Star_How Warren Beatty Seduced America

by Peter Biskind

  210 “You can kill a movie”: “Warren Beatty Says Too Much Talk Hurts Films,” Box Office, 3/31/75.

  210 “I don’t think”: Tommy Thompson, “There’s Something Peculiar About Warren Beatty These Days,” Los Angeles, 3/75.

  210 “I know that”: Frank Rich, “Warren Beatty Strikes Again,” Time, 7/3/78.

  211 “I don’t see it”: Jerry Hellman, AI, 6/20/94.

  211 “There are some things”: Corie Brown, AI, 12/19/94.

  211 “Begelman fucked us” and following: AI, 11/6/97.

  212 “Towne talking about”: AI, 3/6/95.

  212 “Bob thought he had”: AI, 1/95.

  212 “Bob always said”: AI, 4/18/96; Corie Brown, “No Love Affair,” Premiere, 2/95.

  212 “Robert has some”: AI, 3/6/95.

  213 “Half the audience”: AI, 4/27/05.

  213 “Vietnam polarized the town”: AI, 6/28/94.

  213 “Basically the upper class”: Diane Jacobs, “Coming Home—It’s Hal Ashby at His Best,” Minneapolis Star, 5/12/78.

  214 “It’s my point”: AI, 1990.

  215 “a message [Warren] wanted”: Finstad, Warren Beatty, p. 416.

  216 “Men over thirty”: James Spada, Shirley and Warren, New York, 1984, p. 168.

  217 “Many times I’m called upon”: Confidential source.

  217 “I’d love to fuck you”: Confidential source.

  217 “has an unsublimated libido”: Bob Thomas, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, 8/31/75.

  218 “Warren, get your hand”: People, 3/17/75.

  218 “I don’t know what”: AI, n.d.

  218 “There was a”: Biskind, “The Crucible: An Oral History,” Premiere Special Issue, 1994.

  219 “It’s very strange”: Hull, “Warren’s Women.”

  219 “I’m sorry, I’m sorry”: Devlin, AI, 11/22/94.

  219 “Warren told me”: AI, 8/25/92.

  219 “The Fortune is a bleak”: Jay Cocks, Time, 5/26/75.

  219 “Mike was shattered”: AI, 5/1/05.

  220 “Warren was laughing”: AI, 11/22/94.

  220 “I heard the word”: Frank Rich, “The Misfortune of Mike Nichols: Notes on the Making of a Bad Film,” New Times, 7/11/75.

  220 “He felt that he was” and following: AI, 12/3/91.

  220 “‘Do you want’”: AI, 12/3/91.

  221 “Two people cannot”: AI, 3/4/08.

  221 “Warren didn’t want”: Weller, “California Dreamgirl,” Vanity Fair.

  221 “Warren would tell me”: Sally Ogle Davis, “How Many Women Does It Take to Change a Lothario,” Mail on Sunday, 5/24/92.

  221 “When I told him”: Weller, “California Dreamgirl,” Vanity Fair, 12/07.

  221 “I knew that”: AI, 3/4/08.

  221 “The last year” and following: Hull, “Warren’s Women.”

  221 “Warren is not a”: Spada, Shirley and Warren, p. 170.

  221 “That is what Warren”: Weller, “California Dreamgirl,” Vanity Fair, 12/07.

  221 “When Barbara Walters” and following: AI, 3/4/08.

  222 “The decision to end”: Hull, “Warren’s Women.”

  222 “He was the best-looking”: AI, 4/14/06.

  222 “‘One liked to watch’”: Quoted by James Toback, AI, 7/27/05.

  222 “I was emotionally”: Hull, “Warren’s Women.”

  222 “I want to marry you” and following: Phillips, quoted by People, 10/2/78.

  223 “He loves people thinking” and following: Hull, “Warren’s Women.”

  223 “I don’t have bad memories”: AI, 3/4/08.

  223 “Warren’s gonna be”: G. Mac Brown, AI, 8/7/08.

