"She was the most beautiful woman in a room full of beautiful women," says the great mentor Sue Mengers of Hollywood’s Farrah Fawcett. This was back in the days when Sue was running the careers of both Farrah and Ryan O’Neal.

So, while we’re thinking of this, let’s give a "brava" to writer Leslie Bennetts, one of the best when it comes to examining pop culture hero and heroines. We’re talking now about Leslie’s new Vanity Fair piece on Farrah.

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Farrah was, as Ms. Bennetts indicates, a much more complicated woman than her one-dimensional big-mane-of-hair image suggested. There was steel beneath the velvet sweetness, and something a bit darker under that oft-giddy façade.

I always felt Farrah expressed a great deal of herself through her later dramatic work. ("Murder In Texas," "The Burning Bed," "Extremities," "Small Sacrifices," "The Apostle.") I never wrote this while Farrah was alive, because I thought it might hurt her and she and I were Texas friends. But I sensed a certain masochism in how she totally submerged herself in the intense, usually suffering women she portrayed; she was relaying messages about her own life, her experiences as a woman and as a world-famous figure. (There is a telling moment in the TV miniseries "Poor Little Rich Girl," based on the life of heiress Barbara Hutton. Toward the end, one of the characters turns on Farrah-as-Hutton: "Nobody could put up with you. You are impossible!" And Fawcett replies with a raw croak, "Don’t you think I know it?" I had a feeling Farrah had played that scene already.)

And for sure, there was masochism in her long, tumultuous relationship with Ryan O’Neal, who was (and is) both a charmer and a brute.

Here is a story I was told years ago, by a source I trusted. In the early days of their romance, Farrah and Ryan were on a plane, heading to or returning from Europe. They were alone in a section of the first-class cabin. Suddenly a big ruckus was overheard – it sounded like somebody was being roughed up. It went on for so long and so ferociously that the singer Ella Fitzgerald, also aboard, rose from her seat and was about to storm in and put an end to it. But a member of Farrah and Ryan’s entourage stopped Ella, "No, don’t. Don’t interfere. This is their ‘thing.’" Of course, Farrah had quite a temper – maybe it was Ryan who was being roughed up. And more power to Farrah if it was! (The tougher side of Farrah was revealed when her face was in repose. She wasn’t really that beautiful unless she had the smile going. Without it, she could look almost plain, and very determined, nobody’s brainless pinup.)

As to Bennetts’ anecdotes in the VF piece, they are astonishing. Almost everything Ryan says is shocking or unpleasant – even when he’s "just joking." The quotes from Ryan about his own children, well … I didn’t think I could be more sympathetic toward Tatum O’ Neal than I already am, but Ryan’s words were the limit! I’m surprised Tatum and the rest of his kids can function at all. In some quarters Ryan is being praised for at least admitting he has been and is a terrible parent. Fine. He has some self-knowledge. Then he calls his daughter Tatum a "bitch" for writing her own life story.

Still, Tatum takes a more forgiving attitude. She shrugs it off now. She even seemed somewhat amused that Ryan didn’t recognize her at Farrah’s funeral, and tried to pick her up! (I’ll never forget the paparazzi pics of Ryan screaming at Tatum, on a beach somewhere – she was still a teenager – and Tatum’s stricken, sobbing retreat from her enraged parent.)