Bea Arthur is a part of so many gay men's lives. Either they got to know her as the bitchy Vera in "Mame," as the bitchy Maude, or the bitchy Dorothy on "The Golden Girls."
That's why I love her! she's such a bitch!
I attended a reunion of her, Betty White and Rue Mclanahan at the TV and Radio Museum a few years ago and she would not even look at Betty White! I heard later she wasn't feeling well but it was clear that Rue was strategically placed between them. Melissa Rivers hosted the evening which marked the DVD debut of "Golden Girls" and my favorite line was when Rue looked and her and said something like: "Who the hell are you?"
But I digress.
A few years ago, my friend Tim Fairholm and I went to see Arthur's one-woman show at the El Portal Theater in North Hollywood. It has been on Broadway the year before and nominated for a Tony. It was such a special night anyway but even more so since Tim, who was the systems editor at the Daily News, died unexpectedly the next year at the age of 40 of complications from Lupus. I still miss him tremendously and so do a lot of other people.
We had dinner that night at the Eclectic Cafe and Tim (pictured, right) spotted Dixie Carter and Hal Holbrook at a nearby table. Knowing I was obsessed with "Designing Women," he kept daring me to go say hello. I never did because they always seemed to have food in their mouths! But when I told Dixie about it last fall when we finally did meet, she said: "Oh, you SHOULD have!"
So we get to the theater and find ourselves sitting two rows in back of Nancy Sinatra! We are staring at her (looking for plastic surgery scars). Then the show begins and Bea Arthur sings some songs, tells some stories, sings more songs. Even shares her recipe for leg of lamb in such a voice that it was somehow fascinating. But she is doing the entire show barefoot and Tim and I are worried that she might stub a toe. We had such a great time and the occasion of her birthday made me think of my friend who would have so loved this blog (I started it four months after Tim died) even though I don't ever write about his very fave "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
He would have read it anyway and I would have loved to have heard his great, infectious laugh - especially when I'm referring to Bea Arthur, who turned 84 on Sunday, as a bitch!