I couldn’t contain my drool when Wire Magazine owner, Carl Zablotney, took me to lunch and told me about the interview he had with Eartha Kitt today. It is SO like him to invite someone like me and crow about something like that. I hate him.

Well, I love him too, because without him I would have missed so many crazy things here on South Beach.

Eartha will forever be in my glory book for telling Lady Bird Johnson (current majority stock holder of Haliburton) that there was a reason why Americans were angry and it was because they didn’t want to send their children off to a nonsensical war. That made Lady Bird cry in public and Eartha was banished to Europe and continually harassed by the CIA. (WOW, just when you thought it couldn’t happen again.)

Miss Kitt had already conquered a life of abuse and torment and wasn’t about to let the White House tell her what to do. She—in true Josephine Baker style—made Paris her adoring home and in the late seventies returned to the States and Jimmy Carter publicly announced, “Welcome home”. Talent always thrives over politics, and Paris always thrives over Washington.

She told Carl that the one, major thing that kept her sane in the banished 70’s was the gay crowd, its embrace of her music and style, and its continued loyalty. (Who wouldn’t like a gal who taught so many of us to purr as the original Cat Woman on Batman?) She told him our money kept her afloat and our adoration gave her spirit.

Back in the late sixties, Newsweek quoted Eartha Kitt about the Lady Bird run-in. “I think we have missed the main point at this luncheon. We have forgotten the main reason…No wonder the kids rebel and take pot.

Carl—my BEST friend—is taking me to see La Diva on Saturday. It’s another time and there’s another war to send kids off to. Thank God Miss Kitt is still around