If You Ask Me - Betty White [27]
One of my New Year’s resolutions will be to finally clear that table.
But not this year.
Ironically, I could hear very well back then.
© BETTMANN / CORBIS
ENTOURAGE
So many stars have staff, and I’m often asked about mine.
I have a wonderful housekeeper, Edna, who’s been with me for almost twenty-five years. She’s been with me so long I couldn’t possibly ask her to retire. But she’s slowing down like we all are. So a few years ago I hired her a cleaning lady named Anita.
If I have to do anything on the weekend, like attend a poker game, which means driving down to Newport Beach, Anita will come in and feed Ponti and help me out. It’s a very comfortable situation.
When it’s not comfortable is when something happens like what happened the other morning. I woke up early, as usual, to go to the Hot in Cleveland table read. I made Ponti his dish of food and stepped outside to put it down for him. Just then the wind picked up and slammed the door shut behind me, locking me out. I have an elaborate system of keys hidden to get me back into the house, but when I went to find the final key, it was missing. Luckily, I’d gotten far enough inside that there was a phone in the room. So I had to call Glenn Kaplan, my business manager, who lives nearby. Glenn has an extra set of my house keys, and fortunately he was still home. But his copies of my keys were in his office so he had to drive there to get them and bring them back up to me.
By the time he got to me, I’d been almost exclusively outside for forty-five minutes in nothing but my bathrobe. And you can imagine how glamorous I looked when he arrived!
My dear friend Jerry Martin used to have a set of keys to my house, too, and he used to take care to visit Ponti when I was on set. In fact, I’d never have been able to film The Proposal without Jerry’s assistance. When I was first called about the role, I was told the filming was supposed to take ten weeks in Boston. I said I couldn’t possibly leave for that long. But then the schedule was cut down to six weeks, and Jerry volunteered to visit Ponti every day. I managed to make it back a couple of times on weekends, so between the two of us, along with Edna and Anita, I felt that Ponti was covered as he adores them all.
Sadly, we lost Jerry very suddenly a few weeks ago.
I not only miss him deeply but on a morning like the one when I locked myself out, I start wondering about the wisdom of my staffing situation! Should I have more help? But I so enjoy being alone.
That said, the other downside to my system is that I slip behind a little all the time. I never finish a day and think, I’m all caught up.
Then what am I doing writing a book? I needed to write a book at this time in my life like I needed another hole in my head.
But I couldn’t turn it down, it was such a temptation.
I told you up front that writing is my favorite thing.
CLIFF LIPSON/CBS/LANDOV
POKER
I’m not a great poker player but I love to play.
Bob Stewart of Goodson /Todman, who created game shows like Password, $25,000 Pyramid, and more, hosts a poker game that he’s run for more than fifty years. Bob and I have been friends for almost that long, and about fifteen years ago he invited me to deal in. Our group plays at the Newport Beach house of Ann Cullen, whose late husband, Bill Cullen, was also a great game-show host. We all giggle and scratch and have a wonderful time.
We don’t play for big money, but we play for blood.
It’s dealer’s choice, and each hand is high/low. We don’t play a lot of wild games. Screw Thy Neighbor (it’s really Screw Your Neighbor, but we call it Screw Thy Neighbor, to class it up) is my favorite. You get a chance to keep a card or pass it along.
I think the only reason they let me into the game is that I usually leave about $13 on the table. We have a brass cup engraved with “Pico Poker Club,” and whoever