Action! A Stripper Bio, Barr None

Farrah Fawcett, where are you? Candy Barr wants to know.

The legendary full-figured ‘50s stripper is the subject of a film bio from Atlantic Releasing, to begin production in January based on a George Axelrod script. The not-exactly buxom Fawcett has the title role. But after landing the part months ago, Fawcett, who like Barr is a Texan, has yet to contact the woman she’ll portray.

Fawcett did get together with Barr late last year at a private airport in San Antonio. Accompanied by her pal Ryan O’Neal and her father, Fawcett had arranged to meet Barr about the possible project. “But she wasn’t feeling well, so Ryan wound up doing most of the talking,” recalled Barr.

Since that time--and Atlantic’s announcement that Fawcett would, indeed, star--Barr’s heard zip from the actress.

“Can she play me without knowing my personality? Shouldn’t she at least get in touch?” Barr asked.

Speaking from her home in a small town in Texas (“Please don’t say exactly where I am”), Barr also wondered aloud if Fawcett’s got what it takes to play her: “Without being tacky, I have to say I’ve not seen anything she’s done that has gusto. And the Candy Barr story is electric. I know, I lived it.”

And then some! The pioneer blue-movie star (at age 16 in 1951 in the then-infamous “Smart Aleck”) turned bump-and-grind queen, she had a fling with Mickey Cohen, a marijuana bust, a prison sentence and later--after parole--was pals with Lee Harvey Oswald-killer Jack Ruby.

All of which, said Barr, adds up to “sort of like a curse.” She explained, “Can you imagine being a 90-year-old sex symbol?” (If you must have vital stats: Barr, now 53, is 5 feet 3, weighs 120, and still has her figure.)

One thing Barr’s not: savvy about Hollywood. “I just don’t know how the town works. I certainly can’t understand the people,” she said, referring to producer Mardi Rustam (who bought the rights to her early life back in 1982).

Miffed that Rustam never bothered to let her know that Fawcett was going to star in her story (“How can they make my life story and me not be involved?”), she said: “Don’t you think it would have been good manners for him to have at least given me a phone call or sent me a letter?”

According to Rustam, communications got fouled up when the project wound up at Atlantic. “We thought they were doing certain things; they thought we were.”

He added: “I know she’s upset about some things. She’s very upset. But we will work this out. I know we’ll work this out.”

Told of Rustam’s words, Barr countered: “Work it out? Work what out? I’ve lost all control of my life’s story. I haven’t even been asked about being a consultant.”

Should that time come, she added, the producers better not expect “a freebie.” Explained Barr: “If and when I ever get involved, I’m going to get something out of it. This isn’t just some story. It’s mine .”