Melissa Gilbert and Andrew McCarthy have slightly different recollections regarding a boozy night out in the ’80s and whether McCarthy made out with Liza Minnelli.
In Gilbert’s 2010 memoir, “Prairie Tale,” the “Little House on the Prairie” star, 62, writes about a surreal evening in the ’80s when she dined with McCarthy, her then-boyfriend Rob Lowe and Lowe’s agent, Michael Black, at Spago’s. They were munching on pizzas when Minnelli flew over to their table and was soon joined by Michael Jackson, who sat silently, not saying a word.
As dessert was wrapping up, the eclectic table debated what to do next until, according to Gilbert, “the table fell silent, and that’s when Michael finally spoke the only words he would say the entire evening.”
“You can come to my house,” he said, “I got a llama.”
The group made its way to Sammy Davis Jr.’s abode sans Jackson, who we can only surmise went home to pet his llama.
Eventually, the evening ended at Black’s apartment, “where suddenly Andrew and Liza started making out.”
“I would love to have made out with Liza Minnelli, but we did not,” McCarthy avowed, although he did confirm some of the story’s elements.
The author of “Who Needs Friends: An Unscientific Examination of Male Friendship Across America” remembered having dinner at Spago’s with Gilbert, Lowe and Black, being seated next to the “Cabaret” star, and going to Davis Jr.’s home for post-prandial drinkies. Oddly, he made no mention of Jackson being at the dinner.
“It was an incredible night,” he gushed. “I should have quit show business then. We did not sing around the piano; mostly, we did a lot of drinking. Sammy was sober, but he was playing bartender.”
So much so that McCarthy was unable to drive home.
“Liza gave me a ride home because I’d drunk too much,” he explained.
“She was super lovely to me,” he added. “They were both generous and kind. I remember Sammy going, ‘I’ve got my eye on you young cat, I like what you’re doing!’ It was great, Rat Pack meets the Brat Pack.”
Minnelli’s publicist declined to comment on whether she played tonsil hockey with the “St. Elmo’s Fire” star.
