You have to be a baby brother to know how painful it is to write ‘they were right’ about an older sibling. I’ve spent a lifetime making fun of each one of them to compensate for being the youngest and weakest for far too long.
Time compensated by making me both the brightest and most successful (not to mention best-looking) but I didn’t know that at the time my sister, Kitty, took me, as a child, to see the first Halloween. The never-dying Michael Myers scared me senseless!
All my sister noticed was how wonderful then teen-aged Jamie Lee Curtis was. She could talk of nothing else for years to come through Jamie Lee’s movie ventures, TV sit-com and countless continuations of the Halloween saga.
Personally, I never saw JLC’s appeal. Sure, Jamie Lee had a fabulous shape but next to Liza Minnelli, no actress has held onto an unflattering, butch hair cut for so long. (I stand corrected – Shirley MacLaine did too.)
Though, in all fairness, I’ve never regretted Kitty and I skipping out Christmas Eve mass under my mother’s watchful eyes to go catch Jamie Lee in A Fish Called Wanda. She was wicked funny and gave a performance worth Kitty and I going to Hell for.
The only person to hold my sister’s endless fascination equally was Kim Basinger and she was truly gorgeous. She could simply stand in a movie and make it more appealing (and often did). Imagine my surprise when Kimmy won an Oscar in her middle age!
I was equally shocked to learn, as a senior, Jamie won at last night’s Oscars! I immediately called Kitty at her Old Folks’ home where she and her roomie were celebrating. With what exactly I was hesitant to ask knowing she and I often smuggled White Tokay wine in a mouthwash bottle into another Old Folks’ home to keep Aunt Ida on our good side.
Kitty was still flying high the morning after and in true older baby-brother 
fashion I did nothing but congratulate her on her ability to recognize Oscar-caliber in a 1970’s horror movie!
