Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor ABC is celebrating Norman Lear’s 100th birthday with a television special on Sept.
22. Variety was on hand for exclusive interviews with Lear and his starry guests as they made their way into the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel earlier this month for the filming of the show, “Norman Lear: 100 Years of Music and Laughter.” Lear, who turned 100 on July 27, has famously credited laughing as the key to living a long life.
He also told me that staying in the present is equally as important. “We don’t pay enough attention to the words ‘over’ and ‘next,'” he said. “When something is over, it’s over and we’re all onto the next.
If there was a hammock in the middle, that would be the best description I could offer for living in the moment.” Below, Lear’s friends and the stars of his most famous sitcoms recall meeting the icon for the first time.
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