Chatter

EARTHQUAKE: NOT THE MOVIE

Celebrity offered no insulation from last week’s earthquake in L.A., but reactions to the big shake varied. Dudley Moore, snoozing at his home in Marina del Rev, didn’t bother to get out of bed. Ted Turner. Jane Fonda and Robert Klein drank complimentary coffee—prepared on Bunsen burners—at the Four Seasons Hotel where they were staying, while Michael Bolton, Elle Macpherson. Tony Bennett and other displaced guests at the Peninsula sought safely outside on the hotel’s driveway.

Below, more celebs talk to us about the day the earth didn’t stand still:

John Geese, at the Four Seasons Hotel with his wife, Alice Faye Eichelberger, a therapist: “A voice came over the public address system saying that there’d just been a minor quake. The only thing that gave it away was the quake in his voice. But I didn’t hear anybody screaming or glass breaking. My wife was supposed to fly back to London on business, but because of the quake, she canceled the trip [to stay with me]. I guess for some people, it was not an entirely bad set of circumstances.”

Marty Ingels, at home in Beverly Hills with his wife, Shirley Jones: “No matter how much you prepare, you still end up looking like Laurel and Hardy. We have a quake closet full of batteries and blankets, but we couldn’t find the key. I was outside in my underwear, and Shirley said, ‘Go inside!’ I said, ‘People don’t dress in earthquakes.

Bruce and Andrea Dern, at their Malibu home: “A lot of treasures were broken and part of our chimney collapsed. But our cats, Wolfy and Badger, both went for cover, so we had to spend a couple hours finding them.”

Tracy Nelson, at her Santa Monica home with husband Billy Moses: “A psychic told me that something was going to happen on Sunday, so I put some heirlooms—like the coffee mug John Wayne gave my dad [Rick Nelson] when they did Rio Bravo in 1959—in my lingerie drawer.”

Tim Reid (WKRP), at home in Beverly Hills with wife Daphne Maxwell Reid: “It was like a storm, being thrown around. You grab the oddest things. I took money, keys and identification, but I also took my passport—like I was going to take a flight somewhere.”

Harry Hamlin, with girlfriend Lisa Rinna at his house in Beverly Hills: “Every wall is cracked. The chimney’s down, and we’re very freaked out. But I don’t see that going to a hotel would be any safer.”

Casey Kasem, at home in Holmby Hills with wife Jean and daughter Liberty, 3: “We spent the night in our car. We were afraid to stay in the house because we smelled gas.”

Jack Klugman, at his Malibu beach house: “I immediately looked out at the ocean, because I’d always heard there would be 20-foot waves. But it was like a swimming pool.”

Bianca Taylor, with husband Meshach Taylor at their Altadena home: “The house was built in the ’20s, and before we moved in we had everything remodeled and built in. We didn’t want any disasters.”

Christopher Martin (Kid ‘n Play), at the Hotel Nikko in Beverly Hills: “I grabbed a track suit and sneakers—one Adidas, one Nike—and went down to the hold lobby. Everyone huddled around the piano and sang spirituals and old soul tunes.”

Rita Rudner, with husband Martin Bergman at home in Beverly Hills: “Cabinets nailed to the wall came unattached, doors were flying open, and a fish committed suicide in our pond—although we think he had other problems. Now I feel everything—a neighbor can turn on a blender, and I run under the doorway.”