Sue Mengers, Bette Midler and Marijuana

VIP Bette Midler won rave reviews in her one-woman show I'll Eat You Last,  playing the legendary Hollywood agent and marijuana lover Sue Mengers. The successful show had its final performance on June 30, and there is talk of bringing it to Los Angeles.
"Midler's Mengers passes the 90-minute show lounging on a couch, puffing on a joint, 'pumping out profane one-liners'" wrote The Week. The actress smoked herbal cigarettes throughout the show, and told the New York Times, "I was thrilled when I finally got the timing down to smoke two at once – a cigarette in one hand and a joint in the other. That was Sue."

Charles Isherwood of the New York Times wrote, "Ms. Midler... gives the most lusciously entertaining performance of the Broadway season... (She) cradles a spellbound audience in the palm of her hand from first joke to last toke."

The first "superagent," Mengers began as a secretary in 1955 at MCA and ended up representing, among others, Barbra Streisand, Candice Bergen, Peter Bogdanovich, Michael Caine, Dyan Cannon, Cher, Joan Collins, Brian De Palma, Faye Dunaway, Bob Fosse, Gene Hackman, Ali McGraw, Steve McQueen, Anthony Perkins, Burt Reynolds, Cybill Shepherd, Gore Vidal, Richard Benjamin, Paula Prentiss, and Tuesday Weld. She died in 2011.

"Her enemies dismissed her as loud, overbearing and vulgar. But to the stellar list of above-the-title clients in her heyday, Mengers was therapist, confessor, Jewish mother, best friend and unflagging chief advocate," wrote Nikki Finke at Deadline.com.

Finke writes:

"Mengers’ pot smoking at ICM was legendary. (The running joke there was that part of the test to getting a shot at working on the legendary agent’s desk was an ability to roll joints.) In the Morris mailroom, the trainees joked about the unmistakable acrid smell that wafted from inside Mengers’ offices seemingly daily. One day, the last mailroom run called for a pickup of a small package at a private residence that was to be delivered that evening to Mengers at her home. The trainees couldn’t help but peek inside the package. Inside a rolled newspaper was a plastic baggie containing an ounce of what they recognized at once was marijuana."

Forced out by the good old boys of William Morris, who hired her in 1987 "to bring the agency back from near-extinction" (Finke), Mengers bounced back by holding dinner parties in Beverly Hills that were legendary. She "became one of Beverly Hills’ top hostesses, with A-List stars crowding her dinner parties and Mengers (joint in hand) at the center of it all," wrote Josh Ferri at Broadway.com

More on Mengers:

“Sue loved her pot. That’s one thing Sue and I had in common. We all loved to smoke pot, lots of it. She always had the joints rolled, and kept them in a little box in the coffee table.” —Bill Maher

“Sue even had a friend blowing marijuana smoke into her face as she passed away. She was high until the bitter end.”  —Bette Midler

“She was one of a kind, acerbically funny, witty, brash, tough but cuddly, a powerful woman in a man's world.” —Barbra Streisand

“She was the modern-day Gertrude Stein. People would gather and exchange ideas and talk about things that were not talked about anywhere else in town.” —CBS President Leslie Moonves

“Sue was unlike anyone I’ve ever met – a true original. Her name became synonymous with women and what she helped us all to accomplish, but her legend is really the vitality with which she lived life, and her wit, which will be celebrated in stories throughout our community for years to come.” —fellow agent Boaty Boatwright

UPDATE on November 25, Midler appeared on the Jay Leno show and traded stories about the good old daze. "Of course I was smoking a lot of dope in those days," Midler said. Leno came back with a snarky, "Of course all that's changed." (No denial)

She speaks about Menger (and Harry Hamlin), adding that Virginia, Menger's housekeeper, was tasked with rolling her joints (as was Hamlin).


 I'll Eat You Last will play at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles from Dec. 5-22.

