The first time I ran into Ali MacGraw was at the front desk of the Santa Fe Animal Shelter in 1997. I had to look twice before I could be sure it was her. She was showing the staff an injured baby mammal of a species I didn’t recognize that she had found at her home and put in a shoebox, and asking them if they could take care of it. I didn’t want to act like a star-struck idiot, so I waited silently until they had finished with her and were ready to help me. I had moved to Santa Fe six months earlier and was at the shelter to find a companion cat, unaware that I’d be competing with a movie star for the staff’s attention. I ended up adopting an orange tiger cat that day. I don’t know what happened to Ali’s rescued animal.
Ali MacGraw, for those of you who may be too young to know much about her, is an actress, now 69, who became a star after appearing in a couple of movies, “Goodbye Columbus” and “Love Story”, was nominated for an Oscar for “Love Story”, and won Golden Globes for her roles in both movies. She has appeared in other films, TV miniseries and a soap opera, including “The Winds of War” and “Dynasty”. Ali has been married to two fascinating and complex men, producer Robert Evans and actor Steve McQueen, having a son with Evans.
I found out after our shelter encounter that Ali lived in Tesuque, a village just north of Santa Fe, and that she was a social activist and animal advocate. I was formally introduced to her at the Roundhouse (New Mexico’s legislature) about two years after I first saw her at the animal shelter by a mutual acquaintance who worked for Animal Protection of New Mexico. Ali smiled and said, “I’m so glad you’re here to support the animals,” (or something to that effect-it was pretty noisy that day). We were at a rally for the New Mexico felony animal cruelty bill. Ali was very much a participant in the successful lobbying efforts to get it passed, as she has been for other important animal bills, like the cockfighting ban that was passed this spring. She has also been a big supporter of the Santa Fe Animal Shelter as well an adoptive parent of some of the homeless animals there, and a friend and ally of the shelter’s former director, the compassionate and hard-working Kate Rindy.
Since I’ve lived in Santa Fe, I’ve seen Ali at political rallies (she is a liberal and a fan of Dennis Kucinich) standing quietly along with the rest of us less illustrious types, as well as at various animal protection events. I watched her do a dramatic reading for the media from a small cage the same size the chimps were incarcerated in at the Coulston vivisection lab in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Thanks partly to her support, Coulston has since become a chimp sanctuary. I listened to her speak at the opening of the long-awaited new Santa Fe Animal Shelter two years ago. Ali has deservedly received a prestigious award from Animal Protection of New Mexico for her work in New Mexico’s animal rights movement.
Another of Ali’s accomplishments is her excellent and visually lovely yoga video filmed in White Sands, New Mexico, which has been credited with helping bring yoga back to its former popularity in the U.S. She’s written a book about her life that I haven’t read yet, but it’s on my list. Last year she appeared in a play on Broadway. She remains active in a number of areas.
For all her beauty and fame, Ali has a knack of blending into the scenery. Nobody makes a big fuss over her, I think because her casual demeanor discourages that. She still wears her brown hair simply, usually pulled into a pony tail or bun, with minimal makeup, and she still looks great, even close up under the unforgiving high desert sun. I remember seeing her on TV at the Oscars a few years ago along with Ryan O’Neal, presenting an award and looking glamorous in a formal gown, and thinking, what a contrast from her simple life in Santa Fe.
I wish I could say that Ali and I have become friends and hang out together, but to be honest, it just hasn’t happened. But I’m pleased to report that this particular Hollywood star is a genuinely decent person who strives to make the world a better place. In a 2003 interview for a yoga magazine, Ali stated, “I want to be a person who makes a quiet difference. I want to be around people who care about their environment and about everybody’s quality of life.” She’s in the right place for that.
