Friedrich --

The Wife is enjoying tut-tutting her way through Mariel Hemingway's recent memoir (buyable here). Boring and bad is the verdict -- "too much about yoga." Even so, I notice that The Wife hasn't stopped reading the book. Hmmm ...

Anyway, remember Mariel? Margaux's younger sister? She played the teenager Woody Allen fixated on in "Manhattan"; then she starred in "Personal Best" and "Star 80"? I know very little else about her.

The Wife guffawed a little while ago and read me a passage from the book.

It seems that Mariel wanted desperately to play the role of dreamy Playmate Dorothy Stratten in Bob Fosse's "Star 80," despite how unlikely a physical match she was. Where Stratten was creamy, blurry, and well-upholstered -- a woman born to wear cashmere and lipstick -- Mariel was leggy, athletic, and tomboyish, someone you picture developing a sunburn from too much cross-country skiing. Still, for god knows what reason, Mariel was determined to win the role, and (at the age of 19!) had her breasts enlarged to make herself more plausible for the part.

Fosse eventually did give the role to Mariel. Then, once filming started, he (surprise!) put the moves on her. When she resisted, he professed amazement, using this great line: "But I've never not slept with my leading lady!"

As I often say, we civilians are kidding ourselves when we imagine that we have much in common at all with showbiz people.

Best,

Michael