Myra-Breckinridge-Gore-Vidal

painful sweetness of knowing that I shall one day possess,in my own way, what she believes to be entirely hers,assuming of course that Rusty ever returns. Mary-Annbelieves that if he is not in prison (the likebest possibilitysince a boy with a police record is prone to constant falsearrest in the Los Angeles area where only professionalcriminals are safe from harassment by the local police), hehas gone off with some of his wild friends, possibly toMexico. I do my best to soothe her, and we have long "girltalks"about men and life and about her career. Unlike theother students, Mary-Ann could be professional. Miss Cluffis absolutely right and I for one would like to cut a corner ortwo and present her directly to an agent, instead of waitinguntil June, the usual time for the students to show what theycan do which, traditionally, is not much. Miss Cluff tells methat in the seven years that she has been at the Academyno student has ever got a job on television or appeared in afilm. This is a remarkable record. Some do get jobsmodeling but that, is often just plain whoring. When I askedBuck about the dismal showing his students make in theprofessional world, he seemed not at all taken aback."Honey," he said, knowing how much I hate to be called"honey," resembling, in this, the former First Lady, "whatmatters is making people happy and while the kids arehere they are happy. Now there is, I am willing to admit, areal letdown come June when our kids realize that theoutside world of show biz is a big cruel place with maybeno place for them. Yes, I admit that's an awful thing for themto find out and I've even toyed with the idea of never