Martha Stewart On Rolling a Joint with Andy Cohen

UPDATE 3/24: "The Many Lives of Martha Stewart" on Max interviews Stewart's fellow prisoner Susan Spry, who was serving time on a meth charge when they met at Alderson prison (where Billie Holiday was also incarcerated). Stewart wrote a note of recommendation that got Spry the job she still holds after she left prison.

The series reveals that part of Stewart's rehab/rebranding after her prison stint included appearing at the 2015 roast of Justin Bieber, during which she gave tips on making a shiv, and joked about smoking a joint (and having a three-way) with him. She now says (upon posing at age 80 for the cover of Sports Illustrated), that sitting next to Snoop at that roast "cemented" their relationship. 

“He smoked all day long,” Stewart told the LA Times. “All he did was smoke, and everybody was in such a good mood and we were all roasting each other. And luckily, Snoop’s secondhand smoke really kind of eased the pain for me a lot, and it was hysterical because I just felt, ‘OK, I’ll go with the flow here.’ After like 6 billion views around the world, it turned out to be one of the best things — and it cemented my relationship with Snoop.”

UPDATE 9/20: Stewart has announced a line of CBD edibles. "The flavorful citrus medley of wellness gummies includes Meyer lemon, kumquat, and blood orange, while the delicious berry medley includes red raspberry, huckleberry, and black raspberry."

6/13 - Huffington Post reports that Martha Stewart, the woman who does everything perfectly, also knows how to roll a joint. Or so she said in an interview with Andy Cohen, where she also said she almost asked for a puff off a sloppily rolled one she'd seen on the way to the studio. "That would have made for a very interesting interview," quickly quipped Cohen. Perhaps Stewart ought to demonstrate her joint-rolling skills in an upcoming show, as Canadian historian Pierre Berton did in 2010. 



It seems Stewart had her eyes opened to the injustices of the drug war when she took a prison rap for the true stock manipulators who bankrupted our country. In her 2005 holiday message from prison, Stewart wrote, "I beseech you all. . . to encourage the American people to ask for reforms, both in sentencing guidelines, in length of incarceration for nonviolent first-time offenders, and for those involved in drug-taking."

In April 2013, Stewart said on The Today Show that she and Snoop hang out and bake brownies together. It's true: Stewart and the artist formerly known as Snoop Dogg baked brownies and rapped together about the green kind on her show in 2009. "Why not bake 'em at 4 hundred and 20 degrees?" asked Snoop. 

In 2017, the Martha Stewart and Snoop Dog: T-Mobile Super Bowl Ad won a Tokey Award for Best Commercial:

 

In 2014, Stewart offered free patterns for craft projects made with her hemp/cotton yarn line. She commented upon the September 2020 release of her CBD edibles line: "I've found that CBD supplements are a simple way to enhance my own health and wellness, especially when it comes to managing the stresses of daily life. I set out to create the most delicious CBD products on the market, drawing inspiration from some of my favorite recipes and flavor profiles from my greenhouse and gardens. 

"My wellness gummies closely resemble the French confections, pâte de fruits, rather than the sticky, overly sweet versions you might find elsewhere. Created in collaboration with top researchers and scientists at Canopy Growth, I am very proud of the end result: wellness gummies, oil drops, and soft gels that taste as wonderful as they make you feel." 

Fashion News, plus More on Miley, the Kennedys and Rolling Stone

Tyra Banks and friend after doing some shopping.

Potparrazi caught Tyra Banks exiting a medical marijuana dispensary in Venice Beach on Saturday carrying a brown bag and escorted by a hunky blonde (photo at right).

This may be something new for the 39-year-old "America's Next Top Model" host, who told Jimmy Kimmell in 2011, "I'm just flying on a nature high!"

Perhaps marijuana use is why Banks is so much nicer than fellow model Naomi Campbell, who pleaded guilty in 2007 to throwing a cellphone at her former maid. Marijuana ought to be mandatory for Campbell.

