Short Takes : Beatty Keeps Sister ‘on Hold’

Shirley MacLaine says she loves her elusive brother, Warren Beatty, more than she likes him.

“I don’t know him. But I’d like to,” the 56-year-old actress added when asked about her famous sibling, three years her junior.

In an interview in the March issue of Vanity Fair, MacLaine said that even she hasn’t been able to crack Beatty’s armor-tough persona because “his phone always rings. I’ve been on hold for 30 years.”

MacLaine said she believes the publicity-shy Beatty keeps his emotions and thoughts bottled tight because he never had children.

“Having had the typical middle-class American experience of having children would have forced him to share himself,” said MacLaine, who has a daughter, Sachi, 34.

“Warren can’t even commit to dinner,” she said.