Go Ask Julie

I was sorry to see that Mackenzie Phillips was back in the news today. Not because I think she's had too much time in the spotlight, but because she was arrested on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance after she allegedly was found carrying drugs at Los Angeles International Airport. "On suspicion" is kind of a gimme here, since Mackenzie has already had her share of run-ins with both the law and controlled substances.
I remember being impressed by her work in "American Graffiti." She was my pre-teen connection to that world of hot rods and sock hops. She was all arms and legs, hopping out of John Milner's '32 Ford to soap the windows of another car full of cruising girls. Mackenzie was never a star, but she certainly had her appeal. Which is why I felt just a trace of shame when I threw in whole hog for my first teenage crush, Valerie Bertinelli.

Even though I shudder a little bit when I see Valerie Bertinelli shilling Jenny Craig, at least she's not showing up in mug shots. Her TV older sister never had trouble keeping the pounds off, not with all that Peruvian Marching Powder she inhaled. It is the enduring story of the daughter of John Phillips, the one who got his looks and had to endure a life as the half-sister of Chynna Phillips. Chynna married a Baldwin, which may be its own curse, but Mackenzie lives on in the shadow of the sixties. She tells stories about how she started smoking pot and dropping acid at twelve years old, and how she was seduced by Mick Jagger when she was just eighteen. And today she was arrested by Sergeant Jim Holcomb of the Los Angeles Airport Police.

I wonder how Bonnie Franklin's doing.