Maximilian Schell gave me one of my biggest laughs ever.
On Carson one night, he appeared, the vision of Continental suave, complete with ascot etc. And a black eye.
Johnny asked him what happened. “I saw a woman in a NY cafe. She was lovely so I said to her ‘You have very lovely breasts, my dear!’ And she hit me!!! In Europe she would have thanked me.” The look on Max’s face was total shock!
I’ve played the image of how that might have looked in my head a 1000 times.
Now THAT is funny. Unfortunately for the late Mr. Schell, he should’ve realized that in America where the obsession is breasts, where women focus on making them look nice and appealing and usually larger than their actual size, putting them out on public display with their cleavage, but if a male dares to acknowledge their presence with such a remark, you get socked in the face.