You interrupt to grant her point and inquire as to the secret behind the achievement.

"Oh, it's a continual maintenance program," Liz again laughs. "It's a case of never letting things slide in the first place."

But what of the book's occasional gratuitous mention of Hollywood personalities whom Liz claims to have known and loved? And what of its nasty little attacks on Robert Kennedy, whom, as attorney general, Liz blames for many of her legal pratfalls? Anything to sidetrack the conversation onto safer, more substantive ground.

Miss Renay matches your move by switching from the inspirational sweet to the dangerously catty.

"I only judged them as 'lovers,' I never called them bedpartners," she demurs. And as for Kennedy, "He was the talk of all Hollywood. One day two FBI men came to my door asking questions about Kennedy. I really learned a lot from them!"

And anyway, Lyle, who insisted she add the material to her original draft of the book, has checked it all out for possible libel suits in the meantime.

Entr'acte: A mailman suddenly rings the doorbell and, without faltering at Liz's appearance, requests 42 cents in postage due.

"People are always sending me mail I don't want," she grimaces as she digs into a purse for the change.

"Say, Renay--that name sounds familiar. Aren't you an actress?" the mailman asks back.

"Oh, no, I'm just a jack-of-all-trades," Liz protests.

Which isn't far from the truth. For among the future projects Liz begins to describe once she's again ensconced on the couch are a handful of possible movies, two new books, a record...

20th-Century Fox has expressed interest in "My Face" and so Liz speculates on who might play on film her younger self: "I had thought of Diana Dors, but friends tell me she's put on weight. Now she's Double Dors!"

And Carlos Tobalina has just had Liz narrate his latest sex film, "The Refinements of Love": "He asked me to talk about love. Now I understand that while I say love, sex is happening on the screen."

And her fifth husband, Tom Freeman, is helping her on her new novel, "Loves of a John," by reading the high points of his sex life into a tape recorder.

And her real dream is to co-produce her own film in which she plays the Virgin Mary in a black wig sans make-up.