It was just past 8 a.m. in Los Angeles and actress-turned-author Jamie Lee Curtis had already shuttled her teenage son to school before baking her favorite lemon cake.
“Now I’m about to go to a business appointment,” said Curtis, 53, via telephone last week, “and then I’ll come back for the cake and take it to a friend’s birthday lunch.”
This could be a snapshot from the life of any working mom in America — the seemingly endless dance to master both the personal and the professional.
And while the world outside of Hollywood may be tempted to slap the same label on this mom’s life as the title of her 1985 hard-body drama — “Perfect” — Curtis’ upcoming Denver lecture may in fact highlight her imperfections.
The event Tuesday at the is part of the 14th season of the . It begins at 7:30 p.m. and is followed by a reception with Curtis at 9 p.m.
Recent years have seen Curtis, daughter of entertainment icons Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, consciously try to shed any elitist misconceptions of her life. She’s flaunted her middle-aged humanity by posing sans airbrushing in national magazines, letting her hair go gray, speaking publicly about addiction, championing digestive regularity, and , where she writes about such issues as aging, family life and high-tech isolation.
Her down-to-earth demeanor may vex anyone familiar with the fawning and preening inherent to the red-carpet affairs at which Curtis is a veteran. Her humor? Self-deprecating.
“I’m hardly a brainiac,” she said. “In fact, I’m the underachiever. I was not an academic and school was a challenge for me in every way. … I would have been the first one kicked off that show ‘Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?’ “
Nonetheless, Curtis’ résumé now includes more than five dozen films and 10 children’s books (with illustrator Laura Cornell). One of them, “Today I Feel Silly, and Other Moods That Make My Day,” spent 10 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list.
“Never ever in a million years trillion years would I ever have thought that I’d write books,” she continued. “Unbeknownst to me, every life is unique,” so anyone can contribute to the world of ideas.
And if you don’t like that world, then change it.
“You can transform yourself into anything,” said Curtis, who draws on her live-and-learn anecdotes for various speaking engagements, most of which benefit causes that are close to her heart including same-sex marriage rights, children’s issues, and drug and alcohol recovery. (Curtis walked away from a booze and pills habit nearly 14 years ago. She also lost a half-brother to a drug overdose.)
“If there’s a theme (for the Denver lecture),” she said, “the theme is evolution, metamorphosis, self education and self knowledge, which is the key to freedom.”
Here are a few other pearls from Jamie Lee Curtis, gleaned from her pensive responses to a few questions adapted from the essential Proust Questionnaire:
Q: How would you describe yourself?
A: Hungry, literally and figuratively.
Q: What do you most enjoy most about your life?
A: The promise of a new day.
Q: What do you most deplore about yourself?
A: That I’m human.
Q: What do you most deplore in others?
A: Laziness.
Q: What’s your happy place?
A: Lying on the couch with my husband (actor/director Christopher Guest ) and my children (Thomas and Anne), watching “The Last Airbender” on Nickelodeon, which is what we did last night.
Q: What is your greatest fear?
A: That I’ll be forgotten.
Q: What is your greatest extravagance?
A: My entire life is an extravagance compared to what I know is most people’s reality. To name one thing would be an insult, and it would make me feel bad.
Q: What is your greatest achievement?
A: My sobriety.
Elana Ashanti Jefferson: 303-954-1957 or ejefferson@denverpost.com
REFLECTIONS OF A FORMER MOVIE ‘SCREAM QUEEN”
Expect a casual yet forthcoming presentation when Jamie Lee Curtis speaks as part of the 14th season of the Unique Lives & Experiences lecture series, which benefits Girls Inc. of Metro Denver and The Denver Post Commuity Foundation.
When: Tuesday
Time: 7:30 p.m. lecture followed by a 9 p.m. reception with the speaker
Where: Ellie Caulkins Opera House
Tickets: $100 for the reception only, or $150 for the reception and lecture, ar available at and
Details: Contact Melissa Flores at Girls Inc. of Metro Denver, mflores@girlsincdenver.org or 303-893-4363, ext. 128
RECIPE:
Jamie Lee Curtis’s favorite lemon cake (recipe) — Susan’s Lemon Cake
Actress and author Jamie Lee Curtis says this recipe from “The Cake Mix Doctor” by Anne Byrn is “is my go-to cake, and everybody’s favorite.” Serves 16.
Ingredients
CAKE
Vegetable oil spray for misting the pan
Flour for dusting the pan
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain yellow cake mix
1 package (3 ounces) lemon gelatin
cup vegetable oil, such as canola, corn, safflower, soybean, or sunflower
c up hot water
4 large eggs
GLAZE
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
Directions
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly mist a 12-cup Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray, then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pan aside.
Place the cake mix, gelatin, oil, water, and eggs in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides if needed. The batter should look thick and well blended. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the rubber spatula, and place the pan in the oven.
Bake the cake until it is light brown and just starts to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 40 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile prepare the glaze by combining the confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth.
Run a long, sharp knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto a serving platter. Spoon the glaze evenly over the warm cake so that it drizzles down the sides and into the center. Slice and serve warm, or let it cool before slicing.
Store this cake, covered in plastic wrap or placed under a cake dome, at room temperature for up to 1 week. Or freeze it, wrapped in foil, for up to 6 months. Thaw the cake overnight on the counter before serving.
