A wing and a prayer

I just got an appearance release in the mail. An appearance release is a contract that I’d sign to give my permission to appear in a TV show or movie. In this case, it’s an NBC TV special about Farrah Fawcett’s cancer journey.

Farrah was my “cancer buddy” in Germany.

We traveled together from The Klinik to other private medical facilities in places like Frankfurt and Munich, and her friend Alana Stewart was there with a small video camera, shooting video along the way. Combine that with the stuff my wife Vinnie and I were shooting, and it was a little surreal. As they say, “You can take the kids out of Hollywood…” But it wasn’t a movie, it was a real life-and-death situation. And even when we were going through it, we all knew we had to use the experience to help others.

Farrah is a sweetheart. She really is. She had it much worse than I did. Doctors here had given up. But she found new life in Germany.

Of course I’m giving permission to appear in her TV special, which right now is called A Wing and A Prayer. They also want to do a follow-up interview with me and I’ll do that, too. Farrah and I both broke into Hollywood in the Seventies. We ran in some of the same circles. But now, she’ll always be my “buddy.”

Farrah’s TV special will focus on Farrah, and her ordeal. She’s an American icon and it should be about her.

But The Klinik isn’t about me. I’ll be in it— and so will Farrah and Alana, among many others-- and I’ll tell my story, but my experience is merely the jumping off point to something much, much bigger.

Hey, I’m just glad my hair grew back in time to be on TV!