Friday, January 25, 2008

My Warren Beatty Tale

I'm getting ready for a presentation I'm giving to the Southern California Longarm Guild tomorrow morning and I need a break. So, I'm going to post an entry to my blog to help put my mind on something else. I'm nervous. I'm listening to "The Who", which always makes me feel better, of course.

Anyway, tonight I thought I'd tell you my Warren Beatty Tale....it has nothing to do with quilting whatsoever, but here goes...

Do you notice the new quote on the right? Under my new picture? (Yes, that's the entire face of Vivian Love...I usually cut my face in half in all my pictures...that way I cut out half my weight, right?) Anyway, about the new quote you see--it says:


"You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what you're doing is work or play." --Warren Beatty



Did he say that? I don't know. But I like that quote. I guess I should have asked him about it when I saw him many years in Malibu at the Getty Villa Museum. (By the way, if you're ever in Malibu, I would recommend eating at Gladstone's...yummy!) Well, there I was with a youth group touring the Getty Villa. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Actually, the year was 1990 and I was at the Getty Villa as a chaperone for a youth group from my church. I had my two daughters with me because later we were all headed over to Will Rogers State Beach to go swimming. At the museum, I was pushing a stroller with Daughter #2. She would have been about 2-1/2. Daughter #1 was there too, holding onto the stroller as we walked around. She was about 6.

I had just gotten on to an elevator when two older women entered. They were smiling and seemed to be very excited about something. They aksed me, "Do you know who Warren Beatty is?" I said, "Yes, of course! He was in 'Heaven Can Wait', one of my favorite movies." They said, "Yes, that right. Well, he's here!" I asked, "Where?" They said, "Well, he's walking around with a short blonde woman. He's wearing a light colored suit. You can't miss him!"

Well, forget all the priceless artifacts and exhibits! Forget all the beautiful gardens and architechture of the Getty Villa! This takes priority over all that. Oh, was I supposed to be chaperoning the youth, too? But it was Warren Beatty! I was on the hunt.

There I was running all around the museum with my daughters, pushing the stroller through the crowds, looking for the movie star in the light colored suit with a short blonde woman. We looked everywhere.

After a while, one of the young men in our group...he was about 12, ran up to me all excited and said, "Hey, Madonna is in that room over there. Go see!" What!!! Madonna and Warren Beatty in the same place, at the same time? It was my lucky day! I asked the young man to point her out to me. He said, "She's in that room with some old guy. You can't miss her!"

We were on the hunt once again. I went into the exhibit room there she was! The Material Girl, herself! She was with a tall gentleman looking at a painting. I pushed the stroller right up next to them. I bumped in the gentleman and he said, "Oh excuse me." I wanted to tell him, 'get out of my way, there's Madonna!'...but I didn't. I remained polite and said, "Oh, I'm sorry."

Madonna was many years younger than you see her today. And I didn't think was as beautiful as I had seen her on MTV. (oh, the magic of television!) Well, I got a good look at her and then remembered I was still on the hunt for Warren Beatty. We were off!

I ran around the entire museum and then finally walking right towards me was Warren Beatty, in his light colored suit, with a short blonde woman! Wait a minute! Who was the short blonde woman? It was Madonna!

They were together in that exhibit room where I had seen Madonna earlier. She was the short blonde woman! Warren Beatty was that gentleman I bumped into, who said "Excuse me!" There they were together???

I found out later they were both working on the film Dick Tracy and they had a brief relationship. It was funny to me that the old ladies in the elevator only saw Warren Beatty and some short blonde woman. The 12 year old boy only saw Madonna and some old guy!

These two were from two different generations. The older generation saw only Warren Beatty. The younger generation saw only Madonna. Luckily, I was somewhere in between and saw them both! ...who would you see?
Wish me luck tomorrow...I'm still nervous! Now back to work. Breaktime is over, Vivian!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Vivian,

As a Warren Beatty fan, I googled his name and your page came up :)
What a lovely story! You are so lucky to have that memory. I want to ask if it would be alright with you if I posted your story, or a link to it, on a forum I'm a member of? It has a section about people who met or saw celebrities and it would fit in perfectly.
Anyway, it was a nice tale indeed.
Take care.

Featheronawire Sally Bramald said...

I'm giving my first talk in a few weeks, I know exactly how you are feeling. Hope it goes well.
I figure I 'talk' to the same number (or more) of people every day on my blog so it can't be so scary. Can it?

dee said...

I think she has a good point-try to thinkof it as a group of friends. They want yo to chat with them. Easy for me to say....Seriously, all will go well. You have a wonderufl "voice"