'Girl' Talk

Rue McClanahan is nursing her illness – an “indefinable something,” she determines – with a bowl of vegetable soup, which sounds pretty dull compared to the dish she serves to us (see accompanying story) and the quick rewind to The Gayest Show About Old Women, “The Golden Girls.”

What’s your relationship like with the other ladies from ‘Golden Girls’?

We have a professional relationship. I did (TV series) ‘Maude’ with Bea Arthur, and Betty (White) was an occasional guest – or she made an occasional appearance on ‘Mama’s Family.’ I knew them both professionally, but we worked together for seven years – and eight years as far as Betty was concerned, ’cause we did ‘Golden Palace’ after ‘Golden Girls’ without Bea.

We never had social lives together; all four of us had different groups of friends, came from different groups and at different times moved to California – or, in Betty’s case, grew up there. We had to be together constantly in all the dozens and dozens and dozens of public appearances we had to make that didn’t necessarily get televised. So we saw enough of each other – but we had very little in common.

For the rest of my interview with Rue, visit www.pridesource.com