Free Judy & Liza & Robert & Freddie & David & Sue & Me... by Stevie Phillips

usual. Of course she wasn’t going to sing with me. Of course I wasn’t going to sing with her. Judy never shared a stage with anyone. Until she had to. Gee, Judy, thanks for the memories!

 
    CHAPTER TEN
    Love—or Something Like It
    Judy wanted romance around the clock. She was starving for it. The love she got from her audience was never enough. Not even close. The minute she was not in front of the footlights, she craved male attention. She could not feel attractive or beautiful without being told so by a man. When he was present, Judy sublimated so it could be all about him. He was everything as long as he adored her. Without a man, 50 percent of her was missing. And this was David Begelman’s moment.
    I’d watched, and listened in on phone calls in which David promised his wife and his clients that he would take care of business for them in ways that were never fulfilled. For instance, it was no more than routine for David to assure the fine comedian Shelley Berman that he would call Warner Bros. on his behalf, a call that would never happen and for which there was probably never any intent. But substitute the name of anyone else in Shelley’s place, and the deal with David was always the same. He was a slime. However, going well beyond the ugly episode in Boston, David—the scoundrel, the liar, the thief—could do no wrong as far as Judy was concerned.
    David wasn’t beautiful by any means. He had a large nose, flaccid cheeks (always by 5:00 p.m.), and beady eyes. Somehow all this ugliness came together in its own interesting and gruesome way, distinguishing him from the rest of the ugly powerful men he ran with. He was tall, and his height, coupled with immaculate tailoring, helped to hide his protruding belly. His shoes were hand sewn in Italy, his shirts made to order in London and shipped in boxes from Bond Street every six months, and his suits custom tailored at one of the most expensive Park Avenue ateliers. He loved only the best, most expensive things for himself, and he lived like a sheikh on what he earned, borrowed, and stole.
    What did we all see in David? I include myself along with Freddie Fields, Judy, Lee Begelman, and a legion of showbiz friends. We were all so blinded by a little charm that we couldn’t see the truth: He was no good. In fact he was worse than that. He was toxic, fatal for all his wives, but most of all for Judy. He took aim and leveled a shot across her bow that filled her with his poison and overwhelmed her. His was the charm of a psychopathic personality: totally flamboyant, witty, intelligent, and intellectual on the one side; a liar, a cheat, a complete fraud, irresponsible, and self-destructive on the other.
    He was a world-class womanizer who loved the seduction. Women were enchanted with him because he was a wonderful raconteur, extremely alert, quick witted, and totally attentive. Judy responded to him instantly because he kept her endlessly amused. Her enchantment began on the first day they met, when she walked into Freddie Fields Associates to meet the partner she’d heard so much about. I watched from my desk outside Freddie’s glass-enclosed private office until Freddie closed the mechanically operated draperies, cutting off my view. Nor could I hear anyone, but I could imagine David greasing on about how wonderful Judy looked, how lucky he was to be sitting there with her, and how lucky she was to be sitting there with him. She would have laughed politely and perhaps raised a question about the latter, whereupon David would have assured her that she would now become richer and more famous than ever before. It would be the starting point from which, over the next few months, David’s professed adoration would grow to unbelievable heights.
    It would be easy for Judy, so wanting to believe she was adored, to cross the Rubicon and imagine that this man held her in something more than simple professional esteem. And he was