The Gary Busey Story
Thursday, March 31st, 2011
Gary Busey has big teeth…and he is a loose cannon. My friend Bob warned me repeatedly to watch what I say to him. My goal was simply to get a photo with him – because Bob had already gotten a couple of signed photos for me at previous Hollywood Collectors Shows. Whenever and wherever Busey went, he made a spectacle of himself. Doctors attribute his bizarre behavior to a motorcyle accident he had in 1988, during which he was not wearing a helmet. When I saw him on Saturday, April 24, 2010, at the Hollywood Show he and Cloris Leachman (who was also a guest), were – in good, bizarre fun – shouting at each other across the room at the top of their lungs. Busey roamed the room, frequently interrupting the other celebrities in attendance. He looked frazzled. He looked harried. Read the rest of this entry »
It had been nearly fifteen years since I had stepped foot on Mexican soil, and oddly enough it had been in the Mexican island of Cozumel then as well. As our cruise was following the same pattern as we had gone during the 
I wasn’t all that familiar with Shirley Knight, so I nearly bypassed getting an autographed photo of her when she appeared at the Chicago Hollywood Celebrities Show on Saturday, September 18, 2010. Although I had seen her in a few films over the years – As Good As It Gets, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, and Color of Night, for example – I had not seen her in either of the two films for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs nor Sweet Bird of Youth. 
I’m not sure I knew what to expect when I met Della Reese, who had adapted her stage name from her birth first name Delloreese. In one of the few films in which I had seen Della, she appeared to be capable of breaking my back over her knee. Yes, that would be Harlem Nights – with the primary black cast consisting of Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, and Redd Foxx. In this film, Della became forever associated with the pinkie toe, or the loss thereof. This type of no-nonsense roll would serve her well in guest spots on great shows like Picket Fences, Night Court, and Sanford and Son. Conversely, one of her most famous roles was as the angelic Tess in Touched By an Angel – but this was a show that I had never watched.