  224 “Listen, you can make”: Néstor Almendros, AI, n.d.

  224 “It took me”: AI, 12/21/05.

  224 “the playboy”: Aaron Latham, “Warren Beatty, Seriously,” Rolling Stone.

  224 “an inordinate desire”: Beatty, AI, n.d.

  226 “It can be very hard”: AI, 12/12/05.

  226 “I realized”: 10/2/91.

  226 “Trevor felt, ‘I’m’”: AI, 6/27/05.

  226 “Warren spoke as if”: AI, 10/11/05.

  226 “Warren saw himself”: Latham, “Warren Beatty, Seriously.”

  227 “He asked me” and following: AI, 10/11/05.

  227 “Let’s trade”: Robert Rosenstone, AI, 5/1/06.

  227 “this strange kind”: AI, 5/6/06.

  228 “It wasn’t the best”: AI, 10/11/05.

  6. ORSON WELLES, C’EST MOI

  page

  229 Epigraph: AI, 3/22/06.

  230 “Something about the theme”: Charles Champlin, “Warren Beatty: Two Sides to a Hollywood Story,” Los Angeles Times, 1/28/79.

  230 “They were very different”: AI, 8/8/06.

  230 “She knew the subtleties”: James Sacks, Wikipedia.

  230 “Elaine May is the”: Wikipedia.

  230 “She was very, very difficult”: AI, 6/24/06.

  231 “It was two o’clock”: AI, 3/20/06.

  231 “Elaine May is”: David Blum, “The Road to ‘Ishtar,’” New York magazine, 3/16/87.

  231 “There’s nothing sexual”: AI, 3/22/06.

  231 “If you were a female” and following: AI, 4/14/06.

  231 “Ideas fly off her”: AI, 3/22/06.

  232 “Where is Warren?”: Michael Laughlin, AI, 10/23/06.

  232 “All directors think”: AI, 4/14/06.

  232 “Warren wasn’t happy”: AI, 3/22/06.

  232 “Warren, who was among”: AI, 12/11/97.

  232 “asshole”: Confidential source.

  232 “Do you want to make”: Confidential source.

  233 “They just kept irritating”: AI, 3/6/95.

  233 “He’s still a goalie”: Confidential source.

  233 “I got in a big fight”: Robert Evans, AI, 6/11/94.

  233 “I just think Warren”: AI, 3/25/06.

  234 “Buck was into”: Confidential source.

  234 “I knew Warren a little bit”: AI, 8/8/06.

  235 “Warren gets me”: Champlin, “Warren Beatty: Two Sides to a Hollywood Story.”

  235 “We both knew” and following: AI, 3/2/07.

  236 “Warren, haven’t heard” and following: AI, 11/16/06.

  236 “Warren never spends”: AI, 3/25/06.

  237 “She was my idea” and following: AI, 3/2/07.

  237 “We did this pretend” and following: AI, 12/7/94.

  237 “When he finally got her”: AI, 11/16/06.

  237 “I think he had”: AI, 8/8/06.

  238 “I’m not going to” and following: Hal Lieberman, AI, 4/27/07.

  239 “I think”: Confidential source.

  239 “like a kid” and following: AI, 11/16/06.

  240 “I never tried to block”: AI, 3/25/06.

  240 “Warren doesn’t come off”: AI, 11/16/06.

  240 “When you take on”: AI, 3/2/07.

  240 “He agonizes over”: AI, 3/22/06.

  241 “Heaven Can Wait was”: AI, 11/16/06.

  241 “I was sitting in”: Charles Grodin, AI, Biskind, “Inside Ishtar,” American Film, 5/87.

  241 “I had to put up with”: AI, 11/16/06.

  242 “I had to get” and following: AI, 11/16/06.

  242 “Certainly Warren is”: AI, 12/7/94.

  243 “Poor Buck, what”: Quoted by Koch, AI, 11/16/06.

  243 “It was always about”: AI, 8/8/06.

