A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF GREAT TALENT

I just had the strangest dream. I was in a corner room of some office building in Midtown, New York City, interviewing Gena Rowlands. The sit down obviously was happening some time in the past because she was 69, and I was 35 -- which is off chronologically because she turns 80 next month, and I just turned 41, but it was only a dream.

I know this because at one point in the interview, she started going on about how she looks her age, and I begged to differ.

"No you do not," I told her.

"Yes, I do. I look 69," she replied.

"You do not look 69. You look as good, better even, than you did in A Woman Under the Influence in the '70s, when you were in your 40s." I reminded her of how, in her mid 60s, she played the romantic lead in Unhook the Stars, and came off as being just as sexy and desirable as Marisa Tomei, which was an even greater feat in 1996 than it is now.

"And you do not look 35."

I took the compliment and ran. The interview was over, and I had just been complimented by Gena Rowlands.

I'm not sure why I had this dream. It's been ages since I've thought about Gena Rowlands. Maybe it's because I have been thinking about Simone Signoret a lot lately, and Signoret kind of reminds me of a French Rowlands. (This, by the way, is a connection that I made for the first time just a few minutes ago.)

I'm also reading a book at the moment called The Academy Awards: The Complete History of Oscar, so I have best actresses on my mind. Yes, I know Rowlands has never won a best actress Oscar, despite two nominations, and I haven't even gotten to 1974, the year she received the first of her nominations for A Woman Under the Influence, but what can I say?

It was only a dream.