Lorna talks about her mother, Judy Garland, her sister Liza Minelli, Howard Stern, Judy Collins and more...
DM) I know I'm not going to ask you how it is to be the famous
daughter of...
LL) Thank god.
DM) Everything I read about you starts off with, "The
typical question asked of Lorna Luft is..."
LL) Exactly, what's the point? It's a dumb question. Because
I have nothing to compare it to.
DM) The articles all seem to begin with the "famous daughter
of the famous singer, Judy Garland" seems to pull away from
the fact like you talked about in the book, it's your mother.
Your mother, your sister and your family...
LL) It wasn't like my mom was just a regular person on the
street... she was a legendary performer and MGM icon. And
all of that way before I was born. By the time I was born, she
had a brand new career on stage. That was never even an issue
of her not being who she was. Do you know what I'm saying? It
wasn't like when I was born she was retiring.
DM) She was your mother period. You lost your mother. Tough
enough in itself.
LL) Thank you! Exactly!
DM) You go into that a lot in your book.
LL) Yeah, it's hard....
DM) Do you think most people when they look at you, do they
realize it's your mother as much as the famous singer?
LL) No I think they realize that first. I think they realize
that's who it is first, and then they go, "Oh my god, that's
your mom too." It's bizarre because the legend was so much
bigger than the person and that was a big thing that she dealt
with in her life. And it was always there and it never was going
to go away. But it's also the thing that destroyed her but it
was also the thing that made her very, very happy. It was sort
of a double-edged sword. People remember her as Dorothy and then
they see, "Oh yes, she was a parent, she was a wife..."
That was always sort of secondary to people and it still is,
because of the persona. Same thing with Sinatra, same thing with
people on that level of legendary fame.
DM) You're pursuing the same career too. Are you ever worried
about going down that path?
LL) No, I've always wanted to do this. I just to do this,
nobody's forcing me. And I like doing what I do. I love singing
and I know the down sides and I know the upsides. I'm a parent
and I have two children. So, I've been doing this for a long
time it's not like I just woke up yesterday and decided I guess
I'd leave wall street and do a show.
DM) How do you protect your kids from the stuff you've gone
through?
LL) Well, I'm a different parent. But my kids have a lot more
scary things then I do. I had to go through a childhood that
incredible highs and then mellowed out and then went into a landslide
and there was nothing any of us could do about it. My children
have to deal with all sorts of scary things out there that I
never thought we'd deal with because we didn't have computers,
we didn't have the internet, we didn't have the kind of outside
influences that you have to be really, really careful with. It's
just different. When my son looks at me and says to me, "Did
anybody ever get shot in your school?" He's fifteen and
I can't say "that's not going to happen," I have to
say, "That is a possibly and it's not in your school, it's
on the street, it is in a grocery store it's in a bank, it's
in a supermarket, it's anywhere." And we have to now take
that into our everyday life. And that's really scary thing for
a fifteen year old and it's happening more and more... what
about AIDS, what about all the things that kids have to deal
with now? So how do you protect them? You protect them because
you become educated, and you're honest with them and you keep
that line of communication open with them, and know that they
can come talk to you. That you are first their parent and then
their friend. You are not their friend first. They have friends.
"I'm not going to hang out at the mall"; I said that
to my son. But I'm your parent first because I'm there to help
you, to guide you, to show you right from wrong, and that's my
job to be there for your come hell or high water. All I can do
is the best I can, and it's your responsibility and I've always
told both of my children that. And if you do something you've
got to think about what the reactions going to be. And I don't
think enough parents tell their children that. I think they just
tell them right from wrong but they don't tell them what the
reaction's going to be if they choose to do something that could
be harmful or could be hurtful to another person.
DM) But do the shows pull you away from your family a lot?
LL) Not a great deal. For the tour I'll go out for four nights
and come home. And I'll go out for five nights and come home.
It's not like when I did Guys and Dolls and I was away for almost
two years. And that was really awful. My son, said mom, "Please
don't ever do that again." And I promised him I wouldn't.
