April Winchell

I have been tagged by the lovely and talented Rogers Cadenhead to spill Five Things You Don’t Know About Me.

I’m thrilled of course, because Mr. Cadenhead is responsible for a staggeringly mean-sprited web site, so naturally it’s one of my all-time favorites.

But I’m also at a loss, because after 6 or 7 years of blogging and talk radio and writing and spewing, I can’t imagine I have anything left to tell.

But I’ll give it a shot. I ain’t a-skeered.

1. When I was 20, I lived with a girl who played a recurring character on the show Family, starring Kristy McNichol. Kristy would come to our apartment on the weekends with her then girlfriend, Ina Mae. Ina Mae was Liberace’s niece.

We would go dancing at an underage nightclub called The Odyssey on Beverly Boulevard (it burned down in the mid eighties). We worked very hard on our outfits so we would look cool doing the Pogo to Devo songs. Sometimes I would wear a long straight blonde wig, beret and fatigues, and carry a toy machine gun.

Also in our circle of friends was Matt Dillon, who my roommate was sleeping with (I walked in on them having sex once). Rounding out our little group was a young, struggllng actor named Dean Devlin.

Dean doesn’t struggle anymore.

2. When I was eleven, I had several callbacks to play Regan in The Exorcist. While I was under consideration, I developed a severe kidney infection. I wound up in the hopital for two weeks, taking me out of the running and sparing me from a life of horse worship and roller disco movies.

3. In 9th grade, I placed second in a city-wide Shakespeare festival, performing a monologue from Twelfth Night. First place went to Mare Winningham.

4. In the early 90’s, while on a hike with our late dog Bob, Mick and I found the wreckage of a light plane in the Tehachapi Mountains. Among the wreckage, we found pesos, melted copper jewelry and bone fragments. We later found out that the plane had disappeared in the 70’s, and was carrying two couples back from a weekend trip to Mexico.

5. When I was 19, I had a tryst with Kevin Spacey in the back of my Honda Civic. When I was 16, I was briefly engaged to Bob, of Bob and Tom. And at a party at my mother’s house many years ago, Billy Joel saw my picture and asked my stepfather if I was seeing anyone. I wasn’t, but that was probably because I was 12 at the time.

So now it’s my turn to tag 5 people to tell 5 things.

I tag John, Otis Fodder, Jennifer Sharpe, Gina and Paperlilies.