Going Hollywood

Just because we've lost Robert Osborne, who sailed off to Fabulon yesterday, and because the bedraggled old world is weighing me down, I think we need a good, heady shot of adrenaline, courtesy of the YouTube genius saraismyname.

If this doesn't, for at least a few moments, raise your spirits, I don't think we have as much in common as I hoped we did.

We haven't had cable for the last year or more, and I know he'd more or less retired, but the death of Robert Osborne still leaves a void. He was a last bastion of old-style élan, a rare mix of intelligence and charm, not to mention a killer smile. I've decided that he started off, there on the other side, with a thank-you lunch at Chasen's hosted by Kay Francis, and featuring Ann Dvorak, Constance Bennett, Joan Blondell, Ann Sothern, Eleanor Powell, and other ladies whose careers he did so much to resurrect. His old pal Lucille Ball is throwing a gala cocktail evening, and as the party winds down, he'll steal out into the Fabulonian night for a good catch up with Mary Astor - she always knows the best dirt and tells it better than anyone.