I’ve always suspected that Ryan O’Neal is a sleazeball.  When he announced that he was going to marry Farrah (while she was on her deathbed) even if he had to move her lips for her during the vow exchange, it just confirmed my suspicions.  Not that I needed any further convincing, Vanity Fair’s Leslie Bennetts sat down with Ryan O’Neal and you won’t believe the things he shared.  

O’Neal tells Bennetts that he didn’t recognize his daughter, Tatum, at Fawcett’s funeral. “I had just put the casket in the hearse and was watching it drive away,” he says, “when a beautiful blonde woman comes up and embraces me. I said to her, ‘You have a drink on you? You have a car?’ She said, ‘Daddy, it’s me–Tatum!’ I was just trying to be funny with a strange Swedish woman, and it’s my daughter. It’s so sick.”

When Bennetts asks Tatum about the exchange, she replies, “That’s our relationship in a nutshell…. You make of it what you will.” She sighed. “It had been a few years since we’d seen each other, and he was always a ladies’ man, a bon vivant.”

Oh, Ryan!  Do try and keep in in your pants around your daughter!  He went on to talk about his regrets of having children.

O’Neal is brutal on the subject of his parenting and his children, telling Bennetts, “I’m a hopeless father. I don’t know why. I don’t think I was supposed to be a father. Just look around at my work–they’re either in jail or they should be.” He doesn’t talk to any of his kids except for Redmond, whom he visits in jail. “I was in touch with them for years, and I was a mess,” he says of the others. “I’m not in touch with them now, and I’ve never been happier.” When asked if he’s sorry he had children, he nods, Bennetts reports. “A couple of them I would take back,” he says.

It seems that the feeling is mutual.  You may remember that Ryan’s son Griffin was turned away and refused admission into Farrah’s funeral.  This snub was obviously the final straw in a relationship that has always been tumultuous.

Griffin O’Neal is suspicious of his father’s newfound devotion to Fawcett, telling Bennetts, “All those crocodile tears!… My dad’s only goal was to make sure he would be in the will. It was so disgustingly transparent as soon as he found out she was terminal. I consider him a vulture presiding over a carcass. Ryan thought he was going to get everything.” When asked about Griffin’s charge that Ryan was trying to get Fawcett’s money, the elder O’Neal says, “I hate him! He knows I have money. I made a tremendous amount of money on real estate, more than I deserve.”

O’Neal claims Griffin has sold salacious information about the family to the tabloids, a charge that Griffin denies–”Absolutely not! Not one thing!,” Griffin tells Bennetts. “My father is afraid of me because I know the truth,” Griffin says. “That’s the part that absolutely scares him to death.” Griffin suggests that the family’s problems might have something to do with the fact that Ryan plied his children with drugs–”My father gave me cocaine when I was 11 and insisted I take it,” he tells Bennetts–and was prone to uncontrollable rages. “He was violent all the way through my upbringing,” says Griffin. “He was a very abusive, narcissistic psychopath. He gets so mad he can’t control anything he’s doing.”

Ryan also is embroiled in battle with the woman he tried to hook up with — his daughter Tatum.

O’Neal fumes when asked about Tatum’s autobiography, saying “She wrote a book–bitch! How dare she throw our laundry in the street for money!… She didn’t call after Farrah’s show. She’ll have to explain that.”

Tatum tells Bennetts that her father “has every right to be angry about the book; no parent wants to hear their kid saying shitty things about them… But what I wrote in the book was true. I’ve got a battle with drugs, but I’m a strong, independent person, and I fight for myself, and my father and I butt heads. When I was 16 years old, he and Farrah moved in together, and after that I saw my dad periodically, and that took a long time for me to get over. Would I do that to my kids? No, but I don’t think Farrah was responsible for that. I truly thought Farrah was inspirational and beautiful and kind. Anyway, it’s past; I’ve moved on. I’m older now, and I forgive him.”

The whole, unedited disaster is in September’s Vanity Fair.  

What is the lesson here?  Appreciate the family you have, don’t do coke with your kids, go hug your folks and thank God that your last name isn’t O’Neal.

It has been revealed that Farrah Fawcett left the bulk of her estate, six million dollars, to her drug-addicted son Redmond.  The money is in a trust that will be doled out to him, hopefully to assist him in living a comfortable life without helping to support his habit.  Personally, I think any kind of allowance for a heroin addict who hasn’t accomplished a significant period of sobriety is a bad idea.

And though Fawcett was with Ryan O’Neal for almost 30 years, she didn’t make mention of or provisions for him.  No wonder he was trying to chase her from her death bed to the altar.  He was probably trying to secure a place in the will!

