Hard to say what it is about her that is so different than "starlets". Perhaps, as a friend of mine once remarked, she was born with a skin too few.

It is possible I am misremembering about Lee Strasberg. I think it was Susan Strasberg who said that Lee Strasberg had originally said sarcastically that she went around reading philosophical tomes, but that he changed his mind later when she came to his classes. I am not misremembering about Arthur Miller: I assume that he was astute enough to know his own mind.

The fact she was 36 and worried about aging seems to me to be not exactly a surprising phenomenon for a film star, nor -- I should add -- for women around me in this youth-intoxicated era. I can think of at least two 36-37 year old women of my acquaintance who are deeply troubled by losing the first bloom of their youth, and coming to the end of their childbearing years.

There is in the Buddhist tradition a realm of the Gods. They live for millions of years in youth and perfection, happy. Then, one day, the first gray hair appears, and they are completely shattered, because they have no experience of aging. They go straight down into hell, bypassing all the way stations. An apt metaphor for Hollywood, and the vulnerability of the beautiful. It may be absurd and self-absorbed in a world of Liberias, but it works on the silver screen.

yours,

Peter T.