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Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli, Robert Redford and Al Pacino are internationally celebrated, but who was the woman behind and responsible for so many of their greatest successes? Stevie Phillips took care of Judy Garland during her struggles with addiction, hosted Liza Minnelli’s wedding to Peter Allen in her living room and handled the professional and personal lives of so many other celebrities, and in her memoir Judy & Liza & Robert & Freddie & David & Sue & Me…(St. Martin’s Press; June 2, 2015), she tells all.
No star burned more ferociously than Judy Garland. And nobody witnessed Garland’s incandescent talent at closer range than Stevie Phillips. During the “Mad Men” era, Phillips was a young woman muscling her way into the manscape of Manhattan’s glittering office towers. After a stint as a secretary, she began working for the legendary duo of Freddie Fields and David Begelman at the Music Corporation of America under the glare of Lew Wasserman. And when MCA blew apart, Fields and Begelman created the powerhouse agency Creative Management Associates (known today as International Creative Management) and promoted Stevie to come along.
After Fields convinced Garland to come on board, Stevie became, as she puts it, “Garland’s shadow,” putting out fires – figuratively and literally – to get Garland to demonstrate reliability in every big city in America so that she could work once more in Hollywood. She paints a portrait of Garland at the bitter end and, though it was at times a nightmare, Philips says, “She became my teacher,” clarifying for her “how to” and “how not to” live.
From there, Stevie rose quickly to represent Garland’s talented daughter Liza Minnelli, Robert Redford, Al Pacino, Henry Fonda, George Roy Hill, Bob Fosse, Cat Stevens, and David Bowie. She produced the award-winning theater production “The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas,” as well as “Nuts,” “Open Admissions,” “Doonesbury” and “Loose Ends,” had a disastrous affair with Begelman and engaged her colleague, the legendary agent Sue Mengers, as a cohort in helping change women’s roles in the entertainment industry.
And, now she reveals her behind-the-scenes story in Judy & Liza & Robert & Freddie & David & Sue & Me… a tough-talking, often funny, and engrossing memoir by a woman who worked closely with some of the biggest names in show business.