Is it too late to make a new year's resolution about my blog?

Well, I'm making a resolution to blog more. Just like last year, it's one of my two resolutions -- the other one is, as usual, to loose 10 pounds!

Haven't been up to much lately -- just the usual rounds of Hollywood parties with Hollywood people. I also joined a book club -- we're reading that new biography of Warren Beatty. Here's a picture of him at the White House. He brought Diane Keaton -- she's a weird one! I asked Warren to bring a girl, though, because I didn't want his visit to the White House to occasion any rumors about us -- Ronny did get jealous, even though he was always the only one for me!!!

It was funny, though, because right after this picture got taken of us talking, Warren put his arm around my waist. He was trying to make a move! But I said to him, "Warren, this is Washington, not Hollywood, and I'm married to the President. Now let's go look at the gingerbread White House in the State Dining Room! Come on, Diane!"

Summer Barbecue with All My Sister Friends!

Yikes! I haven't posted in quite a while. That's what happens in the summer, with all the attendant social commitments, mostly barbecues, most of them requiring you to get on a private jet to Lake Tahoe.

Now, I'm not a huge flying fan. Haven't been one since I was on my dear friend John Travolta's private jet and my dear friend Elizabeth Taylor got stuck in the doorway to the restroom. John heroically pried her out of the door frame, and she went flying across the cabin, hit the wall, and caused the jet to drop two hundred feet in a rush that was not unlike what Barbara Bush must have felt like the moment she realized poor George wouldn't win a second term.

Nonetheless, I've enjoyed the parties, especially the one I just returned from held by my dear friend Martina Navratilova. Every year, Martina throws a for-girls-only cookout/spa weekend in a secret location somewhere in the Bay Area. And I mean secret! She makes all of us girls meet at the airport, where we are greeted and shown on board a bus without windows -- very comfortably outfitted, but I always get a little stomach-upset because I can't see where we're going. It takes us to a private estate I don't know where. But boy, it's worth it! We all sit around in bathrobes laughing and chatting and eating spinach omelets, and then we go horseback riding! And the cast of characters is just wonderfully odd and fun -- Rosie O'Donnell, Billie Jean King, Ellen DeGeneres. . . . She used to bring that peculiar young woman, Anne Heche, but then the two of them had a falling out over something -- if I had to guess, I would guess it was over a man -- it always is! Anyway, we all chose Ellen over Anne. But then, didn't everyone?

Don't Worry About Me!

Don't worry, I'm ok! I've just been spending a lot of time over at Jennifer Aniston's house, and haven't been updating because she doesn't have the internet -- something about sunspots. Jen's been going through a tough time ever since Brad left her for that minx, Angelina Jolie (with whom I am dear friends).

Hang in there, Jen!

Ronnie Did It With Style!

Today, with my head in the clear after recovering from yesterday's hangover (my, how we think we leave such childish things behind with every succeeding decade, and how wrong we are!), I read this wonderful article. It's about all the colorful characters running for California governor. Several times, it mentions that so many people think California is "ungovernable."

Well, I'll tell you what. Ronnie governed the heck out of this state! By the time we left California, everyone here was just thrilled with the job that Ronnie did. I know my Hollywood friends today still talk about what a wonderful Governor Ronnie was. Why, my dear friend Isaac Hayes used to say, before he died, "Nancy, your Ronnie was the best Governor I ever saw." And my dear friend Redd Foxx, before he died, used to say, "Nancy, you know who knew how to govern? Ronnie knew how to govern. He was just a great governor." And then my dear friend Esther Rolle of television's Good Times once said to me, "Nancy, honey -- Ronnie was the best governor." That was before she died.

If I had to guess who is going to be the next Governor based on the article, I would go with Gavin Newsom. Let's be honest -- sex appeal can be pretty useful in politics! Thank heavens Ronnie was so competent -- it would be terrifying if someone with so much sex appeal didn't have the competence to back it up! (arah-SA alin-PA!!!!!)

Don't call me on the telephone!

Well, one cosmo turned into two, and then Drew convinced me that you have to chase cosmos with cheap margaritas, and so we went for greasey quesadillas at this little hole in the wall that hasn't seen the patronage of a health inspector since Ronnie was the Governor of California. Can I tell you? Before it was all over, Cameryn had me in a corner trying to convince me to be in her next movie -- she's directing a re-make of "Year of Living Dangerously," and she thinks I would be great in the Linda Hunt role -- not sure how to take that, but boy is Cameryn aggressive!

Anyway, my brain hasn't felt this achey since the summer of 1978, the morning after I went to a party at Tom Selleck's house. Everyone was there, of course -- the Hustons, Lucille Ball, Chuck Woolery, Diane Keaton, one of the Kennedys, Princess Margaret, Maureen O'Hara, Althea Gibbs, Omar, Wayne Newton, Donna Summer, Betty Ford (not Gerald), Eva Gabor, Zsa Zsa, Sammy Davis, Henry Kissinger, etc., etc. -- you know, the crowd. And there were little cubes of jello, and it was just incredibly hot that summer, and I thought, well isn't this the most refreshing idea I've ever heard of! And so I just kept popping them into my mouth, trying to cool off, and before I knew it I was waking up in John Wayne's bungalow on the Paramount lot. That was the year before he died.

And for those of you with dirty minds, don't even go there! I woke up next to Florence Henderson, Anne B. Davis and Charles Nelson Reilly. How Charles Nelson Reilly had a key to John Wayne's bungalow, I will never know. But let me tell you, Florence can make an omlette! Over omlettes, they told me horrifying stories about my behaviour the night before, something having to do with Tom Selleck's luggage and Linda Blaire's brazier. God, Hollywood isn't what it used to be.

Last Woman Standing

You know, I'm not going to write about Michael anymore. I was thinking about it yesterday, and I realized that Michael, Ronnie and I were the three 1980's icons who really mattered. And now there's only one of us left. And you know, it makes me lonely.

But I'm a Hollywood person, so I don't just sit and stew in my grief. I get out there and mix it up! That's why this afternoon, I'm going to go out with some young show business people. Drew Berrymore and Cameryn Manheim are on their way over right now and we're going to go see that new movie, Away With Me, and then go get cosmos!

Black People Loved Michael

At the public pool where I swim my laps, Michael's music was playing this morning and because it's a public pool most of the people there are black and a lot of them are children. And even though these children probably didn't grow up with Michael's music -- they probably grew up with rap and roll, not rock and roll like Michael sang -- the music seemed to mean so much to them -- they danced and sang along, and they seemed like such happy black children, which you don't always see, although you see it more nowadays thanks in small part to my Stop the Madness Say No To Drugs Campaign -- I'm sorry, I hate to brag, but all the studies say it's true.

Now, of course, the music meant a lot to me, but that's because I'm a famous person so I knew Michael. But that's not true for all white poeple, and it made me wonder. It really made me wonder.

(PS: a commenter asked if that picture of me with Michael was real. Of course it was real! I know I make a lot of collages, but I'm not that good! Michael came to the White House in 1984. . . I think Michael Deaver invited him so the young people would vote for Ronnie. It must have worked, because we won! Maybe Barbara Bush should have thought of something like that!)

(PPS: In case you are wondering, the photo in this post is real, too!)