Third Estate Sunday Review: KINDLE UNLIMITED (Rebecca, Ava and C.I.)

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In 2018, community sites took turns covering a book every week. You can see "In 2018, we read books" to review that coverage. We didn't want to repeat ourselves in 2019 or 2020. So when Marcia came up with a way to cover books but with a twist, we were all for it. Marcia's idea was for us to digital books -- we're largely a printed text crowd -- and to use AMAZON's KINDLE UNLIMITED. So for 2021, we'll be trying to do a book a week and trying to just use KINDLE UNLIMITED. This week, we're speaking with about Rebecca about her "little sister."

Rebecca, you read, in hardcover, Lana Wood's new book LITTLE SISTER. Lana is Natalie Wood's younger sister. We're covering it here, despite it not being part of KINDLE UNLIMITED, because it is book coverage and we're trying to note all the book coverage in the community in 2021.

Rebecca: Well I can bring this into KINDLE UNLIMITED range by noting that I am someone who honestly prefers to hold a book in my hands, a physical book. Now reading on the tablet can be fun and easy but I'm not going to take a tablet, for example, into the tub with me. In addition, I live on an island. There are times when weather means I don't have power for a few hours or I don't have internet. If that happens, I am dependent upon non-electrical devices that do not require WiFi. So physical books are something I prefer for those reasons. In addition, when I die, I'd like to able to pass my books on. You really can't do that with digital copies. It's the same with digital music, by the way.

Good points. Now Lana is writing about her sister Natalie Wood -- both about growing up with her and about dealing with her death and that includes coming to grips with the fact that her sister may have been murdered.

Rebecca: Correct. I found the book convincing. In a lot of ways, it covers what a 48 HOURS investigation into Natalie's death covered. But with Lana's perspective, you're getting something additional. Maybe it's because, this being her sister, it's a less detached view.

Do you believe Robert Wagner killed Natalie Wood?

Rebecca: Yeah, I do. And I feel it's a 'case closed' moment. It's really laid bare. I think Robert Wagner did it and I'm tired of people covering for him and looking the other way. He needs to be held accountable.

We spoke with Marcia about her "I'd say Robert Wagner murdered Natalie Wood" and how, reading a different book, she was also left with the opinion that Wagner was responsible for Natalie's death. It's something how any book can add up to that, any book on Natalie.

Rebecca: I think it's because when Natalie died, back then, there was a feeling of 'how tragic' and we rushed to move on -- out of sympathy and other things but now we've dealt with that. Equally true, we've seen what's followed in the time since. Mia Farrow being produced by Wagner as Natalie's friend is hilarious. I only met Natalie a few times and I knew Natalie couldn't stand her.

Ava: And you met Natalie because she was friends with C.I.

Rebecca: Right. Elaine's staying with C.I. this year and she was reading one of C.I.'s journals recently and called me to read a passage from 1974 where Natalie and C.I. were talking about THE GREAT GATSBY and how awful Mia was in it. She was not Mia's friend.

C.I.: Mia made a play for Wagner between Natalie's two marriages to him and Natalie did not forgive that or ignore that. She detested Mia. I've never gone back and read my journals but, as I remember that conversation, all these years later, Natalie was very unimpressed and very astute about Mia's performance. Natalie had wanted the part but Robert Evans wasn't interested and Natalie wasn't interested enough to seriously pursue it. If she had, she probably would've gotten it because the film needed star power and Mia was never box office -- ROSEMARY'S BABY is as much Ruth Gordon's film as it is Mia's and Ruth also had HAROLD & MAUDE. Daisy, as Natalie discussed in our conversation about the role, isn't someone who can be deepened with meanings. She's not a rounded character and she needs a film star to make a visual audience grasp her importance in the book. Mia was caught on camera trying to 'act' the role and it was frightening. The role required someone that the camera loved whose personality brings the role alive. Natalie would have made an amazing Daisy.

Rebecca: That's pretty much what you wrote back then. About Mia, why does she lie?

C.I.: She lies about everything. She seems to have an inability to tell the truth and that honestly seems to go back decades, long before she started lying about Woody Allen. Pretending she was Natalie's friend let's her pretend she was a movie star and she never was. She was on a popular nighttime soap opera, PEYTON PLACE, and she was in ROSEMARY'S BABY which is like saying she starred in JAWS -- meaning the star of ROSEMARY is the devil the way the shark is the star of JAWS. Her other films in the 60s and 70s flopped over and over and it was often her fault -- weird 'choices' like in Robert Altman's A WEDDING. With Woody Allen writing parts for her, Mia finally appeared to be a talented actress. When he's not writing for her, the career goes back to freakish. Tuesday Weld, to note a contemporary of Natalie and Mia's was a film star. And she was immensely talented. Mia has no career in the 60s and 70s. She's grabbing hand me down parts and she's delivering 'performances' that separate the audience from the film. She also has a serious problem when working with anyone who's gay -- whether it's Rock Hudson or Anthony Perkins. That's one of the reasons Elizabeth Taylor had no use for Mia and didn't pursue a friendship with her -- though Mia tries to pretend that they were best friends on the set of SECRET CEREMONY and for years afterwards. They weren't. It goes to Mia's own religious beliefs and it goes to her panic when young Ronan told her he was a girl -- she rushed him off into therapy -- this from the woman who mocked therapy and told people, including Natalie Wood, that they needed to stop seeing a therapist and instead get to church. Again, lying about being friends with Natalie elevates Mia from failed actress to Hollywood star for people who don't know better.

Rebecca: And the fact that Wagner produces people like that to shore up how wonderful he was, that he passes people like that off as Natalie's friends, goes to one more reason not to trust him. Equally true, he comes off cold and calculating in every performance after Natalie dies. I'm not joking. Whether it's TWO AND A HALF MEN or the Austin Powers films, it seems like his true nature is revealed and it's an ugly nature. Lana's addressing a lot of stuff in LITTLE SISTER and I really do praise the book and encourage everyone to read it.

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