One of our favorite show business friendships has to be Penny Marshall and Steven Spielberg.
Marshall and Spielberg became close friends after connecting through their mutual friend and fellow writer, Jerry Belson. Marshall said that she and Spielberg became “instant friends” in her book, My Mother Was Nuts: A Memoir.
Spielberg cast Marshall in his film, 1941. While the actor’s scene was small, she stayed on set simply out of a fascination with watching Spielberg direct on set. In turn, Spielberg also came to support his friend during a very special episode of Laverne & Shirley, a show in which Marshall starred.
“One of the funniest Laverne and Shirley episodes we ever did was “Not Quite South of the Border,” wrote Marshall. “Our one-hundredth show, had the girls going on a vacation somewhere near Mexico where everything went wrong. They checked into a bungalow that was missing two walls…their luggage was lost. And then a hurricane hit.”
If you’ve seen “Not Quite …