In other fashion news, skier Lindsey Vonn (below) was pulled off the red carpet at the Fashion Awards event in New York City on June 5 by the US Anti-Doping Agency. Vonn, who is training for the 2014 Winter Olympics, was taken to the bathroom by USADA officials who demanded a urine sample on the spot.

Lindsey Vonn on the way to her drug test.

Meanwhile, Miley Cyrus calls alcohol "way more dangerous than marijuana" in an upcoming issue of Rolling Stone. A new edition of Marijuana is SAFER: So Why Are We Driving People To Drink? ought to spark more of a debate on that topic, as should a recently published German paper about alcohol use by young people and its effect on later drinking.

Melissa Etheridge penned a June 4 opinion piece for CNN that had these wise words:

These days our society is experiencing a new open-mindedness. We are beginning to break away from the old fears that governed our parents' world. We do not automatically fear someone because of the color of his or her skin. We do not fear for our children if homosexuals are living in the neighborhood. And we do not fear that smoking pot will necessarily lead to a life of ruin. 

I believe it is time to shine a light on the old "Reefer Madness" fears. Let's legitimize cannabis sales so that our youth are as protected from illegal pot as they are from illegal alcohol and tobacco sales. Legitimize the growers so that pot can have regulations and I know I am supporting American businesses and not outlaws when I purchase it. 

Finally, Caroline Kennedy sat on a jury that acquitted a man charged with selling crack to an undercover officer and Bill Maher took on Patrick Kennedy for being untrue to the Kennedy legacy.

P.S. Don't miss the Rolling Stone "Weed" issue, on the stands now (though I haven't seen any contributions by or about women, except for "The Hollywood Princess Who Keeps Snoop Blazed."

For the latest news, follow our Twitter feed, @tokinwoman 

On Being, and Being John Malkovich

Keener rolls a joint for Cusack and Diaz in Being John Malkovich

I just saw Being John Malkovich (on Netflix) for the third or fourth time, and I must say, I like it more each time. It's got everything: the most outrageous plot ever, the most comedic settings, the wildest acting....all with metaphysical questions about who's pulling the strings. "I've begun to imagine it as a very expensive suit I enjoy wearing," one soul says of his borrowed body.

A couple of references to pot are in the film: Lottie (Cameron Diaz) convinces her husband Craig (John Cusack) to invite the object of both their desires, Maxine (Catherine Keener) to dinner. "I'll cook my lasagne, we'll smoke a joint, and tensions will just melt away," she counters when Craig mounts an excuse. After dinner, Keener rolls a joint for her admirers.

"Were you stoned?" 

It's Charlie Sheen, playing himself as the friend Malkovich goes to when he's feeling controlled by an outside force, who gets to the heart of the matter. "Were you stoned?" is the first thing Charlie asks, because as he well knows, expanding one's consciousness is an interesting and often instructive thing to do, though it can leave you a little confused. When Malkovich replies in the affirmative, Sheen says, "You were stoned, end of story." 

The film has a rare appearance from Orson Bean, who found his experience smoking marijuana with Lord Buckley in the 1940s "quite wonderful." Keener was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for her role, as was writer Charlie Kaufman (he took the BAFTA). Malkovich got an American Comedy Award, and deserved it. Still, I think my favorite moment is when it's revealed why the chimp has post-traumatic stress. "You don't know how lucky you are being a monkey," Craig tells him. "Because consciousness is a terrible curse."

Kaufman's encore Adaptation is also a writing and acting wonder: Nicolas Cage plays both Kaufman and his brainless but strangely successful twin/alter ego. Cage's Kaufman is attempting to write an adaptation of The Orchid Thief for the screen and...I won't reveal the plot except to say when it goes sensational, drugs are involved and Meryl Streep is, of course, superb.

Rights of Passage: Miley Cyrus, Amanda Bynes and Marijuana

Miley Cyrus's new look in V Magazine  

Filmed in 2010 but not released until 2012, LOL starring Miley Cyrus has an rather interesting take on marijuana—until it gets preachy. And like her recent photo in "V" magazine (left), Cyrus doesn't quite let her pants down in the film (now viewable on Netflix).

