Eavesdropping in New York — Episode 1: Coffee and Cake with Elizabeth Taylor’s Doctor (Sort of)
I was in the mood for cheese cake the other day, so I walked over to Fiorello’s on Broadway across from Lincoln Center. As I sipped a cup of cappuccino and started to devour a generous piece with strawberries on top and chocolate sauce on the side, I found myself eavesdropping on two distinguished-looking gentlemen sitting at the table to my left.
They sounded like doctors and were chatting and looking up medical trivia on a smartphone. “What did Sydney Pollack die of?” one of them read aloud. Answer: “cancer.” And then, “What did Sydney Lumet die of?” Answer: “lymphoma.”
Then, the one with the smartphone googled a query: “Who was Michael Jackson’s dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon and what is he doing today?” Answer: “Arnold Klein, the Beverly Hills physician who was perhaps best known as Michael Jackson’s dermatologist, died … in Palm Springs, California, at the age of 70.”
“You know,” he said to his friend, “Klein was recommended to Jackson by Elizabeth Taylor.” That’s when my ears really pricked up. “When I treated Elizabeth Taylor,” he went on, “she told me she never felt as safe and at home as she did when she was in the hospital. She really felt cared for there like no place else.”
To paraphrase Yogi Berra, you’d be surprised at how much you can observe just by listening. Especially in New York.
