New biography of Jack Nicholson reveals his ‘s-x in a trailer with Meryl Streep’, his LSD-induced homoerotic fear fantasies and how he was a ‘better swordsman’ than Warren Beatty
His prowess with women is the stuff of legends.
But a new biography of the Hollywood superstar Jack Nicholson alleges he bedded one of the most successful actresses of all time – Meryl Streep.
Jack, now 76, starred with Meryl, 64, in two movies, Heartburn and Ironweed, and it was while on the set of the latter film that writer Marc Eliot claims the stars left Jack’s trailer shaking, writing: 'Often during shooting, his Winnebago seemed to be balanced on four overworked Slinkys.'
The book also details his prolific drug use that nearly ended his career, his struggles with his weight - and how even friends called him a 'better swordsman' than that infamous lothario, Warren Beatty.
Jack and Meryl played feuding husband and wife in the 1986 movie Heartburn, written by the late scribe Nora Ephron and based on the true tale of her tempestuous marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein - which ended following his affair with Baroness Margaret Jay.
Although it was claimed at the time that shooting ended up with Meryl throwing Jack out of her hotel room and vowing never to make another movie with him following his ‘relentless s-xual overtures’ – a report she denied – the actors teamed up again on Ironweed in 1987.
The new book, Nicholson, relays the first meeting between the pair on the set of Heartburn in 1985. Eliot writes: ‘Jack met Streep the first day he was on set. (Mike) Nichols had wanted to keep some tension between them before the cameras rolled. According to Streep, ‘it was like meeting Mick Jagger or Bob Dylan. He was a big deal’.
‘To break that tension, just before their first scene together, Nicholson knocked on Streep’s trailer door and asked if he could use her toilet. She said sure. End of tension.’
And Eliot writes a fling then took place on the set of Ironweed while Jack was still in an on-off romance with long-time lover Anjelica Huston - as well as allegedly sleeping with actress Veronica Cartwright.
The couple played a washed-up baseball player and his lover and drinking partner in the movie based on the Pulitzer-prize winning novel by William Kennedy, and Eliot says: ‘As soon as it began, rumours exploded like wild mushrooms that something was going on between Jack and his co-star, I’ll-never-work-with-him-again Meryl Streep.
‘There had been talk that the two had grown unusually close, but both denied it. Jack was in a bit of a bind, as he was actively, if secretly, still seeing Cartwright.
‘However, once filming began on Ironweed, everyone on set and those who heard about it, were talking not about the film’s script, or direction, or scenic design, but about Jack and Meryl. Often during shooting, his Winnebago seemed to be balanced on four overworked Slinkys.
‘One unnamed source told Mitchell Fink, of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, that "whatever is going on inside that Winnebago it’s starting to get out of hand, to the point where it’s embarrassing a lot of people on the set". The story appeared on April 22, 1987, Jack’s fiftieth birthday.’
And the actors’ affection for each other has never diminished as they remain close friends. Last year, Meryl, happily married to sculptor Don Gummer for the past 35 years, and a mother-of-four, picked Jack to ‘shag’ while appearing on Andy Cohen’s Bravo show, Watch What Happens Live.
When asked who she would 'shag, marry or kill' – Meryl picked Robert Redford to 'marry', Jack to 'shag' and her Kramer vs Kramer co-star Dustin Hoffman to 'kill'.
While when paying tribute to the three-time Oscar winner as she was awarded the AFI Life Achievement Award in April 2004, Jack called her ‘perfect’. Teasing her for her acting skills and deeming her to ‘transcend talent’, he stated: ‘To me you are perfect and I love you very much, God bless you and God bless America.’
At one point, the book claims that Jack was juggling Anjelica, 19-year-old Brit Karen Mayo-Chandler - who went on to pose in Playboy and brand him ‘that horny little devil’ - Veronica Cartwright – whom he met on the set of Goin’ South and then worked with on The Witches of Eastwick - the occasional Lakers cheerleader and ‘possibly‘ Meryl.
Jack has only been married once – to Sandra Knight, with whom he has a daughter Jennifer, 50. He has two children Lorraine, 23, and Ray, 21, with former girlfriend Rebecca Broussard, a daughter, Honey Hollman, 32, from his relationship with Danish actress Winnie Hollman and son Caleb Goddard, 43, from a romance with actress Susan Anspach.
Eliot also claims Jack was a ‘chronic drug user in the early years of his career’, experimenting with LSD in the early 1960s and taking cocaine and marijuana.'
