Hasta La Ideas

During a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Sean Penn told a fabulous Taps-era anecdote.

After working on the 1981 drama in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania with Tom Cruise, he and another co-star, Billy Van Zandt, picked up Cruise at LAX when the actor followed with a trip out west. Penn decided the first order of business should be a drive to Lucille Ball’s Beverly Hills home, since Van Zandt was a devoted fan of the comedienne.

“I mean, generationally, it didn’t make much sense, but this guy [Van Zandt] was a fanatic Lucille Ball guy,” Penn told Kimmel. “He was our age. So I thought it would be fun to see his fandom of Ball by going along with stalking Lucille Ball’s house.”

As it turns out, that was just the beginning. From Van Zandt’s current bio page:

Billy’s biggest career thrill was acting alongside his idol Lucille Ball on her final television series. A year after Lucy’s passing, Billy and [writing partner] Jane [Millmore] were nominated for a [1990 Outstanding Informational Special] Primetime Emmy for writing and producing a television special where they unveiled, for the first time in 40 years, the original pilot episode of I Love Lucy.

Millmore and Van Zandt, who divides his time with wife Adrienne Barbeau between New Jersey and California, are currently still touring with their hit 2010 Off-Broadway comedy You’ve Got Hate Mail. New York Post reviewer Frank Scheck gave it a rave when it first opened, and when reading the basic husband-wife-female-friend plot line, it sounds a lot like a modern-day version of, you know.

P.S. Given how Penn told the anecdote on Kimmel, with this droll punchline – “He [Van Zandt] had been there [to Ball’s home] many times” – the funniest come-true aspect of all this is the role Van Zandt played in the 1986 episode of that final Ball TV series. He was: Delivery Guy.