Recipes for Life (30 page)

Off to meet the President!

Meanwhile, Julie Forsythe was the first in line. John and Julie knew the Reagans very well. I followed John and, as always, the President and Nancy could not have been more charming.

And then came Ms. Bunky, who looked quite elegant in a lovely black dress. I had to keep moving along with the reception line, so I couldn’t hear, but I could see her chatting away with President Reagan, who suddenly lit up at something she said and took hold of her hand. I thought, “What in the world?”

Turns out, Bunky attended the church where Ronald Reagan and Nancy were married and she had a personal message from the pastor for the president. Of course if she’d just told me that I could have relaxed. But where’s the fun in that?

Later that evening, the Marine Band played while we had cocktails, and I finally relaxed and felt safe. Bunky had behaved.

But then I noticed Bunky suddenly staring across the crowded room at a man dressed like Count Dracula in a long black cape. Oh no! It was Dom DeLuise, and he was staring right back at Bunky, through a sea of people. The two wild and crazies had somehow managed to spot each other and he was now weaving his way toward her like he was waltzing on air.

Dom grabbed Bunky’s hand and kissed it while asking breathlessly, “Who are you?”

Without missing a beat, Bunky replied, “I am the Countess De La Valley.” (Bunky was one of the original Valley girls.)

Dom said, “I knew it!”

That did it. Dom and Bunky got on a roll, joking and laughing so much that soon they were surrounded, everyone drawn to their madness. They were the hit of the party. And I am happy to report I was invited back to the White House many, many times—with Bunky. Although on our next trip, Bunky was seated next to the head of the CIA.
Hmm.

F
OR SEVERAL REASONS
, I began questioning everything in my life around the end of the 1980s.
Dynasty
had given me tremendous gifts on every level, and I was grateful for each and every one of them. I had everything you can have that people think will make you happy. But I wasn’t. Something was still missing. There were answers to things I wanted to know, but I couldn’t find them. It was amazing: I had fame, fortune, and the love of people all around the world, and yet, I was unfulfilled.

I remember at the height of the success of
Dynasty
reflecting on my life as I sat in the back of a limo holding my fifth People’s Choice award. I was accomplishing my goal, which was to have a career and to be self-sufficient. I thought, “Take a moment to bask in the sweetness of it.” That moment was followed by a louder voice in my head. “Is this all there is?”

One of the wonderful things about getting your dream is you can finally let go of it for something new.

By the ninth year of
Dynasty
, in spite of all its blessings, I longed to be a regular person again. I wanted to take out the trash, go to the supermarket, and walk along the beach without being recognized. I didn’t want to have to live up to people’s expectations of me. I wasn’t one of the ten most beautiful women in the world, like
Harper’s Bazaar
said year after year. I was just fortunate enough to have a team of talented people assisting me with that image every day.

I made the decision to leave the show. Esther and Richard Shapiro, the creators of
Dynasty
, and Aaron Spelling gave me their blessings. I was an emotional mess my last day of filming. My makeup man had to
use all of his Kleenex and get more. I couldn’t stop crying. I would miss my
Dynasty
family, but it was time to go.

Hard changes were everywhere. Everyone I knew agreed that Richard was the greatest guy I’d ever known. So why didn’t I want to settle down with him and live happily ever after? Even I thought I was crazy to be thinking about giving him up. I kept trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Then one day I realized I loved Richard with all my heart, but, cliché as it might sound, I wasn’t
in love
. It was hard to explain why
being in love
, not
just loving
, was so important to me. It was an outrageous dilemma. But once I understood it, I couldn’t stay with him.

So one day, Nena and the cats and I moved back home to my old house in Beverly Hills. For a very long time I wondered if I’d made the biggest mistake of my life. But then one day, I opened the door to find true love staring me in the face and God, was I happy to be free to embrace it.

O
NE OF THE
things I love about the Ramtha retreats is the music they play to help us focus. I’ll never forget one particular event when they played a magnificent piece of music, like nothing I’d ever heard before. It had a classical elegance and yet the energy was stunning. Everyone in the room was so moved by the passion of the piece, we all wanted to know who this new composer was.

