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Date and Issue: November 5-11, 1983.
BEFORE I met Lynda Carter, I found it hard to believe that she had either the guts or the depth to portray Rita Hayworth in the forthcoming film of the screen goddess's life. Rita Hayworth is a complicated lady who has had more than her fair share of troubles. Behind her are a string of failed marriages. In front of her — the continued advance of a nervous disease. Lynda Carter, according to her public image, has only known success. A former Miss USA, she was cast in the smash-hit TV role of Wonder Woman in the Seventies. Since then, there have been a string of TV shows and a five-year marriage to her manager, Ron Samuels. Eighteen months ago that marriage ended. Quietly, discreetly and without a breath of scandal.
Hard to Handle
It is only now that Lynda Carter has finally revealed that her marriage was a sham. That while it lasted she lost most of her friends. Like Rita Hayworth, Lynda Carter, at 31, has known her fair share of troubles. "I met Ron when my career first started to take off," she tells me. "At the time I was finding my new-found fame hard to handle. All of a sudden people knew me by name. I acquired an entourage of secretaries and managers. And everybody started asking for my time.
"When this happens to an actresss, you either get very big-headed or very insecure. I got very insecure. Which is the reason I married Ron. He came into my We and said: 'I'll take care of you. I'll tell you what to do and where to go.' And I said, Oh, yes ... thank you."
At the beginning of her marriage, Lynda danced to her husband's tune. "He fired most of my staff and started again with his own people. But it was when he started to get rid of my friends that I began to feel all control over my life was going out of myhands.
"I didn't realize what was happening at first. If I had a girl friend, he didn't like her husband. Then he didn't want me to have any male friends — even platonic ones.
"Bit by bit, he took everyone out of my life. I never went to see my family. We never went out to dinner. We didn't go to the movies. All I seemed to do waswork."
I went to see Lynda Carter in Monte Carlo where she is appearing in her own show. She is a big girl. Six feet tall with long shapely legs which seem to go on forever and the kind of cleavage worthy of a screen goddess. But the most attractive thing about Lynda Carter is the way she laughs. She has one of those easy-going American girl personalities and it is difficult to imagine that any man could cage her in. When I tell her this, she shrugs those magnificent shoulders and says: "When I was last here with Ron, I didn't see a club or a restaurant. I didn't even go to the beach. All we did was stay in the room and have our meals sent up.
"You see, my husband was a very insecure man and I think he was terrified of losing me.
"In our marriage I was the main provider. He managed Lindsay Wagner (TV's Bionic Woman) as well as me. But he got only 15 per cent of her earnings. As my husband he got 50 per cent of mine. And he kept me working all the time.
Big Noise
"At the end of five years with Ron, I was on a downer. I was tired of working. Tired of fighting all the time. And tired of being used."
Then, quite by chance, Ron Samuels decided to go away to Palm Springs. "It was an unusual thing for him to do because he never left me alone for a minute. And the instant he walked out of the door, I thought, God this is great. I turned up the music. Turned on the TV. Got myself a glass of wine. And yelled and screamed.
"I never felt freer or better in my life. And it was then I decided to tell Ron not to come back home." Lynda Carter didn't find it hard to live with her freedom. "The moment I finished the tour I was in, I started to play. I flew to Mexico, Paris, New York, London. I saw friends. I went dancing. I had myself a blast."
What Linda Carter didn't do too much of was dating. Most of the men I met bored me. Particularly men from the West Coast of America where I live. "They were very big on physical values. They went in for silk shirts open to the waist and lots of gold chains. But although they were smooth talkers, there was nothing very much going on in their heads.
Legal Lover "All they were interested in was show business, female flesh and being seen by the right people. On the occasions I did go out to dinner with one of these characters, I'd usually plead tiredness and go home early."
But there was one dinner Lynda Carter didn't want to leave. It was a party given by Maybelline, the cosmetics company of which she is beauty and fashion director. At that party was a rising young lawyer, Robert Altman. "When I first set eyes on Robert, I thought he was good looking in an interesting way. He told me later that when he first saw me it was love at first sight. Which surprised me, because he wasn't really quite sure what I looked like."
Going strong "Anyway, he set it up with the president of Maybelline to sit next to me. And we hit it off right away. After dinner he offered to drive me home — we were both staying in the same hotel in Memphis.
"And when we got into the car he took off his tie and turned up the music. It was then I said to myself — this boy is all right.
"That night we sat up talking til the dawn broke. And after that I knew that was IT. I just went crazy and never saw anyone but him."
The romance has been going strong for ten months now. And when I went to see Lynda in her fancy suite at the famous Hotel de Paris, the first person I bumped into was Altman. Despite the fact that he was busy with his legal practice, he had flown in from Washington to the South of France-specially to see Lynda. She told me she found this enormously flattering. And it is easy to understand why. Altman, 35, is slightly taller than Lynda. And has the kind of dark, brooding good looks which put you in mind of a younger Al P acino. "I love Robert because he's protective towards me, but not over protective. He's very much the man in our relationship — which makes me feel all woman — and I adore that. You see, I'm very strong-willed and it takes a lot of man to be able to handle me."
Of that there is no doubt. And from the way she handles herself, there is also no doubt that Lynda Carter is more than equal to that demanding Rita Hayworth role.
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