Hello Doll!
Long ago and far away, as I was getting ready to leave the Gerald Ford White House speechwriting staff with the ultimate goal of Hollywood, one of my best friends, a simply brilliant writer named John R. Coyne, Jr., asked me why I wanted to go to a place as famed for chicanery and double dealing as the back streets of Casablanca.
I have found my starlet. I have to keep my eyes on her because she will soon be an actual “star.”
“I want to meet the stars of tomorrow before they are on the covers of music discs,” I said.
“In other words, he wants to meet starlets,” interpreted John.
I came to Hollywood on June 30, 1976. I was treated like a prince by Al Burton, Norman Lear’s head of production, from the first second I got off the Pan Am flight. Al had arranged for four stunning young girls in shorts and T-shirts marked, “I’m Benjy’s,” to meet me in my immense Cadillac limousine.
They were great girls and it was a great experience, but the girls (young women, really) were not stars or starlets. They were just great girls.
It took until now, Spring 2024, for me to meet a superstarlet. It was in the corridor leading from the valet parking station at my hangout, the Beverly Hills Hotel, after a lunch. A staggeringly blonde young woman in a jewelry shoppe smiled at me. I don’t think she knew “who I am,” so to speak. But I knew who she was: a superstar in the making.
I struck up a conversation with her. My being in a wheelchair from botched surgery on my knees always helps the conversation. The young woman, a breathtakingly beautiful 25-year-old named “Doll,” was and is a singer/songwriter/musician and told me she was about to release her first full-scale “album.” Its name was to be — and is — simply “Doll.”
She e-mailed it to me and I played it on my headphones. I WAS BOWLED OVER. She has a deep, powerful voice that reminded me of a female Nat “King” Cole. Her songs, all written by her, were about the pain and the anguish of love in the back alleys of Hollywood.
I know Hollywood. I know love. I know heartache. These were genuine. These had blood, toil, tears, and sweat all over them. I was in shock.
This young woman is also blindingly beautiful, with long blond hair and a perfect figure.
I have found my starlet. I have to keep my eyes on her because she will soon be an actual “star.”
Dear Faithful Reader: I don’t think I have ever made a find like “Doll.” Go for it. NOW!!!
The last person I saw at a microphone was Jimmy Kimmel. He was a radio star and I had not ever heard of any of the artists he played. He immediately became a TV star by being my co-host on “Win Ben Stein’s Money,” one of the first “big” hits on Comedy Central. He’s still a star and a dear friend. Look for “Doll.” She’s got it.
READ MORE from Ben Stein:
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