  244 “Warren beat the shit”: AI, 3/15/95.

  244 “Warren’ll put” and following: AI, 12/7/94.

  245 “You might not believe it” and following: Toback, AI, 9/28/04.

  246 “Ma Barker”: James Wolcott, Vanity Fair, 4/97.

  246 “Jimmy made him laugh” and following: AI, n.d.

  247 “Proceed”: Toback, AI, 1/24/95.

  247 “The script was Elaine’s” and following: AI, 3/22/06.

  247 “He was tough”: AI, 3/2/07.

  247 “Warren would see” and followin
g: AI, 3/22/06.

  248 “The dividing line”: AI, 3/2/07.

  248 “Cary Grant and Warren” and following: AI, 3/22/06.

  248 “He was an unbelievably” and following: AI, 4/27/07.

  249 “There was a lot”: AI, 3/2/07.

  249 “Warren Beatty believed” and following: Charles Grodin, We’re Ready for You, Mr. Grodin, New York, 1994, pp. 296–97.

  249 “David used to bring”: Confidential source.

  249 “walking around bare-breasted”: Grodin, “How I Got to Be Whoever It Is I Am,” New York, 2009, p. 144.

  249 “The worst battle”: AI, 3/20/06.

  249 “I’m not sure Julie”: AI, 3/20/06.

  249 “She didn’t like”: AI, 11/16/06.

  250 “She was crying”: AI, 3/1/05.

  250 “Would you please”: AI, 3/2/07.

  250 “Pleeease, don’t tell” and following: AI, 8/8/06.

  252 “Warren came up”: AI, 11/16/06.

  252 “I vividly remember” and following: AI, 8/8/06.

  252 “de-celebritisation” and following: Tom Gliatto, Bryan Alexander, Jeffrey Wells, Dennis Passa, “Darling: Julie Christie, Reluctant Star of the ’60s Returns in Afterglow,” People, 2/9/98.

  252 “I thought I was”: Tim Adams, “The Divine Miss Julie,” Observer, 4/1/2007.

  253 “Warren, where’s my name?” and following: AI, Confidential source.

  253 “I couldn’t fathom”: AI, 4/27/07.

  253 “Oh, hi” and following: AI, Confidential source.

  253 “He was having me” and following: AI, 4/27/07.

  254 “I remember” and following: AI, 1/11/06.

  255 “Warren always liked”: AI, 9/8/05.

  255 “I got a call”: AI, 2/27/94.

  255 “Having already produced”: Frank Rich, “Warren Beatty Strikes Again,” Time, 7/3/78.

  256 “I was there opening night”: AI, 11/16/06.

  256 “the star (who is also)”: Kael, “Fear of Movies,” 9/28/78, in For Keeps: 30 Years at the Movies, New York, 1994, pp. 774, 776–77.

  256 “There are certain actors”: AI, 3/2/07.

  257 “He was good”: AI, 3/22/06.

  258 “the phantom of the Southwest”: Robert Towne, A Trip with Bonnie and Clyde, in Sandra Wake and Nicola Hayden, eds., Bonnie and Clyde, London, 1972, p. 175.

  258 “The Phantom”: Brownstein, The Power and the Glitter, p. 321.

  258 “Heaven Can Wait is”: AI, 3/25/06.

  258 “that he’d fucked Jackie O” and following: Christopher Andersen, “Jackie After Jack,” New York, 1998, excerpted in London Daily Mail, 4/15/98.

  259 “Warren was sitting”: AI, 11/6/07.

  259 “All the joking references”: Charles Champlin, Los Angeles Times, 4/11/79.

  259 “Warren rang me up” and following: AI, 10/11/05.

  260 “Everything you’ve just seen”: AI, 5/3/05.

  260 “Warren wanted to”: AI, 10/11/05.

  260 “Warren was huge” and following: AI, 5/3/05.

  260 “That draft had two”: AI, 10/4/07.

