Rip Mike Nichols

Bobbie is Magnificent.

He could be so nice when he wanted to be.

Something you should have known Bobbie and should have asked? Debbie Reynolds wanted to do the role played by MacLaine but Nichols said no emphatically. Reynolds obviously wanted to deflect identification with the character of the mother by playing the part herself. Nichols whom I mt in 1959 when he was doing stand-up with Elaine May occasionally got it wrong Fisher was not a wunderkind. Listen to my interview with her when she was filming `The Empire Strikes Back`. I said it in the intro. She was unfocused, dithering, etc. Mike also said that Whoopi Goldberg is a genius. Wrong!