After All These Years!
In 1980 I was eleven years old. I loved watching the TV show, Bosom Buddies, about two guys, Kip and Henry, who had to dress as women to live at a women’s-only apartment, which was the only place they could afford. Peter Scolari, who went to co-star in Newhart and Honey I Shrunk the Kids TV shows, starred in the program with Tom Hanks, who, in my eyes, was the star of the show. Hanks was funny. I respected him and he moved on to movies like Bachelor Party and The Man With One Red Shoe, which I saw about five times because it was double-billed with Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure in 1985, and I was a huge Pee Wee fan (now you know).
Anyway, it’s the 80′s and I’m thinking Hank is a funny guy, then in the 90′s he comes out with Philadelphia, and plays a gay guy wihth AIDS. What? What does he think he’s doing? He’s a comedian! Then, the next year he solidifies his dramatic acting chops with Forrest Gump. At that point, he’d been married to his actress wife, Rita Wilson, for six years.
Well, tomorrow will be my wife and my twenty-first wedding anniversary. I look back at where we cam e from, where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re headed and can’t believe how much of my life I have spent with this wonderful woman. I basically hooked her by being funny. I’m not the most handsome guy (ears stick out, crooked tooth in the front of my mouth), but I made my future wife laugh when we first met. Kind of like Tom Hanks and Bosom Buddies, where he first met his future wife. And, like Hanks, as we spent more time together, my wife has also seen the dramatic side of me, the serious stuff, and she’s hung with me…kind of like Rita Wilson.
Hanks and Wilson have defied unofficial Hollywood law by staying hitched for over twenty-five years. And, I aspire to that with my wife in the near-ish future.
What is it about this celbrity couple that has sustained their relationship when so many others in the industry have failed? It looks as though they are flexible and go with the flow. Hanks has been donning a mustache for his role on Broadway and Wilson admits that she’s not a fan of facial hair. Yet, instead of nagging and using it as a jumping off point for an argument, she’s decided to see her hubby in a different light, “…(H)e’s kind of cute with his mustache. I’m just saying!”
And, the last piece of the puzzle? It goes right back to who they were when they first met…humorists. What has sustained them for this long? “WIlson admits, “We make each other laugh.”
Fellas, make her laugh. She’ll look past the funky ears and crooked teeth. A funny guy may never be handsome, but he can definitely be cute.
