Recipes for Life (11 page)

J
OHN WAS ALWAYS
incredibly romantic throughout our time together. He’d make boots and soft leather clothes for me by hand (much to Barbara Stanwyck’s and Nolan Miller’s horror). He’d even write me a love letter every night before we went to bed. When I was with John, he made me feel like I was the most important person in the world. So for nine years, I really believed I had a solid, lasting marriage.

We did everything together, including films—partly because I loved being with him, but mostly because John insisted that I stop working for anyone else. Which is why I pretty much disappeared from the public eye. After
The Big Valley,
the only time I worked without John was when his projects weren’t bringing in enough to cover our overhead.

John had written many movies, including one I starred in, which we filmed in Switzerland. We decided for the next film it would be better for our relationship if I didn’t have to act in it (since John wasn’t exactly the easiest director on the set), so he wrote a script called
And Once Upon a Time
to be filmed in Greece. The thought of shooting around the Greek Islands seemed so romantic I could hardly wait to go.

When I first met Mary Cathleen Collins, she was fifteen and already a “ten,” even though her name wasn’t yet Bo Derek. She came to our house to audition, and I knew the minute she walked through the door she’d get the part.

Ironically, what few people realize is that John and Bo really couldn’t stand each other when we started working on the film. They argued about everything from his wanting to dye her hair brown to his thinking she needed to lose weight.

Cathy Collins, before she was Bo Derek, with our boy Haji.

Since Bo had no acting experience yet, John asked me to work with her on the script. So Bo and I spent a great deal of time together, and the two of us did get on very well.

Before leaving for Greece, I told my agent to find me some work, since this was a very low-budget film and the money that John was making was not enough to cover all our bills.

My agent called me in Mykonos to let me know I was offered a guest-starring role in George Peppard’s series
Banacek
. The tension between John and Bo had escalated, so I was worried about leaving them alone. I was afraid all they’d do is fight. Two weeks later, when I returned, John had fallen in love with his fifteen-year-old leading lady.

Some part of me couldn’t believe that their relationship would last. It made no sense; he was thirty years older than Bo—surely he’d come back.

I’
VE ALWAYS BEEN
an idealist about love. To me, love was what made life worth living. Love and loyalty went hand in hand. So when John left me for Bo I was devastated. I couldn’t stop loving him, so how could I go on?

Some people eat when they’re miserable. I’m the opposite. I got thinner and thinner, in spite of the fact Sean kept bringing me milk shakes to try and fatten me up. But nothing worked because I’d gotten to the point where I just didn’t care anymore. I remember thinking: if God were merciful I’d just get sick and die. Then I wouldn’t have to live in such pain. I couldn’t imagine life without John.

A few months after we’d split up, the phone rang around five in the morning. I was sound asleep and didn’t recognize the voice asking me, “Are you dating yet?” It took me a moment to realize it was John calling from Europe.

I could barely wrap my mind around the question. “Dating?” He didn’t ask me how I was doing. He didn’t tell me he missed me. He wasn’t sorry for what had happened between us. He was only trying to put his mind at ease. Of course if I had met someone else, he would no longer have to feel guilty over everything. That morning, I realized he was not coming back, and I had to start living my life again.

It was a turning point for me. A wake-up call in every sense of the word. I sat up in bed thinking: This is the man I was going to die for? That day, I took my life back. I called my agent and told him I wanted to go back to work.

The minute I took my thoughts off John and back onto me, my whole life turned around. I started eating and stopped looking like the
living dead. Almost immediately I had job offers: the first was
Nakia
, a movie of the week with Robert Forster, and then a feature film with Richard Burton.

One of the things I learned, that I would love to share, is that there is life after your man is gone—even though it may not feel like it at the time. For me, an entire new world opened up. Which is why I’ve found that the best revenge is to get happy.

For me, love doesn’t have to end because a relationship does. John and I remained friends until the end of his life.

To this day people still have a hard time believing that Bo and I are also friends. It’s true. I believe in my heart that Bo never set out to get John; he fell in love with her. Also, the fact is, Bo did me an enormous favor by totally changing the direction of my life. If I had stayed with John, I would never have had the opportunity to do
Dynasty
and receive all the wondrous gifts that it gave me.

Blessings often come in the disguise of loss. After all, years later I did have my Greek Island romance—with a very romantic Greek called Yanni.

Most people don’t realize how simple it can be to make blueberry muffins—they’re so easy, you could practically make them any morning you want. It’s less complicated than some omelets I’ve started off the day with. Fresh blueberries are key here. They’ll hold together in the baking process better than frozen. I use an extra-large muffin pan here, also called a Texas-size muffin pan.

1 cup fresh blueberries

1½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted

½ cup granulated sugar

½ teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 egg

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus additional for greasing

½ cup milk

½ teaspoon lemon zest, finely grated

Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter an extra-large muffin pan

(3¼-inch wide x 1¾-inch deep).

Wash and pat dry the blueberries.

In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and ginger.

After blending those ingredients, gently stir in the dry blueberries.

In another bowl, beat the egg with a wire whisk, then fold in the melted butter, milk, and lemon zest.

Add the liquid ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients, and stir only until the dry ingredients are moistened. Pour mixture into muffin cups until two-thirds full, and bake 15 to 20 minutes, until golden on top.

M
ICHAEL
G
REENFIELD, WHO
we affectionately call “Greeny” or “Mad Dog” or “The Green Machine,” became my agent shortly before John and I broke up. He remains my white knight to this day. Few agents would have tolerated the way I treated my career, pretty much stopping each time I fell in love. But Greeny was always there to pick up the pieces and somehow find me work. He has become a member of our family.

Michael came into my life after I’d done a guest-starring role on
McCloud
with Dennis Weaver. It was a two-hour movie of the week and the other guest star was Stefanie Powers, whom I’d known from Hollywood High. Last time I’d seen her, I was Linda Evenstad, she was Taffy Paul, and everyone in both our sororities was being suspended from school because of a prank.

In the show, Stefanie and I had such an outrageous catfight that, years later, it became the blueprint for many of the catfights between Krystle and Alexis on
Dynasty
. The day after
McCloud
aired, Michael called saying he wanted to represent me.

I am certainly glad I said yes, because soon after, I was lucky enough to be cast in a film called
The Klansman
.

A
SIDE FROM THE
blessing of getting work, I was thrilled to be working with Richard Burton and Lee Marvin.
The Klansman
was one of those movies where the off-camera moments were far more interesting than the film. We were shooting on location in a remote town in Northern California. But when Bunky found out I was working with Richard Burton, we could have been on the moon and it wouldn’t have mattered—she was coming to visit me, like it or not!

By the time Bunky arrived, Elizabeth Taylor had left, which I thought would disappoint her, but instead Bunky just felt the field was clear. Keep in mind, she did have four or five husbands—and I don’t mean Elizabeth.

On the set the next morning around 8, I needed to run lines with Richard in his motor home. I took Bunky with me. When he opened the door, I thought she would faint. It was like Mark Antony himself had invited us in.

We sat down, and in that charming, eloquent way he had, Richard offered Bunky a drink.

She shot me a look and I knew she was thinking: “Oh my God, I can tell people at home I had a drink with Richard Burton.” So, of course, she accepted.

Richard asked: “Vodka?”

Bunky was obviously thinking more like coffee or orange juice at that hour, but she blurted out: “Of course!”

Richard then picked up an 8-ounce glass and filled it to the top with vodka, no ice, no orange juice, just a large glass of vodka. He poured one for himself, toasted, and then proceeded to drink it all down.