Learning How to Fly

Alan had now become an executive producer of a Universal show called Quincy, M.E. and I was mainly focused on Erika and making the house look great. My parents came down and my father put in floor-to-ceiling windows in the master bedroom and French doors leading out to the pool, while my mother and I painted and wallpapered. I was extremely grateful to my parents for working so hard to make improvements on our house and wanted to tell my father how much I appreciated all his hard work. But trying to talk to him was, as always, awkward. He never wanted to have any kind of intimate conversation with me and unspoken resentments on both sides lingered on and made it impossible for me to have a close relationship with him.

I had a fence put around the pool to keep Erika from accidently falling in. But she was also getting baby swimming lessons from the best teacher we could find to make sure she’d always be safe around pools. All the construction and painting my father, mother and I were doing didn’t hinder my continuous efforts to get acting work and worry about money. I had read the feature script, Count to Five, which Alan had written, thought it was very commercial, and was determined it should be produced. I gave it to my agent and he tried to find possible producers, which he did. But Alan thought he could get a better deal elsewhere and the movie was never made.