THE ENTERTAINMENT COMMITTEE
Strassman had no inkling Marshall had set up the e-mail list. “I was clueless,” the actress says, “until about two weeks into it someone called me and said, ‘I heard you had pasta last night.’ Of course, my question was, ‘And you know that because . . . ?’ ”
For her part, Newman did something that she knew would make Strassman laugh. She downloaded photos of her friend’s face from the Internet, then superimposed them on ads and stories in Town & Country. Each photo had a bubble of dialogue coming out of her mouth. “I picked that magazine because it’s so straitlaced, which is the opposite of Marcia,” Newman says.
“It is hilarious,” says Strassman, pulling out the treasured magazine from its plastic casing and spreading it across the table. The three friends chuckle over a faux ad of Strassman suggestively sprawled across a rug.
Newman is convinced Strassman will beat her disease. “It never enters my mind something will happen to one of my friends,” she says.
THE FRIENDSHIP BUFFER ZONE
Strassman doesn’t look like someone who’s battling a grave illness. Once her condition was stabilized by the combination drug therapy, she had surgery to remove remaining cancerous cells and several lymph nodes. Since then, bone scans have revealed no further deterioration, which is excellent news. She will take some form of therapy for the rest of her life. “This is cancer—but it’s a speed bump,” Strassman insists. “You slow down, but once you pass it, you keep going.”
Her friends have been crucial in helping her stay the course. “Just knowing that I can pick up the phone whenever I want, day or night, has made a big difference,” the actress says. “Penny was The General, but all my friends have been unbelievably nurturing. My friends know me—I don’t like being fussed over, so they made me
laugh and took my mind off my illness.”
Strassman admits, “I don’t want my life to be defined by my cancer, especially since it is incurable. But I’m lucky because most of the time I lead a normal life, and every once in a while I have to go to the doctor.”
All too soon, two hours have whizzed by, and lunch is over. Strassman fishes her car keys out of her purse. She’s ferrying Marshall to a meeting—happy, one would guess, to be back in the driver’s seat.
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