Lee Majors’ Wild Weekend Fling In Vegas! Farrah Fawcett Furious!
The constant jingle-jangle of the slot machines were accented only by the occasional whoop of a jackpot delight and the groan of despair. However nothing seemed to stop those who were feeding the machines coin after coin; they seemed to be in a zombie state, only concerned with picking up the next coin and inserting it in its home. It didn’t matter that disco music was reverberating off the walls, that revelers were dancing up a storm all around the gamblers—nothing seemed to faze them until a happy little party entered, obviously intent on having a good time dancing and drinking.
It would take an earthquake to disturb the dedicated Vegas gambler—and obviously Lee Majors is the six-million-dollar variety for there wasn’t a disinterested observer in Tiffany’s, the posh disco, one night late this winter. It wasn’t so much that Lee was an A-number-one celebrity type, but that he was dancing to the music, without his better half, Farrah Fawcett! And to add insult to injury, he and his male companion were tripping the light fantastic with what one reporter described as two “luscious lovelies”—young ladies the men had obviously just met! By the end of the evening, the enterprising reporter claims the foursome’s booze bill totalled a whopping $58—and that’s not counting the side trips for a fling or two with the slot machines.
Needless to say, when the reports of Lee’s wild Vegas weekend of loosin’, boozin’ and broads filtered back Hollywood-way, wife Farrah was none too pleased—not so much because Lee had taken a little solo side trip, but because the publicity which resulted was so tacky! You see, both Lee and Farrah have made headlines lately with their decisions to leave their respective TV series, and they have set the gossip mills working overtime with their personal escapades as well!
Lee claims that he’s had it with the Six Million Dollar Man and is determined to get on with his career. Says the rugged he-man actor: “I’m tired of it and have many offers to do films. They [Universal] never offered me a chance to do any of their movies in the seven years I’ve worked for them. I think they’ve treated me rotten. They’ve ignored me completely. I was never even given the chance to turn down a minor role in a picture. It’s as though I never existed.
“I don’t scream or pitch tantrums like Other actors I could name on the Universal lot. . . . I’m not that kind of actor. I have fulfilled my obligation to Universal in every way. I’ve done everything they wanted to do. Now I’m through. My seven-year contract with Universal expires in March. It’s true the have an additional one-year option on my services, but they can’t do anything about it. There’s a California law that says you can’t keep a person under contract for more than seven years. It has been tested in the courts many times. My lawyer tells me that Universal can’t stop me from leaving.”
As for Farrah, well, the seven-year clause doesn’t apply since she’s only been on Charlie’s Angels one year. Some felt she’s been making quitting noises merely to get a boost in salary—from $5,000 to $75,000 per episode—but her personal manager, Jay Bernstein, claims that’s not the case. “She has not asked for anything,” he maintains. “She is asking to leave. And she feels that she does have legal grounds to leave or it would not be honorable. . . . If they offered her one million dollars an episode, she wouldn’t return to her series. It’s not a ploy for more money. That has nothing to do with it. She just wants to make movies.”
Ostensibly, both Lee and Farrah have decided that their careers would be better off up on the silver screen rather than on television, and in hopes of promoting such a change, they have formed a production company of their own. Their First project is expected to be the greening of paperback writer Rosemary Rogers’ Sweet Savage Love into an epic film, a la Gone With The Wind. Needless to say, the two starring roles would suit Majors and Fawcett just fine—and according to money men out Hollywood way, it’s bound to be a box-office hit with a promising package like that!
Farrah claims she couldn’t be happier with the prospect of such a coup and laughingly scoffs at all the hubbub their career changes are creating. “If I’m an actress, I’m an actress,” she says. “If not, then I’m not. . . . I never felt I needed to be a star. I always got along in life just fine, which I think has been to my advantage. Because now that it all seems to be happening, I think I might be better equipped to cope with it.”
Of course, coping with adulation as one of TV’s top stars is one thing; living with your name in the gossip columns every day is another. Yet Farrah and Lee seem to be determined to feed the press tidbits, and juicy ones at that. Recently Farrah made it quite clear that she would have preferred it if Lee had asked her to join his friends in a little weekend hunting trip in the woods in Northern California. He didn’t, and she sulked. Perhaps that was why she set the town abuzzing when she spent a two-day weekend tennis tournament cheering Vincent Van Patten on—with Lee nowhere in sight. Of course, she denies any and all rumors about a romance with the 19-year-old actor, saying: “I can’t understand what all the fuss is about. Sure I’m having a ‘luv’ affair with a teenager, and not only that, but my husband is all for it! In fact, I’m very close to his parents as well. I happen to be a nut when it comes to tennis and Vinnie is a super player. . . . I consider myself one. of the lucky ones when he plays a game with me.”
However, jusi when one rumor dies down, the couple seems to add a bit more fuel to the fire—like when Lee and Farrah arrived for a Hollywood party in separate limos and left at different times. On top of that, Lee’s Vegas weekend really set the tongues awaggin’—but nothing seems to faze this red-hot duo. According to close friends, all they are doing is having a little innocent fun. Since Lee and Farrah are secure and liberated enough in their marriage, they feel that sometimes it’s necessary to take a little time off from each other, to let off a little steam. However, a night with the boys or a solo outing for a tennis tournament might be relaxation enough, but some observers think that Lee and Farrah’s recent actions could end up backfiring. Granted, if their respective legal hassles with their TV series are settled, they’ll be working more closely together than ever before—so perhaps they’re just feeling their oats for a while. But there’s bound to be hurt feelings if it goes on much longer. Farrah was not at all pleased when Lee took off on his camping trip and she had to be furious over the reports of his Vegas fling—no matter how innocent it really was. Obviously, Lee knows just how desparate some people are for gossip; he felt the necessity to take out that ad in a trade magazine last year to defend his marriage to one and all. Maybe he and Farrah should retrace their steps back to that point in time—because if things keep going at this rate, they may find they’ve burned all their bridges and can’t get back!
THE END
—BY MAUREE FILLER
See ABC’s $6 Million Man and Charlie’s Angels.
It is a quote. SCREEN STARS MAGAZINE JULY 1977
