Shirley MacLaine: Over From Santa Fe to San Fernando Valley

Shirley lived-former-lives MacLaine is touring with her new book, I’m All Over That, under her hat, and with an intimate evening show. It’s a different woman these days who writes and performs when the fancy takes her. “The book tour’s going very well,” she said by phone from her Malibu home. Her main digs are in Santa Fe. “I moved there 25 years ago.”

A career defined and colored by memorable roles in many films, including Sweet Charity, books such as Out on a Limb and professional and personal relationships with Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack and the Dalai Lama as well as world politicians including Australia’s Andrew Peacock, MacLaine has never been in better form than now.

The legendary and controversial entertainer and author swept the audience along Friday at her show An Evening With Shirley MacLaine at Cal State Northridge’s Valley Performing Arts Center. What a ride it was. We were all over her, in a good way!

In a chat stretching from the personal to the profound, she used communication as a common thread. PowerPoint came into play to illustrate MacLaine’s verbal points, which worked very effectively.

Anecdotes, stories and not taking herself too seriously are ingredients in the show. One of her favorite spots in the world is Australia. “I love the audiences in Australia,” MacLaine said. “They’re so warm, funny and open.”

At almost 80, MacLaine has transcended many of life’s challenges, and said she is over her past. “I’m the now,” she said, and claimed that is perfectly fine by her.

Of the San Fernando Valley, MacLaine still has fond memories. “I lived in the Valley, Royal Oaks. They even took [Soviet Premier] Nikita Khrushchev to the Valley, because it was the future of L.A."

MacLaine closed with an observation: “To me there is nothing better than a persistent truth-seeking journalist.  I agree with my founding fathers. Great reporters and journalists are more important than government.”