  260 “It was really painful”: AI, 10/11/05.

  261 “It’s often more hostile”: AI, 5/3/05.

  261 “Absolutely not”: AI, 10/11/05.

  261 “He was sweet”: AI, 5/3/05.

  261 “It was not just in” and following: AI, 10/11/05.

  262 “Would I do something like this?”: AI, n.d.

  262 “Absolutely!”: AI, 8/8/06.

  262 “Pure Warren Beatty”: AI, 6/24/06.

  262 “The atmosphere around us” and following: AI, 10/11/05.

  263 “That’s the great thing”: AI, 5/3/05.

  263 “It was a huge relief”: AI, 11/8/07.

  263 “Casting is the whole”: Reds screening, Lincoln Center, 10/4/06.

  263 “He was making”: AI, 8/8/06.

  263 “It sometimes seemed”: Norman Mailer, “The Warren Report,” Vanity Fair, 11/91.

  263 “I didn’t really believe”: AI, 1/11/06.

  264 “I said, ‘I’ve got’”: AI, n.d.

  264 “worried and worried”: AI, 10/24/05.

  264 “Jack gave up”: AI, n.d.

  264 “Warren said to me”: AI, 10/24/05.

  264 “did not know how”: AI, 1/23/08.

  264 “Maureen, if you don’t”: Confidential source.

  265 “You’re crazy to do this”: Beatty, n.d.

  265 “I can’t trust anybody” and following: AI, 6/7/94.

  266 “One day Vittorio”: AI, n.d.

  266 “We had an audience”: AI, 5/3/05.

  266 “It’s not like you think”: AI, 11/19/99.

  266 “If exposition kills”: AI, 5/3/05.

  267 “Miller had nothing”: AI, 3/20/05.

  267 “You seem to be after” and following: Pikser, AI, 5/3/05.

  267 “I have to make”: AI, 5/3/05.

  267 “If you have”: AI, n.d.

  267 “Warren functions creatively” and following: AI, 5/3/05.

  7. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

  page

  269 Epigraph: AI, 6/11/94.

  270 “Talk about obsessed!”: AI, 6/7/94.

  270 “I’d been hearing”: AI, 12/29/05.

  270 “Charlie really loved”: Don Simpson, AI, 7/21/93.

  270 “How much iz diz” and following: Beatty, AI, 12/12/05, 3/16/95, 6/28/94.

  271 “If you know”: Beatty, AI, 1997, also 12/12/05.

  271 “It was really not possible”: AI, 12/29/05.

  272 “You need a producer”: Toback, AI, 9/28/04.

  272 “You tell Fellini,” AI, n.d.

  272 “Here was the Voice”: AI, 3/22/06.

  272 “Because of her power”: AI, 12/23/91.

  272 “The whole point”: AI, 12/7/94.

  273 “She would not”: AI, n.d.

  273 “This is terrible” and following: Albarino, AI, 7/27/09.

  273 “This is awful” and following: Beatty, AI, n.d.

  273 “Warren wanted to work”: AI, 7/27/05.

  273 “You’re being very stupid” and following: Toback, AI, n.d.

  273 “Toback, against”: Toback, AI, 7/27/05.

  273 “I was polite”: Toback, AI, n.d.

  273 “Let’s see if we can” and following: Toback, AI, 9/28/04.

  273 “Don Simpson had no”: AI, 8/5/95.

  273 “Hiring her”: AI, 10/18/91.

  274 “We sat in Moscow”: AI, n.d.

  274 “Everyone was in good humor”: AI, 12/12/05.

  274 “There are some movies”: AI, 12/21/05.

  275 “The budget was actually”: AI, 10/24/05.

  275 “We had to wait”: AI, 8/8/05.

  275 “Maureen Stapleton Lost at Sea”: Nina Rosenblum, AI, 1/23/08.

  275 “He was as good-looking”: AI, 7/8/08.

  276 “If I’m reincarnated”: Dan Allentuck, AI, 1/24/08.

