Tuesday, September 10, 2002

INSIDE PHYLLIS DILLER'S H'WOOD HEAVEN

You will find an oil painting of Bob Hope that he presented her after filming "Boy Did I Get a Wrong Number" in 1966, although it looks like it was bought for $14.44 at Kmart. Phyllis, 85, has a 22-room mansion in Brentwood, Calif.--"on the same street where O.J. Simpsn was living when he was arrested after the murder of his ex-wife Nicole."

The Card Room is where Phyllis invented "Diller Gin."

"It's absolutely fabulous," she said. "Deuces are wild and you can pick up as many cards as you want."

"I play almost every night with friends like June Haver and Ward Grant.


June Haver, incidentally, last acted in 1953, when she entered a convent. Ward Grant is Bob Hope's long time publicist who, like it or not, only has one thing left to announce.