If You Ask Me - Betty White [19]
MARIO ROMO/GLOBE PHOTOS
On Mama’s Family with Vicki Lawrence and Rue McClanahan.
NBCU PHOTO BANK
FRIENDSHIPS
There are all kinds of different friendships.
With a new friend, you start to tell an anecdote and there’s a whole explanation that needs to go with it so they’ll understand.
But with old friends, you don’t have to do the back-story, because you talk so often that they know what’s going on in your life—or maybe they were there at the time.
Then there are the business friends—whose job it is to tell you where you’re wrong, whereas your other friends may just agree with you.
Friendship takes time and energy if it’s going to work. You can luck into something great, but it doesn’t last if you don’t give it proper appreciation. Friendship can be so comfortable, but nurture it—don’t take it for granted.
My closest friends have always been boys or men. As a kid, I wasn’t interested particularly in what the girls were talking about. I had to watch myself. I didn’t want to get a reputation that I don’t like women, because that’s not true at all. I just like guys best.
That’s not politically correct these days. But it’s still fun.
With Mary.
KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES
AGENT JEFF
Jeff Witjas and I met at the William Morris Agency when I was a client. He wasn’t my agent, but I knew him from the company. When William Morris began to disintegrate, Jeff moved over to APA and set up shop there.
My long-term agent, whom I adore, and who is still one of my dearest friends, Tony Fantozzi, was one of the partners at William Morris, but then he retired. So I inherited a new representative with whom I wasn’t really connecting.
I kept getting calls from APA: Would I come in and take a meeting?
They weren’t from Jeff, but I knew where they were generated from.
Tony, who was no longer with William Morris, said in his inimitable tough-guy Italian accent, “Why don’t you take the meeting?”
So I went down to APA, and I went into this boardroom for a meeting with all their executives seated around the table. I didn’t have to explain my work or what I’d done or my background. They’d all done their homework. I was really impressed by that, and very gratified. So we talked quite a bit, and then they made the formal request: Would I consider coming to the agency?
I said, “Let me think it over.”
After the meeting, Tony picked me up and we went back to the Beverly Hills Hotel and had a beer and talked about it. I explained to him that I was really impressed at how they had worked at being informed about my career to date.
Tony said, “Why don’t you go with them?”
And so Jeff became my representative at APA, and I haven’t stopped working since.
We’re a great team. He never lets me go on a trip—for instance, to New York—without accompanying me. Not just as a protector but as an arranger—he takes care of all the appearances and sets everything up while we’re in town. He’s a delightful travel companion, because he never lets me get overloaded but he still gives me the freedom to do things that are important to me.
On one occasion, we were spending three nights in New York. We’re both fans of Chinese food, so that first night we found this wonderful Chinese restaurant and were as happy as could be. As you know, there are many good restaurants in New York City. So on the second night we were trying to decide where to go to eat and somehow decided to go back to the same place.
The third night, we didn’t even discuss it—we just went right back to the Chinese place. And the next time we were to go to New York, he called in advance from California and set up a reservation.
It’s obvious how well we get along.
When we get home, I call his wife and daughter and thank them for loaning him to me.
We have a lot in common, and I rely on him implicitly.
I trust his judgment more than I trust my own!
With my agent, Jeff Witjas, and Ann Moore, then the CEO of Time, Inc.
©PATRICK MC MULLAN.COM
ANIMAL KINGDOM