I first encountered the multi-talented Peter Ustinov on a show Steve Allen did in the late '70s called Laugh Back, where he showed clips from his 1950s series. I became obsessed with the gent's work, as he embodied something I've always been fascinated with: intelligence tempered with extreme silliness. He was a renaissance man who is now sadly sort of forgotten, although he wrote several hit plays, was a magnificent character actor, directed at least one classic movie (Billy Budd), wrote scads of books, and was an exceptionally funny raconteur (how many raconteurs do we really have these days?).
I was very pleased to meet the gent back in 1999 when he was in NYC promoting the Merchant-Ivory send-up, Stiff Upper Lips. We went off in all kinds of directions in our conversation, which shouldn't've surprised me, but still did.
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Friday, February 8, 2008
The Fashion Plate, Classy Mr. Freddie Blassie
An interview conducted long ago by yrs truly with the legendary manager and champeen Fred Blassie. Here he holds forth on the WWF and its then-competitor the WCW, as well as his one-time wrestler Hulk Hogan. They don't make 'em like Fred anymore.
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