robert mitchum and i were making it a horrible movie, one of the worst. it was aptly titled "the wrath of god," and it was, indeed, i think it was god's vengeance. it always makes me laugh when people win awards, and they say, "i want to thank god, to be as if he is sitting there. and anyway, it was 1972, and she was going to play my mother, and robert was playing a priest, and we were making a terrible movie. we were in mexico, where everyone went to their own rooms and mocked their cells in. it was unhappy. and we had a relationship that was many, many things, and part of its was watching someone beginning to lose her mind with alzheimer's, not quite yet, but soon. tavis: what did you take away from that particular part of the experience, being that close to someone? >> i took away something that i did not know when i was writing this book. i took away how important parroting is and how much it affects, the images, as i say, that rita was as far from her image as anyone i has ever known. many people in the book were not parented. by parentage, i mean a

one of her husband's friends was robert mitchum.: when i first met marilyn, she was norma jean baker, norma jean dougherty, as matter of fact, at that time. and i was working at lockheed. jim dougherty was my partner and he had a picture of his bride and she was very shy and very pleasant, very sweet, but she was, uh, not too comfortable around people because i suppose her background hadn't prepared her for sort of easy sociality. widmark: norma jean baker was born in 1926. her mother was in and out of mental hospitals