When my home burned in L.A., Jerry Leiber gave me kitchen items which I have to this day. He was a thoughtful and caring friend. We went to dinner many times at Elaine’s. We met through the composer Cy Coleman, who was my ex-husband’s best man for our wedding.

When I decided I wanted to write, Jerry granted me an interview with Mike Stoller for Los Angeles Magazine. They were both kind as I had never done an interview and was nervous.

I would sometimes fix Jerry up with dates, but he never seemed satisfied with my model friends. And he never ever liked my dating Norman Mailer and tried to get me to understand that it would one day "crash and burn." Jerry knew Norman well. He knew the things that have not been printed and may never be.

Jerry lived in a penthouse on East 57th Street. He had a sprawling apartment...

“He died in my arms,” Native American poet and my Facebook friend Sharmagne just told me, recalling husband Richard Sylbert's passing on March 23, 2002.

Dick Sylbert was the Oscar-winning production designer and art director who won for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf “and “Dick Tracy” and had garnered five nominations. Sharmagne, author of “La Kalima,” produced a star-studded tribute for the late designer.

"Bob Evans was in the middle of a press screening for his latest film, "The Kid Stays in the Picture" and took a break to speak. Ed Begley Jr. turned down work to be the MC," Sharmagne said.

Apparently Jack Nicholson, who starred in "Reds and Chinatown" for which Sylbert did production design said he would speak and eulogize...

In the late '50s I was an eighth grader attending school in Bradenton, Florida. On our school bus, the black students had to sit in the back. I didn't understand why and would sit with them. Some of them were friends.

In Bradenton the "colored folks" lived in a certain section of the town and had their own churches and celebrations that my first boy friend would take me to on occasion. I never told my parents because they would not have allowed me to go.

Also read Leah Rozen's review: Faithful to the Bestseller, 'The Help' Is a Message Movie With Sass -- and Class

Whites and blacks did not mix.

This racial bigotry is the core of "...

Have you ever wanted to crash a party? I did.

When I lived in New York as a freelance journalist, I formed a friendship with a lady paparazzo who was a pro at crashing events. She had to gain entrance to these events for her work and invited me as her sidekick on many of these adventures.

She had a tip sheet from publicists telling her where the parties were and which stars were attending. She would trade this information with her dentist for free dental care. Few could stop her -- she knew the back entrances to the Waldorf and the Plaza, and how to stare down any bouncer and name-drop accordingly.

At one event I met Brooke Astor, and asked her if she would grant me an interview, to which she agreed. Afterwards, I asked her whom, if anyone, she would like to meet.

“Why, Jesse Jackson about literacy,” she said.  

So...