I wouldn't do that again. I'm fortunate enough that I can do
concert work and that's really terrific. Ultimately I'd love
to be on a series in Los Angeles and stay home...
DM) Have you explored that option since Trapper John?
LL) I'd love to do that again, yeah, me and about 80 billion
other actors in Hollywood would like to be on a series. Saying
you'd like to be on a series is like saying I think I'd like
to go to the moon because there's about as much chance as you're
going to have because of what the network's doing and what they're
feeding into. For instance with this pilot season, my agent called
me up and said I could have gotten your son a series. Because
every was 15 years old down the line. That's it. Your son I could
have gotten a show. All they wanted were 15 year olds this year.
And I said "Oh, okay".
DM) You could have played your son's mother!
LL) No. I could have played maybe his grandmother. That's
how young they're going with their mother. So these mothers are
all now in their early thirties with their 14-year-old children...
we don't know how they got them! And because of shows like, "Jessie"
with Christine Applegate, which I think, is a cute show. All
of a sudden all of the network said, "That's what we want.
We want thirty year old mothers with 14 year old kids."
When did they have these children? How old were they? This pilot
season was a bust for anyone over the age of thirty-five.
DM) Are you still hoping?
LL) Sure. They're going to announce the new season, but I'm
lucky enough to go out and do this concert work and not have
to rely on the networks.
DM) What's this show going to be like?
LL) This show I'm really excited about. I've wanted to do
this show for about a year now. And I wanted to basically pay
tribute to her music because that hasn't really been properly.
There's been the tribute shows where they get every Tom, Dick
and Harry to get up and sing her songs. And it's interesting
and it's nice as a tribute but it's not the way I'd like to see
this. They didn't know her but it's not the way I'd like to see
this. They didn't know her. All they're doing is singing her
song. This show that I put together is a show that gives people
into what my house was like. Into my living room. Into all of
these songs that she taught me and why she taught me and when
she taught me. And when I do sing with her on the screen, people
fall apart. And it's a way of saying thank you, to her for not
only leaving this legacy of music to me, but to all of us. And
just go on, because that what I want to do is education. You
know there's two generations of people out there who only know
her as Dorothy. And they don't know her as the great live artist
that she was and I wanted to make sure that people hear and see
and they know.
DM) You've never recorded an album, why not?
LL) Nope, nobody's ever come to me. Isn't that extraordinary?
I find it to be the weirdest thing in the world. My gardener
has a CD out. The pool man in LA has a CD out. But the problem
is that I refuse to do a CD and not have the proper backing.
I've been with Epic record and all sorts of record labels, and
I find the recording industry to be so difficult and is hard
because you're going up against the big guys. I'm not going to
go against Mariah and Whitney and Madonna and them in the pop
field. But then easy listening... you have to have a company
that's going to push that CD. I don't want to go into the studio
and put my heart and soul into an album and have it not be found.
Do you know how many people do CDs that aren't found? And I've
been down that road. And I think with this show, I think that
this will be the proper way to do an album with the hook that
record companies can see it. You have to show them today because
they don't have any imagination. I love Clive Davis from Arista
Records and he has insight... and I wish more companies were
like Clive to break in artists and all that. It's a different
world out there, so that's one of the reasons I haven't had a
record out.
DM) You have a pretty big fan base though... wouldn't they
all flock and buy it?
LL) Oh, yeah, oh they will. That's not going to sell a lot
of albums. What you have to do is make sure you get with a company
that has distribution If you don't have distribution you're in
deep s&*%. You really are. It's ridiculous. Why don you want
to do that. Spend the time, to go into a studio and sing your
heart out... and you can't find it. I'd rather wait and have
the record come out with a great distributor. Then it's a hit,
and then it's in the hand of the almighty, the almighty record
people. I don't want to spin my wheels.
DM) Outside of the concerts and being a mother, are you doing
anything else?
LL) I'm the executive producer of this mini-series of my book.
That will start production in the end of August.
DM) How's that going?
LL) Great. We just hired Judy Davis to playa my mom.
DM) That must have been tough to cast your mom.
