When you do something truly crazy, like marry a total stranger 21 hours after you meet him, people tend to look at you differently. It’s easy to misinterpret the stunned silence as approval [or possibly envy] and to mistake the wide-eyed smiles for admiration instead of diplomacy. But who knows, maybe my co-workers really did [...]

So we got married. In Las Vegas City Hall or the Clark County Courthouse — I don’t remember which — we got married. During the ceremony I began to cry, but I said “Yes” at the right place and the justice of the peace pronounced us man and wife. Afterward, Christos was very concerned. “What’s [...]

My new fiance wanted to drive to Las Vegas and get married right away. “Tonight?!” I was taken aback. “I can’t! I have another job and I have to be there in–” I looked at my watch. “–an hour.” “What time you finish?” he asked. “Twelve o’clock.” “Okay,” he said. “I come for you then.” [...]

In the fall of 1975, I moved to Los Angeles full of movie star dreams. After several months, I realized to my chagrin that I hadn’t had the courage to go to even one audition. Just living in that place oozing with desperate ambition made me depressed. So I slunk away to lick my wounds [...]

In one terrible year of my life, it seemed that the universe wanted me to have time alone to contemplate my sins. In January, my stepfather died of a heart attack just a few weeks after my 6-year-old son Chris and I had arrived in San Diego, at my parents’ invitation, so I could make [...]