Watch Me A Memoir by Anjelica Huston

CHAPTER 1
y old life ended and my new life began standing next to

a baggage carousel in the customs hall at LAX in March
1973. It was there, at the age of twenty-one, that I parted ways
with Bob Richardson, the man I had lived with for the last four
years, a bold and provocative fashion photographer twenty-four
years older than I with whom Id been involved in a tempestuous affair. Until this moment we had been sharing an apartment in Gramercy Park, New York. Had it not been for the
presence of my father and his latest wife, Cici, with whom Bob
and I had just been vacationing in La Paz, Mexico, I doubt that
I ever would have had the final stroke of courage it would take
to leave him.
I would be staying temporarily at the ranch house in the
Pacific Palisades that Cici had owned prior to her marriage to
Dad and that she was redecorating to accommodate some treasures from our old life at St. Clerans, a pastoral estate in the
west of Ireland where I grew up with my brother Tony. This
was before we moved with our mother to London; before the
birth of my half siblings, Danny and Allegra; before I acted in a
movie at the age of sixteen with my father directing; before my
mothers death by car crash in 1969, a cataclysmic experience
that for me ended that beautiful, hopeful decade, when I moved
from England to America.
"
One morning early in my stay at Cicis, I ordered a taxi and

told the driver to take me to Hollywood. Do you mean Vine
Street? he asked vaguely. I had guessed that Hollywood wasnt
really a place but rather a state of mind, with a great many parking lots sandwiched between shops and storefronts advertising
sex and liquor.
But oddly, there was a sense of coming home to California.
Although I had grown up in Europe, I was born in Los Angeles.
The desert skies were clear blue and untroubled. Living with
my father again felt strange, but he would be leaving soon to
resume work on The Macintosh Man in New York.
I was eager to buy some marabou bedroom stilettos to match
the pink swans-down-trimmed negligee that Cici had generously just given me. Driving along the Sunset Strip in the pale
sunshine, I noticed that the panorama was bare and garish,
mostly warehouses and two-story facades. There were rows of
tall palm trees and purple jacarandas. The air was windy and
dry and sweet-scented. Beverly Hills, it seemed, was all about
who you were, what you were driving, your pastimes, and your
playgrounds.
A few days before, Cici had taken me shopping on Rodeo
Drive, where there was a yellow-striped awning above Giorgios boutique, with outdoor atomizers that puffed their signature Giorgio perfume, and indulgent husbands drank espresso
at a shiny brass bar inside as their wives shopped for feathered
gowns and beaded cocktail dresses. For lingerie, the local sirens
went to Juel Park, who was known to seal the deal for many
aspirants based on the strength of her hand-stitched negligees
and satin underwear trimmed with French lace. We lunched at
the Luau, a Polynesian watering hole, the darkest oasis on the
street, where you could hear rummy confessions from the next-
"
door booth as you tucked behind your ear a fresh gardenia from
the scorpion punch. Los Angeles was a small town then; it felt
both incredibly glamorous and a little provincial.
Cici had a son, Collin, by a former marriage to the documentary filmmaker and screenwriter Walon Green. Collin had
dyslexia, as well as a few other health issues. Cici, who was in
her mid-thirties, ran with a fast crowd. She had gone to private schools in Beverly Hills and Montecito, and her friends
were the hot beauties of the day, from Jill St. John and Stefanie
Powers to Bo Derek and Stephanie Zimbalistglamorous
sportswomen and great horseback riders who had grown up
privileged in the western sunbelt. She had played baseball with
Elvis Presley at Beverly Glen Park in the fifties and roomed
with Grace Slick at Finch College in New York. Cici also had a
lively retinue of gay friends who were sportive and gossipy and
informal.
Cicis energy was buoyant. She cursed like a sailor and loved
a bit of illicit fun, as did I. Our practice, at least a couple of times
a week, was to do an impromptu raid on other peoples gardens
in the neighboring canyons. I would wield the scimitars, and
with a trunkful of flowers and branches, Cici would drive her
candy-apple-red Maserati like a getaway car, burning rubber to
peals of laughter; although we tempted fate, for some miraculous reason we never got caught. Sometimes Allegra would
accompany us on these forays.
After the sale of St. Clerans, Allegra had moved in with her
Irish nanny, Kathleen Shine, whom we called Nurse, to share
a rented house in Santa Monica with Gladys Hill, Dads cowriter
and secretary. Heartbroken by the death of our mother and still
painfully loyal to her, Nurse had been a staple of Tonys and
my childhood. Gladys was calm, deliberate, and kind. A moon-
"
faced woman from West Virginia with ice-blond hair, she was
devoted to Dad and shared his passion for pre-Columbian art.
She had worked for him in the previous decade and was part of
the family in Ireland when I was growing up.
Allegra was going on nine and was extremely smart; it was
already her intention to go to Oxford University. From the
time she was a baby, shed had an innate, deep wisdom and a
sweet formality about her.
I looked up Jeremy Railton, a handsome Rhodesian friend
from my former life, when I was going to school in London.
He had been designing the sets for a play by Ntozake Shange,
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow
Is Enuf, and was living in an apartment on Fountain Avenue.
We picked up our friendship where wed left off five years
before. He introduced me to his social circle, which included
the comedy writer Kenny Solms and his collaborator, Gail Parent; Sandy Gallin; Michael Douglas and Brenda Vaccaro; Paula
and Lisa Weinstein; and Neil Diamond. Kenny and Gail wrote
for The Carol Burnett Show and numerous television specials for
Mary Tyler Moore, Dick Van Dyke, and Julie Andrews.
Cici knew that I was still shaken from my split with Bob
Richardson. She did her best to take me out and introduce me
to people, but I was more interested in riding her horses and
walking in the next-door garden. She and Dad had just celebrated the completion of a new Jacuzzi, and one afternoon I
found the actor Don Johnson and a male friend of his floating
in it. Though I was grateful to Cici for her efforts, I was somewhat embarrassed and ran back to the camellia trees.
A Swedish friend of hers, Brigitta, who owned Strip Thrills,
a dress shop on Sunset, told Cici that she was going to a party
at Jack Nicholsons house and invited her to come along. Cici
"
asked if she could bring her stepdaughter, and Brigitta said fine,
that it was his birthday, and Jack loved pretty girls.
I borrowed an evening dress from Ciciblack, long, open
at the back, with a diamant clasp. Brigitta and another Swedish girl picked us up and the four of us drove in Brigittas car to
Jacks house on Mulholland Drive, on a high ridge separating
Beverly Hills from the San Fernando Valley on the other side.
It felt like we were on top of the world.
The front door of a modest two-story ranch-style house
opened, and there was that smile. Later, after he became a superstar and was on the cover of Time magazine, Diana Vreeland was
to christen it The Killer Smile. But at the time I thought, Ah!
Yes. Now, theres a man you could fall for.
In 1969, when I was still living in London, I had gone with
some friends to see Easy Rider in a movie theater in Piccadilly
Circus, and had returned alone some days later to see it again.
It was Jacks combination of ease and exuberance that had captured me from the moment he came on-screen. I think it was
probably upon seeing the film that, like many others, I first fell
in love with Jack.
The second time was when he opened the door to his house
that early evening in April, with the late sun still golden in the
sky. Good evening, ladies, he said, beaming, and added in a
slow drawl, Im Jack, and Im glad you could make it.
He motioned for us to enter. The front room was lowceilinged, candlelit, and filled with strangers. There was Greek
food, and music playing. I danced with Jack for hours. And
when he invited me to stay the night, I asked Cici what she
thought. Are you kidding? she said. Of course!
In the morning, when I woke up and put on my evening
dress from the night before, Jack was already downstairs. Some-
"
one I came to recognize later as the screenwriter Robert Towne

