R44, I worked on the This is Your Life remake as a PA. Yes, there were lots of celebrities there. Burt Reynolds (who had flown in from FL,) her pal Jackie Collins, Earl Holliman of course, and Bob Hope, who was on his way in a limo going over Laurel Canyon from having dinner with the Reagans when she said no; we had to call the limo to send it (and Hope) back to Chasen’s.

There were three reasons I think she said no. Maybe four. Yes, she was concerned about the way her hair looked, but that was minor.

She felt utterly betrayed that they used DePalma as a ruse to get her to come to NBC, because she was so proud of that movie. You can see it on the YouTube clip, during the section with only sound after someone sensibly turned the cameras off. When she said, “Is Brian DePalma coming?” And Ralph Edwards (who was in his dotage) replies (“I honest to goodness don’t know.”) followed by Sajak (a total prick, by the way) says, “I can answer that. No, he’s not.), it was game over. You could see her close the iron door and that was it.

Some other tidbits not seen on the YouTube clip. In the 13 minutes between the end of the audio and Sajak coming out to talk to the studio audience, someone told her that her daughter Nikki was set to appear, and that cemented her resolve to NOT do the show, because she was very protective of Nikki, who had Asperger’s, was legally blind, and that night, had a crew cut and was wearing a blue satin tuxedo.

I remember after Angie had left NBC (and I snuck out to see her being driven to her limo down the hallways on a golf cart to her limo, looking bewildered and a little lonely,) Jay Leno (who taped down the hall) came over to Ann Elder (from Laugh-In, who later became a successful comedy writer for people like Lily Tomlin) and said, “What the hell is going on over here?”, because when Angie left (she refused to see ANYONE, and they had to clear the corridors at NBC like it was a presidential motorcade.)

I had to go to Burt’s dressing room and tell him that he’d flown in from FL for nothing. He was getting his toupee glued down, and he looked at me through the mirror and all he could muster was, “Wow. This is pretty fucked up, kid!” Was VERY nice about it all, in retrospect.