Rosemary Clooney (story)

God, I've enjoyed myself this evening and I've enjoyed being with you and you seem to be having a good time too, so maybe we should all go outside for a cigarette [audience laughs].
One of the great rebels, and for a while a rebel without a cause, was the late Rosemary Clooney. In her later years I was privileged to know her. She had lived a life with all kinds of textures; she had written a book about her struggle with alcohol and depression. But it seemed that she had conquered the Hollywood star system and no one pushed Rosemary Clooney around. All the runaway celebrity kids in Hollywood could always be found at the Clooney house and the Pool house so, even with the troubles that she had she had enough energy to look after other people. And I'm one of the people that she blessed. She came to see me at Rainbow and Stars one time in New York and she gave me a great big hug, and she was a generously proportioned woman, and she gave me a full 360 degree hug, and it was a hug that was meant to last me for the rest of and I think it really did. And put a little secret in my ear, which was a habit of hers, and I still keep that secret. She sang this song in a special episode of E.R. where she played an Alzheimer's patient, and the only thing she could remember was this song, which is called Time Flies, and she was absolutely lucid when she came to singing this song and everything else had gone. And she was nominated for an Emmy award, which I really feel she should have won. But anyway, this is for Rosie, and for those great big hugs, and for those extra love that she had in spite of her own troubles.