Water Power

Everyone asks Esther Williams if she still swims. “I sat next to Henry Kissinger at a dinner party and even he said, ‘Do you mind if I ask you a question?’ I said, ‘Not you, too, Henry. Not you too.’ ”

Kissinger persisted. “How did you know I was going to ask that question?”

Williams replied, “Because everybody asks me that.”

When she isn’t answering The Question, Williams, who swam more than 1,250 miles while making aquamovies for MGM, designs a line of swimwear. Saturday, she’ll be on dry land, signing autographs at Nordstrom at Topanga Plaza in Woodland Hills to promote her bathing suits. “I’ll put you in a suit that contains you and you will swim in,” Williams, 75, promises. “I don’t want you to be in two Dixie cups and a fish line.”

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Question: So, Esther, mind if I ask you a question?

A: And now I say why would I quit doing what I enjoy so much? Why would I quit doing the thing that’s the best part of my day?

Q: Why do you still love it so?

A: You can work out in a pool and sweat, but you don’t smell. In the water you are weightless. You are ageless. It feels exhilarating to get wet. And I have found that it is probably the best therapy for joint replacement--I had a knee replacement from too much tennis. I should have known that a mermaid should not play on concrete. And, you know, the water is a very sexy medium. Why do you think people always get in a hot tub?

Q: How often do you swim?

A: Every day I work out and my workout is against a current in my pool, which makes me have to swim hard to stay in place. And I do 20 minutes each of breaststroke, backstroke and the crawl, and I have a series of aerobic and kicking exercises too.

Q: Do you diet?

A: That’s not my style. I look at what happens to women’s faces when they keep themselves so bone-thin and then they look old and tired, and they’re constantly having things done to their face until they don’t even look like themselves anymore. And with men, it’s the strangest thing--you look at a man sitting next to you at a big fund-raiser and, my God, he erased his face.

Q: What do you eat?

A: Breakfast, I have orange juice and vitamins. If a lot’s going on--business meetings and stuff--I’ll have a glass of nonfat milk and protein, like a bite of chicken breast from the night before.

For lunch I always look forward to leftovers: I love thin slices of chicken, ham or roast lamb. Or poached salmon with a little vinaigrette and lettuce on real thin slices of whole wheat. And I love sliced tomatoes, all vegetables and I love salads. Then I’m all set till dinner time.

Q: Do you cook?

A: I’m a really good cook. For dinner what I just absolutely love is to season a half-chicken--I have the grocer split them for me--and just make it about as tasty as you can imagine with sesame seeds, basil, a little garlic, vinaigrette to keep it from drying out and a little olive oil, and then let that get to a lovely, crispy brown. And don’t cook my string beans or carrots too much. And new potatoes are wonderful.

When I cook for people, my entertainment trick is first thing when they sit down, because everybody is starving from all this dieting, have a wonderful broth or a little cream of asparagus with fresh asparagus floating in it. I always have something cooking on the back of the stove--a pot of chili. People come to the house and they’re so grateful, you know?

And I really look forward to doing a baked ham because then I’m going to make split pea soup that will make people just absolutely go crazy. Food is so friendly, and that’s why dieting is just out of the question. People come in and say, what are you cooking, what is that aroma that’s wafting from the front door? I think we’ve got a column now, don’t you?

Q: Yes, ma’am.

A: Just make the point that we come from water. It’s the most natural medium in the world. It’s the only sport you can do from your first bath to your last without hurting yourself.

* Guest Workout runs Wednesdays in Life & Style.