It’s No Mystery: Tournament of Roses Selects Lansbury

Watch out, boys and girls. They invited Jessica Fletcher to the Rose Parade.

The sharp-eyed mystery writer whose life is punctuated by corpses sprawling across desks and tumbling out of closets is going to be the grand marshal of the 104th Tournament of Roses. With Jessica on the scene, can murder be far away?

In reality, it is going to be an upbeat, murderless affair, insisted Angela Lansbury, who portrays Fletcher on the CBS-TV show “Murder, She Wrote,” at ceremonies Thursday in Pasadena, where she was introduced as the sixth woman to serve as grand marshal.

“This American woman of English, Scottish and Irish descent absolutely adores the idea of the Rose Parade,” said the English-born actress, standing in a rose-colored suit at the center of a swirl of photographers and television cameras. “It represents the best America has to offer.”

The theme of the New Year’s Day parade will be “Entertainment on Parade,” and nobody represents the theme better than Lansbury, said Tournament of Roses President Gary K. Hayward. “She’s done everything you can possibly do that represents entertainment,” Hayward said.

Lansbury, 66, acquired stardom as a teen-ager in the 1944 movie “Gaslight,” earning an Academy Award nomination. She has been in more than 40 feature films, most recently as the voice of Mrs. Potts in the Disney cartoon feature “Beauty and the Beast.” She has starred on Broadway in the musicals “Mame” and “Sweeney Todd” and earned 12 Emmy nominations. For nine years, Lansbury has enthralled Sunday night viewers as the intrepid lady with the bold chin who finds murder wherever she goes.

Lansbury said she would not hesitate to invite Jessica Fletcher to her house, despite the character’s uncanny record of showing up just as a murder is about to occur. It is just a lot of lamentable coincidences, Lansbury said.

“She’s a prudent, intelligent woman,” the actress said. “Murders just sort of end up on her doorstep.”

Maybe so. But let’s keep an eye on the edge of the crowd. Watch the bit-part actor with the mustache. With Jessica on the scene, he might turn out to be just another coincidence.