In one scene from LOL, two teens and four grown ups get together for a dinner party. The teens (Cyrus as Lola and Jean-Luc Bilodeau as Jeremy) make an excuse to go to his room instead of eating with the old folks. "We aren't interested in your senior conversations," Lola says. A bit miffed, one of the adults responds, "We aren't interested in your teenage conversations." Notice that the two groups aren't communicating.

After the kids leave, the Dad—whose nod to hippiedom is a beard and a friendship bracelet—lights a joint and passes it to his three female companions, starting with Demi Moore. Moore's character emphatically states that her daughter doesn't smoke, and that she has never smoked in front of her. As for Jeremy, his mother says, "Don't worry, Jeremy hates drugs." Cut to: Jeremy in his room with Lola, exhaling a bong full. He wears a chunky hemp necklace, but Miley's character neither wears nor smokes hemp.

Demi Moore accepts and tokes a joint in LOL

Knowing that the ONDCP has had input into network TV shows, one can only imagine what Hays Code-style forces hatched this LOL subplot: Moore meets a hot narcotics officer, who gives an anti-pot talk at Lola's school. Flashed on the screen are pictures of brains supposedly representing the effects of long-term marijuana use, from a bogus organization called Organization for a Drug-Free World. Another slide claims that those who are heavy users of cannabis at age 18 are 600 times more likely to develop schizophrenia(!) After the talk, Moore's hypocritical, pot-puffing mom admonishes her daughter to take heed of the scaremongering, and the cop asks (or rather, demands) that Moore have a drink with him, in the middle of the day.

A possible sly commentary on the brain slides, coupled with the old PDFA "fried egg" ads, is contained in the amusing sequence showing the kids being served strange foods by French families on a field trip. "It's a pity, she hasn't even eaten her brain," one French mother says. Later, the parents' pot-smoking dinner party scene is reprised, with the cop sitting at the table as the joint is passed. "I only use it for my sciatica," the Dad lies, as though that makes him virtuous.

Slide from an anti-drug assembly in LOL

LOL saw limited release and grossed only $10 million worldwide, with a budget of $11 million. Wanna bet it would have made more money had Cyrus toked herself in the film, and it was released the year it was made, when she was in the news for smoking "salvia"? This may be the most scandalous interference in a career over marijuana since Spiro Agnew personally called radio stations and asked them not to play Brewer and Shipley's song "One Toke Over the Line."

Being a child star entering young adulthood is a tough gig. Just watch Inside Daisy Clover or observe the latest antics of Amanda Bynes, who allegedly threw a bong out of her New York apartment building window after someone called the cops on her for smoking a joint in the lobby (she denies the charge).

Parents these days can be as stupid as kids: A 9/11 call was placed from Moore's home in January 2012 after she went out partying with her daughter and smoked "Spice," a foolish thing to do, especially in combination with Adderall and Red Bull, as she reportedly did. The latest news is that she's back to yoga and has another young boyfriend.

Are we ever going to grow up about pot? Or will parents just continue to pretend they never smoked it, and let their children learn the worst possible behaviors around it from their peers, who know that the government is feeding them bullshit, but aren't always able to find the way to a higher truth on their own?

UPDATE 6/19/13: Cyrus says she's happy to live in California, "a place where you can be what you want to be" and calls alcohol "way more dangerous than marijuana" in an upcoming edition of Rolling Stone. A forthcoming edition of Marijuana is SAFER: So Why Are We Driving People To Drink? ought to spark more of a debate.

The Greater Gatsby

Carey Mulligan as Daisy in The Great Gatsby

Rather than listen to the critics who think they know what The Great Gatsby is supposed to be about, I saw for myself Baz Luhrman's interpretation and I must say: I was blown away. The opening sequences, and much else, were breathtaking in their use of 3D technology, and the viewer is immediately transported into Fitzgerald's New York of the 1920s (even though, yes, it was filmed in Australia).

