I was negative ten years old when this movie came out, not even a glimmer in my thirteen-year-old parents' eyes. Which doesn't mean it's impossible for me to have seen it, but I never have, and I didn't get a chance to watch it before today's episode. So I don't know if my opinions would have been swayed if I had managed to get Netflix fired up to give the movie a go. All I can say is that I found Ali MacGraw to be grounded and well-spoken, and Ryan O'Neal to be a weird, plastic dude.
I suppose it's easy for MacGraw to be grounded, since she hasn't been living in Hollywood for quite some time. So when she spoke to Oprah about women getting plastic surgery to look young, and the "duck lips" that often come with that choice, it was a lot easier to believe that she meant what she said. As opposed to, say, Teri Hatcher.
When MacGraw first came on the screen today, Katie looked at her and said, "I don't want to age." And then Oprah asked MacGraw how old she is, and MacGraw said, "71." I had to pause it because I was so shocked. Katie took back what she said, and I just sat there for several minutes, flabbergasted. I shouldn't have been that surprised, given that the movie for which she and O'Neal were reuniting is 40 years old. But still. She looks good. And if she has had work done, she should give that number to every woman in Hollywood. A few in particular. I'm looking at you, Meg Ryan.
There was a lot about MacGraw's meteoric rise, her marriage to Steve McQueen, and her fall from grace in Hollywood, but I'm not going to bother recapping it. There was a slight dip in my appreciation for her when I found out that she's a spokesperson for PETA, but I'll try to overlook that.
I liked MacGraw even more when both she and Oprah agreed that the most famous line from the film makes no damn sense. Oprah said that love means always having to say you're sorry, which is exactly what Katie and I said before we started this show.
Ryan O'Neal came out more than halfway through the show, and that guy is just weird. He looks weird, for one thing. There was all that talk about plastic surgery when it was just the two ladies out there, but the topic suddenly went away when an obvious example of plastic surgery's horrific side effects walked out onto that stage. I took a picture, and I'm certain it doesn't do the freakiness justice, but hopefully it will give you an idea:
Note that the lines on his forehead are a result of taking a picture of a television screen, and not some really horrible mistake made by a surgeon.
On top of his appearance, O'Neal was just sort of weird and uncomfortable during the whole show. He gave short answers, and just seemed like he didn't know why he was there. And then he made everyone cry when he talked about Farrah Fawcett. I didn't cry, though. I'm sorry for his loss and all, but I also happen to know a few stories about how fucking crazy and mean Fawcett was in real life. I'm not saying I would have wished anal cancer on her, but let's not pretend she was a saint. And let's also not pretend that she and O'Neal had some amazing storybook romance. This was not a Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward situation, okay?
True to form, Oprah threw up a picture of a young O'Neal and MacGraw together on the Love Story set, and asked them what they would say to those two. O'Neal said, "Lucky boy," since he spent several minutes awkwardly professing his loneliness, along with his love for MacGraw. To her younger self, MacGraw said, "Heaven help you."
I really feel like Oprah is constantly disappointed by the answers people give to that question. I know I would be, so I'm certain Oprah is looking for more depth.
Tomorrow: Merritt's first birthday! But Oprah won't be covering that. Instead, it's a show entitled "Are You Normal?" I guess the audience is going to answer questions about their sex lives and god knows what else. Fun!
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