Douglas Thmopson - Author and International Journalist

 


She grew up in the Sixties and travelled to Europe and got caught up in that imes's impatient excitements. She returned to America with confused emotions:' I'd feel a cold hand grabbing my heart and starting to squeeze. That was the fear of not getting out again. Others in the family who couldn't wait to get away are retreating further and further into the woods. I think it's a family trait. It's something about the land, it's that mysterious, inexplicable connection to the land.'

On her family land around Cloquet (pop: 8,000) in Minnesota she lived as a child being in her dreams being Melanie from 'Gone With The Wind' one day and Scarlett O'Hara the next. Her father Al was a wanderer -- the family moved 18 times before settling in Minnesota -- and was as much a dreamer as his daughter. Her mother Dorothy wanted to be a dancer. The four children followed their own dreams: Ann,49, is a Minneapolis art director, Jane,46, has a schooner and sails the seas on charter, George, 39, is another wanderer -- an airline pilot.

Jessica Lange has settled down as one of the great actresses of the century. During her seven-year relationship with Baryshnikov they jumped the clouds constantly flying between Los Angeles and New York and Minnesota and Milan , anywhere he happened to be dancing and she was filming. It sounds romantic and exciting but it can jet-lag relationships.And it did. Lange was still married then to Spanish photographer Pasco Grande who she met at Minnesota University . They married in 1970 and spent the early part of their marriage in Paris .. But after she met Baryshnikov the divorce detail got busy. The mess wasn't sorted out until 1982. She had $ 3,479 dollars in the bank. Grande had settled for a lump sum pay-off. 'It was a lot,' she says without giving the full arithmetic.

It is not that she's Scrooge. She's careful, say her family, who recall that her first words when she was three were 'Charge it!'. No money was involved when she and Baryshnikov separated. Today she and Shephard dod not flash their cash or credit cards.

She says she identifies so much with 'Losing Isaiah' because she feels the importance of family. It contradicts her instincts:' In my mind's eye I always see myself as settling down but I an't stand to be in the same place all the time. I lover arriving in a town I know nothing about and setting up house. It's like life in a gypsy camp. But I think it's inevitable now that we'll stay in one spot. Sam and me and the kids.

'I've never believe much in marriage, I've never believed that someone like a preacher or a judge should determine how you live. I think I would get married if it was in the best interests of my family. It used to seem like legalese but now, with Sam, I really think I have something that is going to last a lifetime. Before it was more of hopefulness on my part rather than an absolute knowing in your heart.

'Before it was a dream.

'This is reality.

'No more dreaming.'

She got the monkey off her back a long time ago so it's a subject to relegate to second banana time with the actress the increasingly perspective Jack Nicholson calls a cross between a delicate fawn and a Buick.

Jessica Lange is 46 this year. She has made a lot of films and babies. She is an off-beat beauty; a tall natural blonde with an equally natural flat nose so unlike these pert little upturned things that sniff around Beverly Hills . She was a model before she jumped into the arms of Jeff Bridges and 'King Kong' in 1976.

'Successful model? That's a myth. I doubt that anybody could find a published photograph of me. The year I modelled was the most painful year of my life. Editors would always talk to you in the third person as though you were merely a piece of merchandise. You get to a point where you are tired of worrying about how people are going to judge you. In your twenties your buffeted around. I'm not pretty. I am pretty. Am I talented? I'm smart, maybe? Forget it.'

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