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A match made in heaven: today's birthday girl, the splendiferous Jo Anne Worley, and the color red!

Jo Anne

Just thinking about her makes everything seem all right.

Decisions, Decisions

Have you decided on your costume yet? Why not confuse your friends by going as green Joanne Worley, still-fat Star Jones, and old Mickey Rooney? Bonus points to the best single-costume mash-up of the three!

(Belated) Birthday Girl: Mystery Revealed

Yes, it's true! The elegant and refined young lady whose picture we posted to tease with you a couple of days ago is none other than that hoyden of '60s TV turned theatrical staple, Miss Jo Anne Worley. She had a birthday this past Sunday, which is of little matter to one so ageless, but even so worthy of celebration.

As for the guesses - well, she really did change a great deal between high school and Laugh In, so no one can be blamed for not seeing the latent crazy in her debutante eyes. My favorite stabs at it were Matt Damon (and there really is a resemblance), courtesy of dear Bill, and Kevin's contribution, Big Edie. Raquel Welch was not at all a bad guess, nor Janis Joplin. I do think that Bette Midler, while a gallant attempt, would have meant that the girl in question would have been among the very few subjects in the early '60s to have undergone nasal enlargement.

Still, even though really she came no closer than any of the rest of you, I'm going to go ahead and declare Café newcomer Clare the winner, if only because she said such nice things and I am, as is well known, Greedy for Praise.

In any case, thanks to all for chiming in, and better luck next time!

Adam 12, Adam 12

I can't imagine what kind of pickle dear Miss JoAnne Worley has gotten herself into, but I'm sure the stalwart boys in blue of Adam 12 will get her out of it. Before they get each other out of those uniforms, that is...

Birthday Trifecta: Funny Ladies

Today, three women born under a giggling star:

Jane Curtin was Saturday Night Live's first all-purpose woman, more nuanced than Gilda Radner and, unlike Laraine Newman, actually funny. She's always struck me as a lost outpost of classic film comedy - the straight woman who ends up upstaging the more flamboyant, slapstick comics with her deadpan slow burns, exasperated glances, and cutting last words. Happy Birthday, you ignorant slut.

Speaking of flamboyant splapsticks, many happy returns to the divinely over-the-top Jo Anne Worley, television's first female drag queen, the woman who dragged the feather boa kicking and screaming into the sixties. She's still trooping, adapting her trademark laugh and triple- and quadruple-takes to big lady roles in The Drowsy Chaperone and Wicked, the kind of warmly familiar name who sells tickets in replacement casts and on the road.

Finally, a true stage lady who has a warm place in my heart for her work in three of my favorite films: True Stories, Dangerous Liaisons, and The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom. Curtin is a comic Leading Lady, a terrific foil, and Worley an all-out Zany; Kurtz is an Actress Who Can Do Funny, at home in Molière and O'Neill but game for everything from romping with Carol Burnett to high-concept New Television like her current Pushing Daisies (which has yet to show up in these parts but sounds deeply odd).

I'd like to think they are all Christmas-season babies, born of a glass too much Champagne and some mistletoe, coming into the world, as the summer fades away, with the kind of Little Something Extra that inclines us to laugh.