Dinner with Bruce Vilanch

Recently, when I was in Los Angeles, one of my hosts invited Bruce Vilanch to dinner.  Bruce is the very entertaining, larger-than-life writer of the Academy Awards, as well as of one of my favorite sitcoms, GIMME A BREAK, among many many other things.  As a fellow writer, I wanted to know everything about his experience...did he always want to be a writer and how did he get into writing?  Turns out, he wanted to be an actor, but was offered his first writing job by Bette Midler (if I remember correctly), and the rest, as they say, is history.  I found Bruce to be quite witty.  When one of my hosts asked, "Shall we say grace?", Bruce yelled out, "Grace!"  He also lamented about how "the non-paying writing jobs kept rolling in".  When someone else asked, "Can't you take it in the back end?", Bruce said, "Excuse me?!"  Other funny stories told were how the Academy Awards gift baskets were taken away, thanks to George Clooney, and now, all they get is a crystal art piece that isn't even made by anyone famous.  He also told us how he gave away some t-shirts and one ended up on a starving child who was standing next to Sally Struthers on TV.  There were other pieces of interesting Hollywood gossip, but it wouldn't be prudent to publish them here.  I was sad when dinner came to an end, but what an interesting night it was!