was greenlit with Ian producing--

Sam talks about Stuck Rubber Baby for a YouTube video (2016) while promoting his documentary. With Sam is Nate Hunter who starred as Toland Polk. Harris is also there.

Sam: I wanted Nate Hunter to star in it. I had known him since he was just a kid. I should add that his background did not inform my decision.

Nate: My mom worked with Sam in the late 1980's on a picture--

Sam: Natalie confided in me that maybe Nate was gay.

Nate: When I did come out a few years later, she was fine with it. My dad, not so much. They were really polar opposites on a lot of things. My father was fine with Sam and Harris and he knew people like Art and Ian and spoke fondly of them. I just think when it came to his own son it was, you know, terrifying.

Sam: Jeff had a pretty hard time with it and he called me up for advice on how to handle it which really meant a lot to me. So I got to know Nate quite well and he looked up to me as a role model. Nate wanted to be an actor.

Nate: My parents were unsure about it even though my sister had become an actress. They were scared that I might get hurt if I were outed to the public. I really wanted to act. I had offers to model but didn't want to do that. I wasn't comfortable being compared to my dad looks wise because I wanted to just be me--"

Nate: I was eventually in a few movies that did fairly well and people were linking me with Annabelle Peppard and then--

Nate pauses

I was outed by 'The Enquirer' in 2000. Right around the time 'Stuck Rubber Baby' was in production.

Sam: I told Nate that I understood if he wanted to drop out.

Nate: I really wanted to do the film and Sam was someone I felt would understand what had happened to me. He was really my biggest supporter.

Sam: The film did well and Nate's career didn't go down the drain like mine did but I think--

You still struggled.

Nate: I lost roles and I probably could have been more successful because once you are outed, they only want to put you in one-dimensional parts. And this was the time when I could have slid into reality TV territory which I refused to ever do--

Sam: Harris and I both talked Nate out of that.

Harris: I would get reality TV offers and always shut it down out of respect towards Sam and myself, really.

Nate: There were cable TV series, Broadway, independent film, occasional roles in important movies. Sam told me not to be bitter about what had happened.

Sam: I was a regular support network for him, I'd been there. It was many years later, but he still went through a lot of the same garbage I did. It might have been even rougher on Nate because his parents were famous.

Nate: My father was very proud of the film. Which meant a lot because--

Sam: Jeff was a bit on the conservative side but he always treated me like a colleague. We were all saddened when he passed away before the documentary came out.

Interviewer starts asking Harris some questions in the background

Harris: Yes, I am finally getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next week. I was kinda shocked, really.

Sam: Well, you've been acting for nearly fifty years.

Harris: Well, yeah, but I mean the stuff I did doesn't really guarantee a star (laughs)

Sam: You have had a pretty great later career--

Harris: That started with 'Rosalie Goes Shopping'. Brad Davis pulled out, it was before he became sick. Reviews were very good. I did a lot of really strong Indie films and character parts after that. There were two ways I could go, I thought, one was Cinemax movies and nobody wanted to see me naked anymore--

Sam facepalms

Harris: The other was television. And I did do a lot of TV and theatre, but I was shocked that things went in a third direction I didn't expect. And I became very outspoken on AIDS research and LGBT rights issues.

Interviewer: Sam, you did some TV too recently. 'Mad Men'--

Sam: Yeah, I played a guy named Jim Cutler. He was kind of a prick at times. (laughs)

Harris: He was so good, I'd be sitting there yelling at the TV "What a DOUCHE!"

Sam: And I would look up at him like "Watch your mouth!"

Everyone laughs


THE END. FOR NOW.

Sam Westwood will return in Sam Westwood's Hollywood

 

[markedward]

If anything was vague or unresolved there, it will come up later.

Will keep you all posted as to when I get the second version up and running. I didn't have a clear cut direction two years ago. This was initially planned as a general timeline focusing on Sharon Tate and a fictional character. I didn't realize Sam was going to become the focus at the time. I've enjoyed coming up with plot lines for him and Harris and weaving them into OTL situations.

Was also really saddened by the news today upon finding out that Tab Hunter had passed away. His story was a big influence on me creating Sam. Tab Hunter meant a lot to me as an inspirational story and a role model for LGBTQ+ people.

Anyway, I appreciate you all following this over the past (almost two years!) and hope you'll all come check out what I have in store next.

 

[NHobson]

Well, I found it an enthralling tale. You really made me care about Sam and Harris.

 

[markedward]

Well, I found it an enthralling tale. You really made me care about Sam and Harris.

@NHobson

Thank You! That means a lot. I am going to be focusing on them more.

 

[MatthewFirth]

It's a shame this TL has ended. I am partly to blame and I again apologize, but I have enjoyed this very much and look forward to the revamp.

 

[vandevere]

Don't forget to put a link on this thread when you're ready to start the next one...