The Week: Old People Like Sex, Too
Just got back from The Week's panel on "Love" at Grand Central Terminal and I think the lesson for the day is this: It must be very difficult living life as Farrah Fawcett.

I was seated at the token "under 40" table with a lot of other bloggers and I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one creeped out by the tone of the whole panel. Imagine if you're home from college and your parents come to the breakfast table and start talking about the great sex they had the night before. I mean, it's nice to know your parents are still having good sex but you certainly don't need them telling you and you really don't want that visual. That's kind of what it was like watching Sir Harold Evans moderate a discussion with Farrah Fawcett, Erica Jong and Edmund White -- all panelists known for their sexual persona cultivated, what - three decades ago??

Erica Jong (author of "Fear of Flying," which I read at least 10 years ago when I was a bit out of college) came off like she's been living off the "zipless fuck" line for free lunches and cocktail party invites all this time. They all seemed to be people who have been living on a stage for way too long and are in need of new material.

I really wanted to like Fawcett once she got up on the stage, but instead I found myself feeling sorry for her. She seems a woman uncomfortable in her own skin (insert your own plastic surgery joke here.) The paparazzi were definitely there to see her. About 50 of them mobbed her when she arrived and refused to leave the stage even though the thing was already starting late. Mind you, these aren't reporters trying to get a story; they are bad photographers who shoved everyone in sight - including the cops trying to keep them more than 10 inches from Fawcett's face. All but one video guy left by an hour into the program when Fawcett removed her jacket and revealed some very buff, tanned arms. How do you lead a normal life when crazy people still make that much of a fuss over you?

Evan's first question to Fawcett was basically if she's every had a lesbian relationship. She just looked back at him with her jaw open, sputtered a few seconds and finally got out "I mean, uh, no." It looked like she felt ambushed. And they did finally get her to say the word "fuck" after the other panelists had been discussing the "zipless fuck" for some time. All very weird. They would have done better throwing at least one NYU co-ed on the panel for a little pizzaz. Instead White, ("The Joy of Gay Sex") I think, was supposed to be the token wild man. Not to put too fine a point on it, but he's a big man maybe older than my parents. (And when I saw "big" I don't mean in a "big hands" kind of way.)

That's probably enough of my ranting, so here's some of the highlights (or in this case, lowlights) from my notebook in random order:

"The last time I checked, at least 12 million people were in love with you. At least 12 million people had that poster," Evans to Fawcett.

"My dad had your poster." - Fawcett on the line she now hears from men.

The fame of the poster was both "a blessing and a curse." - Fawcett launching into a description of how conversations with otherwise normal people are always weird with her if it becomes obvious the guy used to have sexual fantasies over the poster. She says she sometimes wishes she'd no longer be recognized "so I could remember what it's like" to have normal conversations.

"I've sowed so many wild oats, I'm actually bored with wild oats," - Erica Jong

"The artists have to take back desire." - Jong at the end of a tirade about how the sexual revolution of the '70s has been hijacked by pornographers putting college girls' labia on the Internet.

Jackie Collins calls in to take part in the panel and says: "I thought this was supposed to be all about love, but it turns out to be all about sex." And Jong retorts: "Just like your books."

Jackie Collins, clearly not afraid of exaggeration: "Everybody knows that everyman has a mistress and every woman has a lover."

"I've been with the same person for nine years, and we have sort of a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy - Edmund White explaining that he and his partner sleep around because "we want each other to be happy" He goes on to boldly speak on behalf of all homosexual men and explain that the lack of monogamy is why gay relationships are better than straight ones.

"We do try because we're Americans." - Jong explaining why we seek to find lovers with whom we share both passion and a partnership. Sir Evans pipes in that even Brits might do this, too. Harrumph.

There was also a call from Bernardo Bertolucci in Rome -- Evans also asked him about a homosexual relationship -- though there was so much noise on the line and in the terminal I couldn't really follow the conversation. And the director of "The Hours" called, if you care. But the Jack Valenti surreal moment probably came when Fawcett and Jong got into a one-upsman debate over what happened in each of three version of "Lady Chatterly's Lover". At that point I think I just gazed back up at the ceiling of Grand Central and stared at the stars.
- posted by Amy @ 2/12/2004 04:25:00 PM