He alleges: 'Jack’s experiences with the drug were life-changing. He believed after taking it the first time that he had seen the face of God.
‘He also had castration fantasies, homoerotic fear fantasies, and revelations about not being wanted as an infant.
‘And while tripping, he could confront the persistent problem of premature ejaculation that had plagued him ever since had had begun sleeping with Georgianna Carter – a girl he met in acting class - (and would never fully overcome). All of these visions and revelations were connected, like the wire that links individual posts to a fence. Jack would continue to take LSD for years.’
Once telling People drugs ‘ain’t no big thing’, Jack wrote the screenplay for the cult 1967 film The Trip while 'on acid' and 'regularly got stoned and dropped acid' while writing The Monkees psychedelic adventure comedy film Head the following year, according to Eliot.
And he is also alleged to have met potential investors for the cult Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper film Easy Rider 'with a joint'.
In fact, drugs were a constant presence on the Easy Rider set, according to a slew of reports and subsequent comments by the actors themselves.
Jack is said to have later admitted: 'Being stoned has helped me creatively [with] writing… it’s easier to entertain yourself mentally.'
His ex, Susan Anspach,once even alleged he took cocaine to get though a crying scene in 1970 drama Five Easy Pieces.
Having developed a reputation as one of Hollywood’s biggest hell-raisers, Eliot claims that Jack was an even bigger womaniser than heartthrob Warren Beatty.
The pair were said to have immediately hit it off after being introduced by producer Bert Schneider at a Hollywood party in 1971.
Eliot writes: ‘After running with him for a couple of weeks, Jack soon dubbed Beatty ‘Master B’ or ‘The Pro’ for his ability to bed women. Beatty, meanwhile, nicknamed Jack ‘The Weaver’ for his ability to tell a good story.
‘According to Bob Evans, Jack was the better swordsman, saying: ‘He was a very big player. Not even Warren Beatty has been so successful with women.’
To this day, the three-time Oscar winner remains as charming as ever – despite telling the Mail in 2011: ‘I’m definitely still wild at heart. But I’ve struck bio-gravity. I can’t hit on women in public any more. I didn’t decide this; it just doesn’t feel right at my age.’
Despite being able to woo some of the world's most beautiful women, Jack - who put his pot belly to good use in his later hit movies such as Terms of Endearment and Something's Gotta Give, struggled with his weight at the height of his fame.
After hiring Judy Mazel, of the Beverly Hills Diet book fame and 'dietrix to the stars', he soon piled on the pounds after filming Postman, and Eliot writes: ‘All too soon, much of the weight he had worked so hard to lose came back, as it usually does with crash dieting. He allowed only a few friends to visit, among them Bert Schneider, Harry Dean Stanton, Bob Rafelson, Hunter S. Thompson and Lou Adler.'
The new book also details the question of Jack’s paternity after he spent the first 37 years of his life believing his parents were John and Ethel May Nicholson.
Instead, so he was told in late 1974, his mother was actually his older sister June and his father was Don Furcillo-Rose, a dark-haired charmer who was a sometime musician.
Jack only discovered the truth when two film students, Robert David Crane and Christopher Fryer, writing a thesis on him, contacted him – and he begged them to keep it a secret in return for an interview. One close friend said he was ‘devastated and shocked’ by the information, while Peter Fonda said the possible publication caused ‘a deep hurt inside..’
Michele Phillips, his ex-girlfriend, said it was ‘horrible for him. Over the weeks, the poor guy had a very, very rough time adjusting to it. He’d been raised in this loving relationship…surrounded by women…now I think he felt all women were liars.’
Remaining close to June, whom he stayed with when he first moved to Los Angeles after graduating high school in 1954 at her invitation, Jack was devastated when she died aged 44 on July 31, 1963, from cervical cancer - nearly 10 years before he even discovered she may have been his real mother.
Despite doing his best to curtail the publication of the story, in 1977, the tale behind Jack’s alleged birthright was published in Sunday morning supplement Parade, in a piece by columnist Walter Scott, who said that his source was Furcillo-Rose.
Jack immediately tracked down his phone number, and called him to ask if he was his real father. Furcillo-Rose replied yes, adding he was also part of a love triangle between June and Ethel May, which is why she occasionally let him stay at the house. Stunned, Jack would not accept the news and released a statement calling the claims ‘false and defamatory’.
Furcillo-Rose refused to take a blood test when contacted by Jack’s legal team and the star never talked to him again.