  276 “What do you want”: James Spada, Shirley and Warren, New York, 1984,

  p. 196.

  276 “He was such a goddamned”: John Parker, Warren Beatty: The Last Great Lover of Hollywood, New York, 1994, p. 7.

  276 “After a while, she”: AI, 1/24/08.

  276 “wouldn’t stop the camera” and following: AI, 8/8/05.

  277 “It was a point of pride”: AI, 12/5/05.

  277 “I saw several actors” and following: Confidential source.

  277 “Put it this way”: AI, 1/12/06.

  277 “The dialogue, the cadences”: Jeremy Pikser, AI, 5/3/05.

  277 “Warren did something like”: AI, 10/29/05.

  278 “Stop it”: James Spada, Shirley and Warren, New York, 1984, p. 195.

  278 “It must have been”: AI, 10/24/05.

  278 “At the same time”: AI, 1/11/06.

  278 “It was a pleasure”: AI, 12/15/05.

  278 “A lot of people”: AI, 12/4/05.

  279 “He’s reasonably affable”: AI, n.d.

  279 “That may be”: AI, 1/12/06.


  279 “Within a week” and following: AI, 12/29/05.

  279 “I think there was”: AI, 3/16/95.

  280 “Around dinnertime”: AI, 10/29/05.

  281 “This is an important film”: Confidential source.

  281 “They came storming” and following: AI, 8/8/05.

  281 “He did not find”: AI, 10/11/05.

  281 “Warren thought I was” and following: AI, 5/3/05.

  282 “the Beatty curtain” and following: Jack Pitman, “Insiders Say Beatty’s Reds Price Tag May Hit $30 Mil,” Variety, 3/26/80.

  282 “Everyone appreciates the work”: LA magazine, 1/80.

  283 Grabber News: n.d.

  283 “He was drawn” and following: Aaron Latham, “Warren Beatty Seriously,” Rolling Stone, 4/1/82.

  284 “He was coughing”: AI, 3/4/05.

  284 “Warren felt isolated”: AI, 5/3/05.

  284 “He’s fighting off”: AI, 7/8/08.

  284 “We do have our”: AI, 10/18/91.

  285 “Directing your girlfriend”: AI, 12/24/05.

  285 “Making a movie together”: AI, 12/12/05.

  285 “Warren was always”: AI, 5/3/06.

  285 “God help me”: AI, 1/12/06.

  285 “Warren didn’t have an easy”: AI, 4/14/06.

  286 “I don’t think”: AI, 1/11/06.

  286 “It was sometimes hard”: AI, 12/25/05.

  286 “Diane wanted to be”: AI, 6/27/05.

  287 “I don’t think he understands”: AI, 8/8/06.

  287 “I saw her as somebody”: AI, 1/11/06.

  287 “No”: AI, 12/12/05.

  287 “It was completely”: AI, 1/11/06.

  288 “It was at the time”: AI, 8/8/05.

  288 “She went to the airport”: AI, 8/8/05.

  288 “Yes, it rings a bell”: AI, 1/11/06.

  288 “It’s completely not true”: AI, 12/12/05.

  289 “It was the greatest”: AI, 1/16/08.

  289 “I was overwhelmed” and following: AI, 3/20/05.

  289 “We went through over”: AI, 8/8/05.

  289 “I had a quarter”: AI, 1/15/08.

  289 “Give me Diane” and following: Confidential source.

  290 “She saw her role”: AI, 1/16/08.

  290 “‘Are you kidding?’” and following: AI, 9/8/08.

  290 “I had a gallstone attack”: AI, 7/3/08.

  290 “Being a woman”: Kate Hirson, AI, 9/20/07.

  290 “People were very angry”: AI, 1/22/08.

  290 “Dede was such”: AI, 9/20/07.

  290 “According to Dede” and following: AI, 1/15/08.

  291 “When it was over”: AI, 1/22/08.

  291 “I was working”: AI, 1/16/08.