During this tumultuous life of mine my path has crossed here and there, now and then, with famous people. Here are a few of their secrets:

1) Luciano Pavarotti - I sang with him in Lucia di Lamermoor, when I was in the chorus of The Miami Opera Guild, and he was making his American debut with Dame Joan Sutherland. After hearing her sing, I decided I would never make it as a coloratura soprano. I would leave the high Cs and Es to her; mine were too tinny. After the opera, we all ended up at a doctor's house in Coconut Grove, where I learned to make real Italian spaghetti sauce from Luciano. He dominated the kitchen and told everybody he would make them a delicious supper. He told my then boyfriend, an Italian psychiatrist, "I promise not to practice psychiatry, if you promise not to sing!"

2) Anthony Quinn - When he was in Miami making a film, he needed somebody who spoke fluent Spanish to type his mother's Mexican memoirs. She would send the tapes and it was my job to translate them and type them in English to send to his publisher in New York which became: The Original Sin. He would come into the office, drink a cup of coffee, light up a cigarette and talk to me about Martin Fierro, the famous Argentine gaucho.

3) Anita Bryant - the pop singer and ex-beauty queen, needed someone to type her memoirs of the Bob Hope Viet Nam tours. She had exceptionally beautiful skin, a lovely figure, a sweet disposition, but she couldn't spell. When she got hit in the face with a pie for her outspoken opinion about gays teaching her children in school, I decided never to say anything negative about gays, unless I wanted to gain weight. I can't remember if it was a key lime pie, or lemon chiffon, but I do remember it was sticky and full of calories.

4) Clint Eastwood - I met him in Rome when we both worked for West Film. He was performing in spaghetti westerns and I was writing the contracts for world distribution. He would come in to the office to pick up his pay check in dusty blue jeans. I wouldn't give him a second look because I was dating an Italian count and wanted to learn to speak Italian. When my boss, a crazy Genovese, asked me how Americans would like the title: Per 100,000 Dolari Ti Amazzo; I said: For One Hundred Thousand Dollars, I'll Kill You; and my career in show biz was born.

5) Robert Stack - (Elliot Ness) I also met him in Rome while working for West Film. At a press conference I blurted out, "you are my mother's favorite actor," and he retorted, "just as long as you don't say your grandmothers!" We had a good laugh over that. He was so charming.

6) - Mike Nichols - who directed me (as an extra) in The Birdcage; that's as close to Hollywood as I came. We were filming in South Beach, here in Florida, on a terribly hot day. I was working with Nathan Lane in the straw market scene, I could hardly keep a straight face when he walked by in that floppy hat, and I blurted out to Mike, "I want to go to Hollywood;" he responded without giving it a second thought, "take Continental Airlines!" So much for my movie career.

7) Dick Anderson (No. 40 Defense with the Miami Dolphins) We were in the Miami Ski Club together. Imagine a snow ski club in Florida. We really had to have an excuse for all the partying. He was a celebrity and I was the Hospitality Director for the club, we were doing a publicity shot and I was ice skating in a bikini (the crazy things I've done! I'm more settled these days, as a writer) and he kept telling me to raise my arms to balance myself. He ended up on the ice without skates and I was covered in bruises.

8) Kathy Crosby - (Remember Bing's wife) I met her once in the Ladies' Room in the Los Angeles Airport. She was wearing a red golf jacket and looked very thin. Do these actresses ever eat?

9) Cary Grant - Now there was a charmer! I bumped into him on the escalator in the airport at Washington-Dulles. He was so handsome even in his later years. He smiled at me and my husband had to hold on to my belt because he knew I was going to talk to him.

10) Vic Damone - I was always sitting next to him in first class in Continental Airlines, when he was traveling to Miami, and we would start up a conversation. He too, was such a charmer.

11) Then there was Bryant Gumbel, chewing and popping bubble gum in my ear sitting next to me on the plane. I asked him if he wanted some attention and we chatted all the way to Houston. I gave him a copy of my novel, Foreign Affairs; then, I received an invitation to be a guest writer on a cruise that the Today Show was doing in the Caribbean.

Alinka Zyrmont