LL) Yeah, but that's who we wanted. We wanted her the whole
time. I don't think of another actor that could play her with
that much depth and that much vulnerability. Judy Davis is just
amazing. So we're doing that. That's my summer project.
DM) You're summer homework!
LL) Yep, my summer homework to executive produce this mini
series for ABC.
DM) When will it be on the screen.
LL) February.
DM) How many hours is the show?
LL) One night, three hours. Because when you go into the four
hours, especially today, they can't guarantee you a back to back
and that scares me. Meaning, They can't guarantee me a Sunday
and a Monday. If you notice all of the mini-series are a Sunday
and a Tuesday. Because they're not going to interrupt their Monday
night schedules and that frightens me because I want this to
be so special. I want this to be an event and they did too. They
said let's do one 8-11 prime time big feature like a movie. And
I rather that then two nights. You've got a better chance of
everybody sitting down and watching it for one night then you
do in two nights with four hours.
DM) Can you fit the book into three hours?
LL) We're going to try really hard.
DM) It's a big book. A lot you got here.
LL) I know. I know, and we got some great screenwriters. And
with voiceovers because I'm going to be telling the story. It's
my voice.
DM) Even though this is a pretty book, how did you choose
what to put in there. I'm sure you must have a lot more that
you wanted to put in there.
LL) I did and I didn't. I put in what I remember. I put in
what happened. A lot got edited, and that's what happened. I
had a great editor and Simon and Shuster. And we always agree
on things. That's how you learn to do that. The book was 9 billion
pages long on the first draft.
DM) For some people writing can be therapeutic in a way. The
more you write out an issue the more it might help people get
through things. Did writing the book help you get through these
issues?
LL) Not really because I dealt with it for so long and I talked
about it for so long and I had gone over it for so long so it
wasn't really therapeutic. I did it more for finally. Not even
for closure, when people ask me questions I can give them the
book and say, "Read it. Here's what happened." So that
eventually my children will read it and understand. Because there's
been thirty books written about my family and none of those authors
were in my house. There's another one coming out next year about
my mom.
DM) And none of them ever entered your house?
LL) No, they just write these books.
DM) You must be infuriated.
LL) You learn to deal with it. There ain't nothing you can
do about it. You can get angry, you can look at them or you can
choose to read them or not. There have been all of these books.
And there continues to be. A guy in England just wrote a book
he quoted other people with all of these wrong facts. Nobody
checks. Because after you pass away... if you're in the public
eye, whether you're dead or alive they can do this stuff. You
can sue when you're alive but not when you're gone and neither
can your heirs.
DM) Have your children seen the show and what do they think?
LL) When I did the run through of the show the other day,
he called me the next day and said, "Mom your show was really
great."
DM) Does he realize who you and his grandmother are?
LL) No!
DM) He just thinks he has this regular mom who sings...
LL) Yeah. Exactly. I get up at 6:00 a.m. in the morning every
day in LA and then I take them to school and then I go to the
gym. And I'm in the market. I try to be a regular, normal mom.
My eight year old little girl... she and I, we're always in
the car going to school and trying not to go to McDonald's...
they beg me, please, pleases please... and I cook dinner every
night for my husband.
DM) Do they ever see extreme fan's reactions to you when you're
driving around?
LL) No, because I live in LA and you see everybody in the
market.
DM) You see other celebrities in the market shopping?
LL) I've seen everybody in the market because they all go
to the market. I've seen everybody from Timothy Dalton to Joan
Collins to everybody in the market. I've seen them all.
DM) I always thought they'd send their made or what not...
LL) No! You see them. There's one market in West Hollywood
where we all wind up. People ask where do you see celebrities
in Hollywood and I say the car wash or the market. It's a celebrity
market. Joan Collins once said you have to put on mascara to
go to that market.
DM) You have to look perfect to buy your vegetables!
LL) Yeah, but I never have any make up on. I'm always stuck
a the gym and all that. Always when I run into somebody I haven't
seen in a long time and I thought maybe I should look a little
bit better but...
DM) Well I know you have to go so I wanted to say, "Thank
you very much"
LL) No, it was great.
