Mel squelches rumor
Liz Smith
Mel Brooks wants to put an end to those rumors that he and Anne Bancroft might evene be thinking of breaking up after umpteen years of happy wedlock. When I told Mel that there are indeed lots of stories going the rounds that are much more lurid than anything anyone has even hinted at, the funnyman genius did not laugh and laugh. He said very seriously: "I met Anne on Feb. 5, 1961. She was doing a Perry Como show. She was wearing a white suit and singing 'Money I Can Always Get.' I fell in love with her then and there and we got married in 1964. Since 1964, we are still very much in love; we are pals; we are very good friends. And--she will probably star in my next movie 'Mel Brooks' History of the World'. Now you have to admit that is an important and ambitious project"
Absolutely right, Mel. No man in his right mind would make his wife the star of such spic if there was trouble in paradise. But there is more to this story. It seems that Rona Barrett recently went on "Good Morning America" and told the world flat out that things were rocky with Mel and Annie. Mel called Rona up and she told him that she had given this story out on the air because of a blind item printed in my space a few weeks back.
So Mel calls me. I tell him that I hereby deny that any blind item in this space refered to Mel and Annie. I mentioned an "oddly matched couple"--and said the lady in question was a very big star. Would anybody ever think of Mel and Annie as oddl matched? Why, she has been laughing at his jokes for years, and he has always been insanely in love with her. As for Annie being a very big star, she is more aptly described as a very private person and a very great actress; her stardom is authentic but not super.
The capper to this tale is that after Miss Rona told Mel Brooks that my blind item was about him and his wife and said it gave her the idea to go on the the air announcing their names, Miss Rona then goes on the air again. This time, she says the Brooks-Bancroft wedlock is steady and then she gives the back of her hand to all those naughty stories.
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