He was just starting out and there wasn’t a lot of information about him. Someone told me they thought he was Asian. Since his album cover didn’t have a clear picture, I just assumed it was true.

Given the extraordinary response to his music at the retreats, JZ wanted to find out if he would consider coming in person. I was elected to make the call and his manager informed me that he was in his studio, immersed in creating a new album. He promised I would hear from him in a few weeks when he came out of seclusion.

When he called three weeks later, I was at Villa Madera. We had a great conversation and decided that we’d try to get together the next time I was in LA.

Between our busy schedules, the only time we could meet turned out to be a half an hour before I had to leave for the airport. I was rushing to pack and almost forgot that we had made an appointment, until Bunky told me that the music man was at the gate, but I better make it quick so we didn’t miss the plane.

Now, I had spoken to him on the phone and learned that the name, Yanni, is Greek, not Asian, but I still had no idea what he looked like.

So, when I opened the door, I was stunned. I couldn’t speak. I don’t know what I had been expecting, but it wasn’t the man I found standing there.

My mind exploded in a million directions. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I loved everything about him. I wanted to slap him and say, “Where have you been all my life!” I was overwhelmed by the moment. I’m not sure how we ended up sitting on the couch talking. What I do remember is how upset I was every time Bunky came in to remind me that I had to leave for the airport.

Finally, Bunky had to walk us both to the door to get us to say goodbye. As he was leaving, I just stood there lost in thought, until Bunky turned to me and said, “Great ass.” Before I could respond, the driver arrived to take us to the airport.

Later, when we finally settled down on the plane, Bunky noticed I was unusually quiet and she teased me, asking if it was over the gorgeous Greek. When I didn’t laugh, she knew something was wrong.

I told her it was worse than she could imagine. I sighed, “I think I’m in love. And he’s a musician. And he’s twelve years younger than I am. Oh my God, what do I do?”

Yanni’s look of love–of course I took the picture.

What I did was follow my heart and begin a romantic adventure that took nine years and spanned four continents.

W
HEN
I
FIRST
realized I was in love, I also realized that since I’d left the show and started living my own life again, I’d managed to put on twenty-five pounds. It was such a joy for me to give up the whole “image thing” that was so important to my career but not to my happiness. After nine years of having to be very professional, I was suddenly free to stay up as late as I wanted, eat anything I felt like cooking, and just be a regular person. Well, that’s how I felt until I looked in the mirror and realized I was in love and the heaviest I’d ever been in my life! I was loaded with female insecurity. So now what do I do?

I went on a diet. The only problem was, I’d never been more than five pounds overweight in my life, and I truly had no idea how to be on a diet. So I just stopped eating, but the weight didn’t go away. After a few weeks, I called my fitness trainer in LA, Dan Isaacson, and he told me I wasn’t losing the weight because when you just stop eating, your metabolism shuts down. So in addition to cutting down on my food intake and eating less rich, high-calorie food, I had to start doing some aerobics. So I hit the store and bought up every Jane Fonda fitness video I could get my hands on. Bless you, Jane.

If you’re ever on a diet and want something really delicious, this is a killer dressing that you can put on any greens or mixings you like. It’s so good you’ll swear you’re not on a diet.

2½ to 3 tablespoons sherry wine vinegar (or red wine or balsamic)

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon heavy cream

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup vegetable oil

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

Whisk ingredients together and serve. Store tightly covered in a jar in the refrigerator for up to a week, shaking vigorously before use.

If you’re not on a diet and want something really healthy and delicious, this is a great salad.

This light and refreshing salad brings out the best from My Favorite Salad Dressing, with the sherry vinegar highlighting the citrus, and the hint of creaminess echoed in the avocado slices. A sprinkle of toasted walnuts rounds out the flavors nicely, but you can make this salad more of a meal by shaving on some good Parmesan and crumbling some crispy bacon over the top.