Hollywood Vets Have Little Valentine's Love for Today's Starlets
A Valentine's Day party honoring Dick Van Patten and wife Pat on their 53-year marriage brought out a legendary bunch full of wise words (and lectures!) for the young Hollywood set.
As for what keeps a Hollywood marriage together for 53 years, Van Patten joked, "The reason why we're so happy is because we go out twice a week to a candlelight dinner with soft music playing in the background. I go on Monday, and she goes on Fridays." On a more serious note, the
Eight Is Enough patriarch remarked that, after all these years, he still finds his wife to be the love of his life. "She's a doll, an angel. She's so pretty, her looks just drive me crazy. I'm very happy," he said.
Feted at the Hancock Park mansion of friend and swimwear designer Carol Wior, the couple was surrounded by friends including Connie Stevens, Charlene Tilton, fashion critic Richard "Mr." Blackwell and former Catwoman Julie Newmar.
So what do these "been there, done that" luminaries have to say about the current crop of young celebs? Plenty.
Tilton, who got her fair share of paparazzi attention during her
Dallas days, feels sympathy for Britney Spears. "She's more than bipolar. And no, I'm not a doctor, but I've dealt with mental illness my whole life, with my mom in and out of institutions," she said. "I think Britney can be controlled with the right medications. But she's in a dangerous place - she's got all this money and she's got all these hangers on."
Mr. Blackwell, famous for his annual "Worst Dressed" list, wasn't so kind, opining, "Lindsay Lohan should have been a dynamo, but she screwed up. Paris [Hilton], well, she was screwed up from the beginning. She never had anything to begin with. As for Britney and why I didn't include her in my worst-dressed list for 2007, that would be like taking someone who is sick, someone in a wheelchair, and dumping them onto the floor." -
Clare Kleinedler