Not only is the new adaptation true to the book, it breathes new life into the story and relates it squarely to the excesses of today. Bryan Ferry's version of Roxy Music's "Love is the Drug" with 20's style horns smooths the transition to a modern soundtrack that actually works (and features Fergie and Luna del Rey).

I can't help comparing this Gatsby to the duller-than-dirt 1970s version with Robert Redford sleepwalking through the title role. The golden girl Daisy, released from a tepid Mia Farrow portrayal, is here played with spark and intelligence by a luminous Carey Mulligan. I didn't think I could like her more than I did Alison Pill, who played Zelda (Daisy's inspiration) in Midnight in Paris, but Mulligan was everything she should be, and more. DiCaprio didn't move me much, he's just pathetic–like Redford's portrayal. He's best in scenes when masterfully provoked by Joel Edgerton as Daisy's husband Tom.

Isla Fisher as Myrtle.

Myrtle the Temptress also benefits from better casting: instead of the always-annoying Karen Black, we're treated to Isla Fisher, who played Mary Jane in the Scooby Doo movie. The scene orchestrated by Myrtle wherein Nick learns to party makes splendid use of Fitzgerald's words describing mind alteration:

I was within and without. Simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.

This sounds to me a lot more like getting high than being drunk. In fact, it rather sounds like Jack London's description of smoking hashish.

Remember, Gatsby is set in the 20s, when pot was still legal and sold in pharmacies, as cigarettes or tinctures. A musician in Lehrman's Gatsby is unmistakably modeled on Cab Calloway, who's "Are You Hip to the Jive?" was the "Are You Experienced?" of his day. (Calloway recorded "Minnie the Moocher" and "Reefer Man.")

Everyone from Stephen Colbert to the BBC World Service book club missed the core of the novel: Gatsby is an American hero because he makes his money by illegal means, which necessarily involves thuggery. When this was mentioned on the BBC, it merely drew the usual mock astonishment and chuckles from the esteemed panel, which included Jay McInerney.

Amitabh Bachchan as Meyer Wolfsheim

So I guess I'll have to be the one to tell you the news: The Great Gatsby is the first modern novel about a drug dealer.

To hammer home the point, one of Gatsby's associates, Meyer Wolfsfheim, is modeled on Arnold Rothstein, the first international drug smuggler and gambler (who famously fixed the 1919 World Series).

Gatsby is said to own a chain of drug stores at which it's said that anything, including bootleg liquor, can be bought. He speaks of "a little business on the side ... a rather confidential sort of thing" and offers the narrator Nick a piece of the action in exchange for setting up a meeting with Daisy.

After Gatsby sends a servant to mow Nick's lawn in anticipation of the meeting, Nick tells him, “The grass is fine.”

“What grass?” asks Gatsby. “Oh, the grass in the yard.”

Where else would grass be?

Grass is again strangely mentioned in Fitzgerald's last novel, The Last Tycoon. In it, movie producer Monroe Stahr takes love interest Kathleen to his house, where he has had a strip of grass brought in from the prop department. Kathleen laughs and asks, “Isn’t that real grass?” Stahr replies, “Oh yes—it’s grass.”

When Stahr goes to Kathleen’s door, she says, “I’m sorry I can’t ask you in. Shall I get my reefer and sit outside?” (A reefer is also the name of a sailor’s coat.) Stahr first sees Kathleen floating on the head of Siva, when a flood dislodges it from a movie set. To this day, worshippers in India drink bhang (a drink made with cannabis) to celebrate Siva’s marriage to the goddess Parvati.

Now that Lurhman has rescued Gatsby from obscurity, it's time for a brilliant remake of The Last Tycoon (also made in the 70s, and also flat, despite Robert DeNiro as Stahr).

Fitzgerald was named for his relative Francis Scott Key, who wrote the lyrics to "The Star Spangled Banner," and his family was considered keepers of American virtue.