While Farrah’s son, Redmond O’Neal, was allowed out of jail to attend his mother’s funeral, Ryan O’Neal’s other son Griffin (who is not Farrah’s child) was denied entry per Ryan’s request. If you remember, back in February ‘07, Ryan was arrested for allegedly assaulting Griffin.

Griffin reportedly drove 300 miles to attend the funeral and pay his last respects to Farrah. “She’s mad right now that I’m not in there,” he said. “I just wanted to say goodbye to someone I knew and loved for 33 years.”

I know Ryan’s in a lot of pain right now, and I assume Griffin is probably a gigantic asshole, but is it right to deny someone access to a funeral like this?

Griffin stood outside the funeral (pictured above) with his wife Rima and daughter Dillan.

Farrah Fawcett has succumbed to her battle with cancer this morning at the age of 62.

Best known for her role as Jill Monroe on the 1976-77 debut season of Charlie’s Angels (she made a few guest appearances in seasons three and four), Fawcett also won critical acclaim for a television movie The Burning Bed as well as both a movie and stage performance in Extremeties.

Despite reports of an impending wedding, Fawcett never married actor Ryan O’Neal, but was involved with him for 29 years.

In addition to O’Neal, she is survived by their son Redmond and her father James William Fawcett.

If you’ve been proposing to your girlfriend for almost 30 years, and she’s only now agreed to it because she’s hooked up to a morphine drip, that could be considered somewhat ego-bruising.  Not to Ryan O’Neal, though.

Yeah — Ryan and Farrah Fawcett are getting married.  I thought these two married and divorced years ago, but apparently not.  O’Neal  was interviewed by Barbara Walters in a 20/20 episode that will air this Friday, and spoke of his proposal to Farrah:  “I’ve asked her to marry me, again, and she’s agreed.  I used to ask her to marry me all the time.  But … it just got to be a joke, you know. We just joked about it.”

It’s actually really sad.  Now that Farrah is battling terminal cancer, they probably have a whole new perspective on life.  Back in May, Ryan appeared on NBC News and told Meredith Viera, “I know this, that in the last two years I loved her more than I’ve ever loved her – ever.  She’s so much more of a woman … powerful, courageous, fearless and all those adjectives. And I look at her with awe.”

No date has been set at this time.  Ryan said they will marry when Farrah is physically able to either say the word “yes,” or nod her head.

Did anyone see Farrah’s Story on television last Friday?  It was a documentary on NBC about Farrah’s recurrence of anal cancer and the treatments she went through.  It was really sad, as you would expect, but I was really irked about how Farrah delayed certain chemos because she didn’t want to lose her hair.  I’m not saying hair isn’t important — I’m just saying living is more important.  I vlogged about it here.

Anyway, it was filmed by Farrah’s best friend, pseudo-celeb Alana Stewart, which I found surprising because the camerawork looked fairly professional.  Impressive since Stewart is most famous for marrying and divorcing George Hamilton.

Now producer Craig Nevius is suing Stewart and Fawcett’s longtime paramour Ryan O’Neal claiming that he was pushed out of the project.  Other allegations indicate that Alana threatened to withhold video footage unless her fee was doubled to $200,000.

Personally, after watching the documentary and seeing some of the procedures that Alana had to witness and videotape, that woman deserves, like, Two.  Million. Dollars.

And in a frightening postscript, Ryan O’Neal is looking to make a sequel.  What could it possibly be called?  Farrah’s Funeral?

Ryan O’Neal, in an interview with People, spoke of Farrah Fawcett, her health and their twenty-seven year relationship.

O’Neal who is now Farrah’s caretaker lamented, “It’s a love story. I just don’t know how to play this one. I won’t know this world without her.  Cancer is an insidious enemy.”  You can tell how connected these two are, yet I found this quote so troubling:  “A week ago Farrah said to me, ‘Am I going to make it?’ I said, ‘Yes, you’ll make it. And if you don’t, I’ll go with you.’”

After a couple years of new technology cancer treatments that aren’t available in the U.S. yet, the verdict was in:  her cancer was back and had spread to other body parts including her liver.  Ryan said, “She stays in bed now. The doctors see that she is comfortable. Farrah is on IVs, but some of that is for nourishment. The treatment has pretty much ended.”

Through all this, their son Redmond has been in jail due to a parole violation.  However, Farrah is unaware of her son’s troubles and Ryan thinks that’s for the best.  “Farrah doesn’t know Redmond’s in trouble.  And Redmond is terrified for his mother. ‘I don’t want to be in jail and have some guard tell me she is gone,’ he said to me. I told him, ‘She’s rebounding.’ I lied to him. I lie to her. It’s the best thing.”

Through Fawcett’s cancer struggle, she has videotaped the highs and lows, good news received and bad news dealt.  It has all been turned into a documentary put together with the help of her best friend Alana Stewart.  Farrah’s Story will air on NBC May 15th.