ONE DEGREE OF SEPARATION

Two recipients of special Academy Awards to be given out in 2010 have direct connections to Terry Southern. The first movie acclaimed cinematographer Gordon Willis shot was End of the Road (1970) when Terry and the director chose him from a number of candidates. Prior to this Willis was shooting TV commercials.

Producer John Calley brought Terry in as screen writer on The Loved One (1965), The Cincinnati Kid (1965) and Don't Make Waves (1967). He desperately wanted to do a movie version of Terry's racy novel Blue Movie, the story of a Hollywood director wanting to make a hardcore sex film with major movie stars, and came close in the mid-70s but it fell apart at the last second.

It is a shame though that the Academy has decided to present these awards off camera. Already there is an uproar in the Hollywood community regarding it. You can read more about Willis and Calley in Gail Gerber's memoir, Trippin' with Terry Southern: What I Think I Remember.