The protagonist of his novel The Beautiful and Damned has this exchange with a friend:

"Did they ban cigarettes? I see the hand of my holy grandfather." 
"He's a reformer or something, isn't he?" 
"I blush for him."

Anthony Patch, who stands in for Fitzgerald in the story, is the grandson of Adam J. Patch, a reformer in the mold of Anthony Comstock (for whom Patch is named). In 1873 Comstock created the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, an institution dedicated to supervising the morality of the public. [Wikipedia] Patch speaks disdainfully of the "shocked and alarmful eyes" of "chroniclers of the mad pace of America."

Why does no one ask the obvious question: where does the name "Gatsby" come from? His real name is "Gatz" which is the next down the alphabet from "Fitz" in "Fitzgerald." Like Gatsby, Fitzgerald lost his desired debutante, when Zelda broke their engagement to be married. In reality or fantasy, did Scott win Zelda back by getting rich dealing in grass? Was he critical of reformers because he was himself a rebel? Can you live outside the law and still be a hero? Are moralists missing something in life? (Oh yes, and why is Gatsby's first name "Jay?" Why was the light he sought green in color?)

A final note: the theatre where I'd hoped to see Gatsby in 3D, the Grand Lake in Oakland, isn't showing it in 3D, but rather had Iron Man 3 with Robert Downey Jr. Downey's now a good little Hollywood boy playing in nice, violent films with big box office and (snore) sequel potential. I'd much rather have seen him as Gatsby.

Anne Hathaway: Toking a Victory Lap?

Anne Hathaway in Havoc (2005)

UPDATE 4/20/2017 - Hathaway, instead of pleading the 5th, calls herself "not a little" pothead—and doesn't quite realize it's legal—on "Watch What Happens Live." 

According to various celeb sites, Anne Hathaway is the second 2013 Oscar winner (after Jennifer Lawrence) who is taking a toking victory lap.

The National Enquirer has reportedly announced that its May 6 print edition will contain photos of Hathaway and husband Adam Schulman smoking pot. While the Enquirer found friends who lamented Hathaway's partying proclivities and blamed them on Schulman, other sites are supportive.

Fanshare.com opined, "More than likely, she and her husband were just chilling out, and someone managed to get pictures of them smoking pot. Anne is still young, and she has her whole career ahead of her. Much like Jennifer Lawrence, if this report is accurate, it's unlikely it will affect her or generate any backlash." We've come a long way, baby.

Hathaway toked onscreen in 2005's Havoc (pictured), where she plays a fancy LA girl taking a walk on the wild side. (And yes, you can see her boobs in the film too.)

Schulman played a bumbling police officer in a 2007 TV "Dukes of Hazzard" prequel with Willie Nelson as Uncle Jesse. Many will remember the ending of the 2005 Dukes movie in which the bad guys and dignitaries spent the last scene in Jesse's smoky trailer. Willie just turned 80, and many birthday tributes included mentions of his love for pot and its role in his longevity. (By contrast, the hard-drinking George Jones just died at 81.) Justin Bieber seems to have gotten the message: pot (and a taser) were found on his tour bus in Sweden.

In other Enquirer news, it's reported that John Boehner's daughter is giving him something to really cry about: she's marrying a pothead. It's not unheard of for Republican daughters to marry into marijuana: William LeBlond, the first husband of Dorothy Bush (Shrub's sister), was arrested in 1989 for drunken driving and marijuana possession.

According to the Los Angeles Free Press (9/5/1969) then-Vice President Spiro Agnew's daughter Elinor Kimberly Agnew was arrested for marijuana in June 1969 after being caught at a pot party with classmates at the National Cathedral School in DC. As part of his campaign against films and music that promoted the "drug culture," Agnew pressured the FCC to ban Brewer and Shipley's "One Toke Over the Line" (but not before it was sung on Lawrence Welk's show). Apparently he was also able to use his clout to squelch the story about his daughter. Another political daughter, Teresa McGovern, didn't fare as well.