Interview with Patricia Resnick

AE: You have an incredible story about being at a wedding reception with then First Lady, Nancy Reagan. Can you tell it?
PR: Well, I got very drunk. At the reception, [a friend] was wondering if anyone would cut in on the First Lady – she was dancing with the groom – and offered five hundred bucks to anyone who would cut in. I thought it would be an easy five hundred, so I went over and I tapped [the groom's] shoulder and asked if I could cut in. And Nancy put her arms up, and off we went to "Embraceable You." And we slow danced until the song ended.

And the next morning – and this was pre-internet – [the groom] called me from his honeymoon and said, "I guess your dancing with Nancy Reagan made it into Liz Smith['s gossip column.]"

In those days, it was not easy to get a hold of news; you had to actually physically find somebody in New York to [get the newspaper and] read it to you. I didn't know what it said!

It took me a couple of hours to track it down, which gave me time to sit there and think: "Oh my God, what is it going to say? Is it going to ruin my career?" I didn't know how people were going to take it. I really scared myself.

We tracked down [the newspaper], only to find out it was all good humored. Everybody thought it was hilarious. It didn't say, "Drunken Dyke Attacks First Lady."

This was my alcoholic bottom. I thought that maybe I shouldn't really drink in public. And I decided, about a month after that, maybe I shouldn't drink at all.

AE: Just say "No."
PR: And I did.

AE: Was being gay in the 70s and 80s a problem? Were you out, then?
PR: I never came out, because I was never "in." It was just a fact of my life and it's funny, but it didn't really come up that much. I didn't go into this and say, "And by the way, I'm gay," but it was pretty much common knowledge. I certainly never hid it.

And I had girlfriends at the time and they'd go to parties and business things with me. But because I had never written anything with gay themes, particularly – even though Nine to Five has a big gay following – I was never really identified [as gay.] So, they're always honoring lesbians in the business and I'm like…

AE: You mean all eight of them?
PR: [laughs] I've been here a really long time! No one ever associates that with me.

AE: Where have you been, Pat?
PR: I've been right here.