Virginia Graham Plans Some Helpful Girl Talk
What do you say to Imelda Marcos at a party?
If you’re Virginia Graham, you deadpan: “I still feel terrible about what happened. If you need shoes, just give me a call.”
It happened at gossip columnist Cindy Adams’ “Indicted to Be Invited” affair, the recent Big Apple bash that saw Marcos kicking up her heels with Leona Helmsley and Bess Myerson.
What was Graham doing there?
“Oh, I’ve known Cindy for years,” says the self-proclaimed founder of women’s television talk shows (remember “Girl Talk” and the “Virginia Graham Show”?)
“She says I make her laugh.”
The Assistance Leagues of Newport Beach and Laguna Beach are hoping for the same reaction.
As part of their annual Town Hall celebrity series, league organizers are bringing Graham to Edwards Newport Cinema on April 22.
Graham’s agenda? “I’m going to talk to them about the phases of life--how you keep life exciting,” says the author of “Life After Harry: My Adventures in Widowhood.”
“Because, what people call the golden years aren’t even gold - plated . You end up with arthritis or osteoporosis--little rewards that come from making your children wait for your money.”
But the twilight years can be turned into an advantage, Graham says, if a woman has remembered to do one thing: Plan.
“If you’ve planned--really taken the time to know you would be alone at some point--you’ll be OK,” she promises. “It’s when women see marriage as a ‘Siamese connection’ that they have problems. I mean, you’re a person before you get married, why lose your identity afterward?”
Graham admits that she was devastated when her husband, Harry, died nine years ago. “It’s so hard to lose that someone in the house breathing and waiting for you,” she says. She also admits that her marriage wasn’t made in heaven. “It was disastrous,” she says. “Harry was an alcoholic. Toward the end it was very bad. I went through hell.”
Life after Harry has been sweet because Graham had addressed the fact that she would someday be alone. Her appearances on the lecture circuit, her continuing role in TV’s “All My Children,” and her volunteer work fill her cup, she says.
“It’s wonderful. I’m so involved. That’s what women must do--get involved. You can’t lie around the house and expect life to come to you.”
Graham knows . Over the years, she has bounced back after a bout with cancer, after Harry’s nervous collapse, after Harry’s 100-year-old business burned to the ground. “I’ve risen from the ashes,” she says.
But enough of that. Time to lighten up. Back to the “Indicted to Be Invited” party: “It was absolutely hilarious,” she says. “Marcos, Helmsley, Myerson. And Marla Maples! Cindy loves the underdog. She is the only person who defends the condemned in print. When her friends go to jail, there are flowers waiting in the cell.”
Adams tossed the bash at the Helmsley hotel on 32nd Street. “It was the party of the century,” Graham says. “Cindy’s other friends--Beverly Sills, Henny Youngman, Jackie Mason, Celeste Holm and Pauline Trigere--were there, too.
“You know, I found myself liking Marcos,” Graham says. “Over the years, I’ve found that often when you meet people that have had poor PR you love them. They seem so human.”
Graham will hole up at the Balboa Bay Club during her Orange County stay. The evening of her arrival on April 21, Sally Forbes--chairwoman of the series that has featured movie critic Rex Reed, Los Angeles Zoo Director Warren Thomas and Adm. Elmo Zumwalt--will take her to dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel.
After her lecture (tickets, available at the door, are $15 per person) Graham is off to Palm Springs to see comedian Kay Ballard. “She’s a great friend,” says Graham.
Georgia on their mind: Los Angeles Rams owner Georgia Frontiere has said yes to an invitation to sing at the Master Chorale of Orange County’s dinner-dance and auction May 5 at the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel. The appearance will mark Frontiere’s Orange County singing debut.
Needless to say, hearing the soprano trill (with the Californians as backup) will be a highlight of Orange County’s spring social season. Word’s out that Frontiere sings beautifully and that she has kept her lovely singing voice despite her cheering at football games.
Chorale supporters can only guess what she will sing, but they hope Frontiere will perform Gershwin--the featured composer at the chorale’s June 15 concert at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Tickets for the May 5 event are $70 per person.
