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June 03, 2004
Gilded Lily
by Bill Abdul
365Gay.com Entertainment
It's hard to imagine Lily Tomlin at the beach or gardening or just lounging around the house. She doesn't stop working long enough to do any of those things. Between movies, television and stage it's hard to think of her even sleeping.
Superstar in a Housedress is playing at theaters now. Tomlin provides the narration for this look at the life of gay performance star Jackie Curtis. I Heart Huckabee's is in post production and is expected at theaters later this year. A second film, Confederation of Dunces, was expected out later this year, but production is stalled. Meanwhile, she's heading back to the set of The West Wing.
For years has been the voice of Ms. Frizzle on the children's animated show "The Magic School Bus" and has, along with her life partner Jane Wagner, set up a cultural center that bears their names in Hollywood, part of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.
For any mere mortal the hectic schedule would make them old before their time. For Lily Tomlin it keeps her young. At 64 she looks ten years younger and usually has 30 year olds struggling to keep up.
It's hard to believe there is a whole generation who has never heard the phrase "one ringy dingy...two ringy dingies..." But 30 years ago it was a trendy little semi put down and the woman who created it, a major comedian.
Multi-talented performer and writer Lily Tomlin came to national attention in 1969 as a featured performer on the kaleidoscopic TV comedy show, "Laugh In". A gifted comedienne and actress, the long-faced, sharp-featured Tomlin created a memorable gallery of characters during her various stints on TV in the late 1960s and 70s, including the snide telephone operator, Ernestine, and the mischievous child, Edith Ann.
In 1975, she made a justly acclaimed dramatic film debut as the mother of two deaf children who has a brief affair with a womanizing country singer (Keith Carradine) in Robert Altman's penetrating "Nashville" (1975).
Her subsequent film work has been uneven, with sympathetic performances in Robert Benton's offbeat mystery, "The Late Show" (1977) and in the title role of Joel Schumacher's underrated comedy, "The Incredible Shrinking Woman" (1981), alongside starring roles in a number of forgettable features. One of Tomlin's most widely seen films was the employee's revenge fantasy farce "Nine to Five" (1980), in which her comic prowess easily outshone that of co-stars Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton.
Tomlin showcased her remarkable energy, versatility and talent as a sketch performer in the award-winning, one-woman Broadway show, "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe" (1986), which she committed to film in 1991.
Her feature career was revitalized when she received raves for her recreation of Nancy Kulp's Miss Hathaway in the hit film version of "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1993) and stood out among the ensemble of another Robert Altman panorama, "Short Cuts"(1993).
The subject of Tomlin's sexuality came up in 1995, when "Tales Of The City" author Armistead Maupin went public with a claim that she had backed out of a promise to publicly declare her lesbianism in return for his script "The Celluloid Closet," about Hollywood's treatment of gays and lesbians. Tomlin narrated the acclaimed film.
But, Tomlin waited to go public, and while the gossip business went into overdrive with the revelations about Ellen DeGeneres's relationship with Anne Heche, Tomlin quietly ended the speculation.
In an interview with US Weekly she confirmed her 30-year relationship with creative and romantic partner Jane Wagner.
"I don't like to talk about my private life in any detail, but I don't disavow my private life," she said in the interview.
Tomlin is as unpredictable in her private life as she is on stage or film.
She once dressed up disaster-courting Mrs. Beasley in a Red Cross uniform to hand out coffee and doughnuts to those camping out for tickets to her Broadway show, held court in supermarket lines and screwed her face up into the snorting operator Ernestine to make late-night practical joke calls.
"I'd call up and say, 'We're trying to humanize the image of the phone company,' and 'we're going to have the person who's the busy tone of the week,' and 'the person who is the dial tone of the week,' " Tomlin says.
She is still answering the telephone. This time for Pres. Bartlet. Tomlin signed on for a second season of ten episode on the NBC hit series The West Wing as Debbie Fiderer, Bartlet's Oval Office secretary .
'The West Wing' is still really high quality, even after Aaron left," she said of creator-guiding spirit Aaron Sorkin, who left the show after four seasons. "It's a very familial kind of set. Most of the cast has been together a long time, and they know they have a really great show."
In Tomlin's hands Fiderer is smart, gutsy and eccentric, and Tomlin, once again, reminds us what a treasure she is.
Tomlin admits she had daydreamed about a West Wing guest role, maybe as a tart-tongued political type modeled after former Texas governor Ann Richards.
''I liked the show immensely. I thought the writing was just terrific,'' she says of the series.
Little did she know at the time, the producers were looking for a replacement secretary for the president.
After Thomas Schlamme, an executive producer of The West Wing caught a performance of her show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe Tomlin was approached.
Some of Lily Tomlin's Best One Liners
"Reality is a crutch for people who can't cope with drugs."
"I worry that the person who thought up Muzak may be thinking up something else."
"I always wondered why somebody doesn't do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody."
"Don't be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind every failure is an opportunity somebody wishes they had missed."
"For fast acting relief, try slowing down."
"Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it."
"I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific."
©365Gay.com Ltd 2004
Posted by Jo at June 3, 2004 04:42 PM