Star, at 59 Years Old, Comes of Age

Speaking of “Anything Goes,” now--as the show’s run winds up at the Center and we won’t be accused of trying to put a damper on ticket sales-- the truth can be told .

Before the musical’s opening, Mitzi Gaynor blew her “blond” top and refused to give an interview to The Times because in a previous story, staff writer Jan Herman had the audacity to print her age (59).

He added, right in the same sentence, that she looks “as hot as anyone had a right to look at her (or any) age.” But still, Mitzi hadn’t liked that one bit, and she went into a rage all over again when she was told that Herman, 48, was on the phone to talk about “Anything Goes,” 55, at the Center, 3.

Talk about the show? Talk about her work, her goals as a performer, her approach to her craft? Not with him! HE told people HOW OLD I AM!

This is exactly the sort of me-me-me-me, what’s-art-got-to-do-with-it (though one does hesitate to use the words “art” and “Mitzi Gaynor” in the same breath), oh-so-showbizy tripe that one would hope to avoid these days, especially in dealing with productions brought in by a place such as the Center--which could, and should, be a champion of work that is innovative and, if nothing else, serious and purposeful.

The Center should not, I think, be just another stop for some road show whose principals still adhere to the Hedda Hopper school of mug-a-lot, hoof-a-lot and never-let-em-know-how-old-you-are.

At least that’s what my editor, 42, told me, 36.