Dunne a warm, witty storyteller

While paging through Vanity Fair during my morning cereal Wednesday, I was stunned to see the face of a dying friend.

Among the montage of celebrities shown in party scenes was a jarring photo of a gaunt and deathly ill Dominick Dunne.

I carefully ripped the page out to save it and rushed off to KOAS-FM, 105.7, to sit down with Dave Presher and Dana Crawford for their "storytellers" series.

Two hours later, one of their last questions was: best night in Las Vegas?

That was easy. The four-hour dinner with Dunne, maybe the best storyteller of them all.

I had no sooner returned home when the news arrived by telephone: Dominick was dead.

We had met at Alex Stratta's Alex restaurant at Wynn Las Vegas last September, two days before the trial of O.J. Simpson.

Associated Press special correspondent Linda Deutsch set up the dinner for four, adding that Dominick might have to call it a night early because of his frail health.

He was there to close the book on his O.J. chronicles, said Dunne, who fell ill on the first day of the trial and had to return home.

Las Vegas would be his last road assignment.

What do I remember about our first and last meeting?

He was warm, witty and raring to get back into action after undergoing stem cell treatment for bladder cancer.

Early in the conversation, I asked him whether former Los Angeles detective Mark Fuhrman was planning to cover the O.J. trial. Dunne did not know.

I asked because I had received an anonymous message on my voice mail a few days earlier from an elderly lady.

I still have it, and I played it back Wednesday.

"Just a little tidbit," said the woman, in a weak voice. "At the end of your column, you're always running into someone, but if you don't run into Mark Fuhrman, and his mother was under major surgery, where was Mark?"

I told Dominick I recognized the voice. It was Fuhrman's mother, Billie.

The first time she called was shortly after I started this column in September 1999, and the gist of the call appeared to be that she wanted me to know, in a proud tone, that Mark was her son.

Dunne bent forward and told us his Fuhrman story.

They had met during O.J.'s murder trial. Fuhrman had testified that he found a bloodstained glove at Nicole Brown Simpson's condo, where Nicole and Ron Goldman were murdered. Fuhrman also testified he found the matching glove at Simpson's home.

Simpson's defense team said Fuhrman planted the glove found at Simpson's estate and raised damaging questions that painted Fuhrman as a racist.

After the trial, Dunne and Fuhrman were involved in reviving interest in the 1975 death of 15-year-old Martha Moxley. It resulted in a retrial and the conviction of Kennedy family relative Michael Skakel.

Dunne told us that after helping Fuhrman gain a second career as a media star, they had a falling out. The ex-cop, Dunne said, began resenting Dunne for any TV appearances related to the conviction.

"We haven't talked in years," Dunne said.

SIGHTINGS

LaToya Jackson, continuing to move possessions out of her condo at Regency Towers at Las Vegas Country Club early Wednesday. Among the belongings I spotted near her while taking my dogs out at 1:30 a.m. was what appeared to be a child-sized pink chair. Moving out or consolidating Michael's things? Limos have been parked outside the tower entrance, and on Sunday night, a "Janet Jackson" signed in to visit LaToya's condo.

THE PUNCH LINE

"There's another 'Cash for Clunkers' program scheduled for six months from now: That's when the Minnesota Vikings will try to trade Brett Favre." -- late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel

Norm Clarke can be reached at (702) 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find additional sightings and more online at www.normclarke.com.