Whose interview is this? 
Liz suggested we meet for margaritas at El Rio Grande, a Mexican restaurant in Murray Hill, which as it turns out, is where we both live.  We had a margarita and Liz had tea, but only she said because she was heading to a business dinner.  To be honest, we had the margarita to calm our nerves.  Okay to be perfectly honest, we like them too.  Well Liz immediately put us at ease, because she is down to earth, warm, and seemed genuinely interested in us and for every question we asked her, she asked us three.  Which made us realize when we left, what lousy interviewers we are, and why she's the supreme celebrity journalist of all time!
 
Despite the fact that she kept apologizing that she wasn't all done up, she looked great and was wearing a to-die-for taupe metallic jacket.  (No we didn't ask her where she got it.)  And she looked great as our photo together attests.  You see it was one of those rare days when she wasn't appearing on TV (she's a regular on Fox), or going to a charity event (she's involved in several), or a star-studded whatever, and could just be her casual self.  And though she lives a glamorous life, her favorite kind of evening is climbing into bed at 6:30 at night with a sandwich, reading the newspapers, and watching TV.
 
We will not mention her age, not that she would care, but because unlike the New York Times, and New York Magazine (which recently profiled her), we just don't think it matters nor does it need to be in print.  (We have lied to the New York Times about our age.)   However, Liz has no qualms about that and displays her year of birth on her wowOwow blog (more about that in a minute too) and starts off her autobiography, Natural Blonde (which we loved) with her memories in 1928 at the age of five. You do the math.
 
She has never been sick a day in life except for the occasional cold and a bout of the flu, and she said her doctor just shoos her out of the office because she's so darn healthy.  And no, we didn't ask for her longevity secrets either, although we suspect it has a lot to do with the fact that she still writes her daily syndicated column that appears in over 70 newspapers, is a regular on Fox TV, and is one of the founders of wowOwow, a web site launched earlier this year with a few of her friends, like Whoppie Goldberg, Candice Bergen, Leslie Stahl, and Lilly Tomlin, to name just a few of the web site's celebrity bloggers who write about politics, culture, entertainment and other topics of interest for smart, savvy tomatoes like us.   Oh, and she usually drinks those margaritas, has a wicked sense of humor, and doesn't seem to take herself too seriously.
 
We did discuss that recent New York Magazine profile, and for the record, Liz says she does not have lunch at Michael's everyday.  It was the reporter who suggested they meet there.  (Michael's for those of you who may actually care, is where the media moguls hang out.)  And she thought it was just plain mean that he said El Rio Grande is a lousy Mexican joint.  For the record, it has good margaritas and decent Mexican food and its outdoor terraces have made it an extremely popular spot for the young crowd on warm Thursday nights.
 
So in between Liz asking us about us, and our forgetting everything we meant to ask her, we did manage to elict her three favorite all time celebrities, who are:  Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton (whom she considers as one entity), Ann Richards the former Governor of Texas (which is where Liz hails from and still has her drawl), and Katherine Hepburn, who she got to know the last five years of her life and did her last interview too.  And today's celebrities?   She really likes Madonna, and Rene Zellweger,who she said is really polite and recently moved to NYC.   She mentioned a couple of others too, but we lost our meager notes.  (See what we mean about that lousy interviewer thing?)  We did ask how the gossip business has changed and Liz says, these days it's impossible to get real scoops and she sees herself now as an historian/philosopher.
 
Liz moved to NYC in 1949 as a young reporter, so we talked about all the things we both love about New York City.  And her very favorite thing (we did ask that) is the New York theater.  As Liz said, it just doesn't exist like it does here, anywhere else, not even in the West End of London.  
 
So by the time we finished our margarita (and she her tea), The Three Tomatoes had a new friend, and now we get to share her with all of you tomatoes because she will be contributing her wowOwow blogs to us on a regular basis.  Make sure to read her blog this week on John McCain's age.  Oh, and read her review at our book club, for our next book selection, Read My Heart. 

At the Movies - The Changeling
Is a 'must see' for tomatoes, but it's not for the weak at heart.  Great acting (although a a bit long), but it is difficult to watch due to the subject matter.  This Clint Eastwood epic that highlights Angelina Jolie's (Christine Collins) graceful, strong and memorable performance as a single mother who finds her 10 year-old son (Walter Collins) missing after she comes home late from working overtime one evening.  Jolie's performance is accented by the intense John Malkovich (Rev. Gustav Briegleb) in the role of a crusading radio evangelist advocating on behalf of Christine Collins. There are many twists and turns in the story that keep the viewer on the edge from the beginning to end.  This is a disturbing film for anybody who is a parent.  Although the film is set in the 1920s Los Angeles, the politics and cover-ups of LAPD could easily be transferable to any time period in history.
 
From NYC to Indiana, the winners are ... 
Last week was tomato appreciation week and we sent off books and CDs to Donna DeSimone, Yonkers, NY , Karen Solorow, New York City, Ann Stewart, Glen Head, NY, Vera Vickrey, Sullivan, Indiana, Meryl Steinberg, New York City, Molly Tomaszewski, Toeldo, Ohio, and Liz Vignali, Glen Cove, NY.  Just goes to show, tomatoes are everywhere.
 
Here's to margaritas and gossip, and to never being too old!

'til next week,