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Shirley MacLaine on Sticking Up for Julia Roberts on ‘Steel Magnolias,’ Working With Hitchcock and Her Gross Donald Trump Encounter

Shirley MacLaine discusses 'Steel Magnolias' and 'Terms of Endearment,' her encounter with Donald Trump and her new book, 'The Wall of Life."

Even at 90, MacLaine, an Oscar-winning screen legend, is outrageously, unapologetically herself, holding forth on everyone from Billy Wilder (“brilliant but difficult”) to Jimmy Carter (“the friendliest man”) to Peter Sellers (“He stayed in character the whole time”) in a book that is equal parts memoir and photo album. It’s a story that took MacLaine from Richmond, Va., where she grew up as the daughter of teachers, to Broadway, where she took the stage as the stand-in for “The Pajama Game” star Carol Haney and delivered a rendition of “Steam Heat” that had Hollywood calling. Shooting 1989’s “Steel Magnolias” gave MacLaine a chance to work alongside Sally Field, Dolly Parton and a young Julia Roberts, who only had a handful of credits at the time.

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