Ali MacGraw Spills Close Call With Bill Cosby, While In Detroit With Ryan O'Neal Promoting 'Love Letters'
By Sandra McNeill
During a stop in Detroit this week with the play "Love Letters," actress Ali MacGraw spilled the beans on her "close call" with accused rapist Bill Cosby.
The revelation started with a joke by her co-star Ryan O'Neal. O'Neal reminisced about a boxer from Detroit he once managed called Hedgemon Lewis. His co-managers were Bill Cosby and the late singer Robert Goulet.
"I always tell this story of having dinner with Bill Cosby one night, and I didn't remember anything for two days," O'Neal said, joking about Cosby, who has been accused of drugging more than 40 women and attacking them while unconscious.
MacGraw, one of the most celebrated beauties of the 1970s, said she had a Bill Cosby story of her own.
"He asked me if I would like to come and see the palm tree that a fan had given him...We were both on some sort of tour...He said 'Come to my hotel room, I have a palm tree a fan had given me.' "
"Usually works!" O'Neal chimed in.
"Well, not if you're talking about a 10 foot tree!" said MacGraw. "My God, I think about it."
The chemistry is still strong between these two stars of the enduring 1970 hit movie "Love Story." It's one of the reasons for their smash reviews in the play, which tells the 50-year story, through their letters, of the relationship between a man and woman who met in grade school.
"Chemistry is tricky," O'Neal said. "You don't want to talk about it. It might disappear...Ours...it's in the air."
If you wonder why they've never gotten together in real life, O'Neal joked "Who says we haven't acted on it?!"
O'Neal turns 75 next week. McGraw is 77. Despite their ages, they both are enjoying life on the road, where McGraw said she gets to explore new places and new things. She had given up on getting any more acting work when the call came.
When asked if O'Neal, who has a well-publicized and troubled family history, would like his children to see the play, O'Neal said Patrick O'Neal already had and was very complimentary. "The rest are all in prison," he joked. "So it's hard to get a read on them."
Actually, Redmond is the remaining O'Neal offspring who is behind bars. The son of O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett is serving time on a drug-related probation violation. O'Neal said he would getting out "very soon."
O'Neal said he had just posted a letter to Redmond. "A love letter. And mailed it from the hotel today. So those are my love letters to my children."