walked through the front door into the house and looked at
me appraisingly as I stood on the upper landing. Then Jack
appeared and said, Im gonna send you home in a taxi, if thats
okay, because Im going to a ball game.
The cab took me back the half hour to the Palisades. When I
got out in the backless evening dress, Cici was at the door. She
looked at me and just shook her head. I cant believe you didnt
insist that he drive you home, she said. What are you thinking? If hes going to take you out again, he must come and pick
you up and take you home.
Jack called a few days later to ask me out. I said, Yes. But
you have to pick me up, and you have to drive me home. And
he said, Okay. All right. How about Saturday? And I said,
Okay. But you have to come and pick me up. Then I got a
follow-up call saying he was sorry, he had to cancel our date,
because he had a previous obligation. Does that make me a
secondary one? I asked.
Dont say that, he said. Its not witty enough, and its
derogatory to both of us. I hung up the phone, disappointed.
That evening I decided to go out with Jeremy and Kenny Solms
and Gail Parent. We were dining at the Old World caf on Sunset Boulevard, when they started to whisper and giggle. When I
asked what was going on, Gail said, You were supposed to see
Jack tonight, right? And I replied, Yes, but he had a previous
obligation, and Kenny said, Well, his previous obligation is a
very pretty blonde, and he just went upstairs with her.
I took my wineglass in hand and, with heart pumping,
climbed the stairs to the upper section of the restaurant and
approached Jacks booth. He was sitting with a beautiful young
woman whom I immediately recognized as his ex-girlfriend
"
Michelle Phillips. I had seen them photographed together in

magazines when I was living in New York. She was in the group
the Mamas and the Papas. As I reached the table, a shadow
passed quickly over his face, like a cloud crossing the sun. I lifted
my glass airily and said, Im downstairs, and I just thought Id
come up to say hi. He introduced Michelle to me, not missing
a beat. She was charming. I guess they were at the end of their
relationship at that point. One morning, some weeks later, she
drove to his house on Mulholland Drive to collect something
she had stored there. Upon discovering that I was with Jack, she
came upstairs to his bedroom with two glasses of orange juice.
From that moment, we became friends.
"

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Watch Me A Memoir by Anjelica Huston

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CHAPTER 1

y old life ended and my new life began standing next to

One morning early in my stay at Cicis, I ordered a taxi and

one I came to recognize later as the screenwriter Robert Towne

Michelle Phillips. I had seen them photographed together in

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