Let me offer an long overdue explantion for the picture of myself with Mr. Ebsen.
As you can tell by the terse expressions, there wasn't much love lost between the two of us. In fact, this was the last picture ever taken of the two of us together. As most of you know, this picture was the cover of Look Magazine, aptly entitled "Ebsen Shut Out At Oscars".
During a younger more innocent time, Buddy and I (or as he preferred to be called, Pietr when in a playful mood) would spend evenings together over a red wine discussing pond management issues with Joe Paterno, who was a student manager/assistant at Morningside Teacher's College. Ebsen was always an advocate of the "throw the bluegills on the bank for the coons to eat" school, and would rarely back down from his position, even when shown scientific evidence to the contrary. Paterno would always inexplicably advocate a "Gafilte Fish" option which made no sense to any of us at the table, but sometimes the women would giggle at the mention. It was about this time that it became evident that Ebsen was developing a twitch in the left side of his face which I mistakenly identified as Tourette's syndrome when in the presence of paparazzi. Of course the press ran with this and it cost Ebsen some much needed respect in Hollywood which he would never regain. He never forgave me for this and the rest is history.
After the photo was taken there were many years without contact between Mr. Ebsen and myself. To my severe misfortune, though, Pietr got his ultimate revenge in the form of some misinformation from his agent that led me to ultimately turn down the role opposite Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. We all know that Gere failed miserably in his effort and that the movie might have been quite a hit had I played the lead.
