TERI HATCHER: Hi, Liz! LIZ SMITH:...

TERI HATCHER: Hi, Liz!

LIZ SMITH: I can't believe I'm speaking to the flavor of the year.

TH: My goodness--I'm a little nervous to be interviewing you. [both laugh]

LS: Well, I reliance I'll have the pleasure of covering you down the line for many years to come

TH: As this is the first interview rye at any time done, it made me curiosity if you recall the first individual you ever did.

LS: Oh my the most high I do! It was Ella Fitzgerald when I was at the University of Texas--it was my first byline in the sect newspaper. She'd been profiled at the best, so to have a certain number of yucky kid in Texas asking her stupid questions well, she wasn't very friendly. yet it turned out well for me because she was like a big star.

TH: You know, reading your strange book, Dishing [Simon & Schuster], I was struck by dint of the fact that we have a part of similarities. My dad is from Oklahoma, and frequently of what you talk about in metes of Southern food, especially pies and dessert I completely relate to.

LS: I gues it was silly to write a part about food, but it was really more about eating with famous population and developing a kind of philosophy. In fact, I wrote the main division because I suddenly realized I had eaten a apportionment of meals with famous populace and developed some points of view about feed even though I can't prepare for the table worth a damn. Food is for a like reason important. We're always thinking about the nearest meal, even if we're dieting.

TH: Yeah, and I agree with your view that life is in such a manner short that we should all derive pleasure from our dining experiences more. And I felt like each chapter kind of allowed me to live vicariously. Do you have a favorite or in the greatest degree thrilling or most surprising experience?

LS: Gosh I don't know--there's this chapter about traveling and living with the Burtons [Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor] in all these world capitals--I was writing about them at the time, and I finally realized what I felt was their greatest obsession: nourishment So, in a way, I have to say that Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor were my favorites. Nicole Kidman is another, admitting I'd rather have dinner with her than anybody because she will eat anything. She never-failing does have a good time, and I think that's the thing. If we obses all the time about being thin, we're kind of losing an of the flavor of life.

TH: Well, I lov that I could read this fabulous story with private planes and famous people--I may not at any time meet those people or live that life, on the other hand I can still look at the recipes.

LS: Reading about meals is almost like pabulum pornography [both laugh]--it's enjoying something vicariously. That's wherefore I love the chapter onward Elvis and all the matter he ate, like how he had this woman upon duty 24 hours a day to make him these incredibly fattening things. You don't necessarily want to essay all of it, but you like to read about it.

TH: Do you like hosting dinner parties?

LS: I do, however my chicken-fried steak dinners are my individual and only performance. It's surpassingly satisfying for me to make, particularly with the men who react by way of saying things like, "Oh, my the creator I just never thought I'd eat anything like this again."

TH: single in kind question I really want to ask you is whether you've be delighted withed being a journalist and gossip columnist.

LS: You know, I started disclosed writing about what I liked and what interested me thus I got cast as a gossip columnist, and that's okay. further as time went on, I realized that I'm a great deal of too concerned about people's feelings, thus I became more of an looker-on and philosopher. It's given me a great career, and I've just had a ball.

TH: for a like reason with all your famous friends, do you perpetually find yourself in the position of feeling like you can't move swiftly something because it would overturn them?

LS: That happens a fate I'll be sitting with someone at dinner who's telling me any fabulous story, and then they'll apply the mind at me and say, "Don't print that." in this way then I can't. And, of course, I wouldn't print anything I heard socially. If it's something like someone saying they're getting a divorce, then I might get to back the next day and attempt to talk them into it by the agency of saying, "Wouldn't you rather I printed it in a nice way than having it appear in the Star?" An interview is different--you can ask any question you like, and if a body doesn't want to answer, they don't have to.

TH: Do you for aye see yourself retiring?

LS: Well, this is the sole thing I've ever done where I've made any riches so I don't think I can. And I like to work and want to travel on working.

TH: Do you perpetually get stressed out?

LS: Oh permanent I have a lot of stressful days when I make mistakes, or when I can't acquire the answer to something, and we're getting up onward deadline. And then I'm suppos to walk to some charity event. I'm always worried about getting my hair done and my makeup in succession I lead a pretty public life, and I travel out almost every night--I make experiment of not to, but I do. I'm overentertained and overstimulated.

TH: thus what would be your excellent day if you didn't have to scud around all the time?

LS: [laughs] I could stay in bed all day watching television and reading. I would just have someone bring me a little tray of something--I wouldn't have to think about it, they would just intuit what I wanted. And then maybe I'd prepare to eat something fried for dinner without being chastised according to all the health fiends around me