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Shirley MacLaine – Out on a Limb

About a year and a half later, I was sitting with some friends in my apartment in Malibu. I had been traveling and didn't know that Peter had had another heart attack.

We were chatting amiably when suddenly I jumped up from my chair.

"Peter," I said. "something has happened to Peter Sellers."

When I said it, I could feel his presence. It was as though he was right there in my living room watching me say it.

I felt ridiculous. Of course, all conversation stopped.

Then the telephone rang.

I disguised my voice and said hello. It was a newspaper reporter. ”I'd like to speak to Miss Maclaine," he said. “Well, actually I wanted to get her reaction."

“To what?" I said.

"Oh," he said. "If you haven't heard, I'm sorry but her friend Peter Sellers just died."

I turned in toward the room. I could feel Peter watching me. I wanted to tell the reporter he was mistaken. I wanted to say, "Yes, you probably think he's dead, but he's really only left his latest body." I wanted to say, "Listen, he did the best work of his life in our movie, and he did it portraying one of the gentlest, sweetest souls that ever walked this earth. There was nothing else left to accomplish, he probably couldn’t figure out what else he was hanging around for, so he must have gone for the white light  … and besides, he really missed his mother."

But of course, I didn't, though Peter would have loved it. . .

Instead I said, "Shirley isn’t in. But I'll give her the message."

I turned away from the phone.

"What happened?" asked my friends.

I could feel Peter smile.

"Nothing," I said. "Some reporter was trying to tell me that Peter Sellers just died."