NEIL SIMON R.I.P.

I hung out with Neil Simon once in my Hollywood years. Carrie Fisher asked me to be her date for a New Year's party at Alana Stewart's, Rod's ex. I picked Carrie up in the little Colt station wagon I was driving that had no mats on the floor and you had to roll the windows up manually, wearing an '80s shoulder padded gray suit coat with an oil slick sheen to it over a black shirt. Carrie made a little sound like this wasn't what she expected but I was often cocky then, despite realities.

I needed that attitude when we got there and found most of the men wearing black tie tuxes or close to it. Alana's party room was like a night club with a bandstand and live band on it, and tables for four spread around. Carrie and I sat with Teri Garr, who we already knew, and Neil Simon joined us. I ate like a starving poet and probably talked too much, Carrie and Teri were very funny, as always, and Simon was sweet and seemed truly delighted with our company.

When no one would dance to the live music—because as Carrie pointed out when I asked, stars didn't want to not look less than perfect—and the food was gone, I suggested we move on to a party I knew of in an old house in "the flats" (Beverly Hills at the bottom of the hills) where a lot of "young Hollywood" would be, including friends of mine, even though I was in my forties by then.

At that party there was one room devoted entirely to dancing but so packed the dancing was minimalist. Simon did his best to be a part of it even though he seemed out of place and the oldest there, but still very attentive to the ladies in a gentlemanly way. During a break in the music, a young kid, in his late teens or early twenties, managed to get next to Simon to declare that he was a playwright too, and Simon did something I've only seen a few stars I've been around do, he talked to this young playwright like they were equals.

He asked him about his work and engaged him in a conversation about writing choices and humor and so on like they were old colleagues. There were other things that occurred that evening, but the Neil Simon part was in many ways the most memorable for me. I love it when someone whose work you admire turns out to be decent and kind-hearted.