"I was madly in love with Robert. I would have married him. I wanted to."
"Really?!"
"Yes, if it hadn’t been for the press, we’d be married."

That was part of a conversation I had with Cher, years ago. I was interviewing her and she was speaking of loneliness and the difficulties of being the kind of star she is — how stressful relationships can be, undone by the imbalance. After all, how many iconic figures marry other iconic figures? I mentioned the wonderful Robert Camilletti, who Cher dated for a number of years. He was a terrific man, and crazy about Cher. But the media was hateful and mocking, referring to him as "the bagel boy" because of his brief tenure in a bakery, and making much of the difference in their age. The pair was hounded, and eventually both agreed the relationship was untenable.  "He seemed so right for you," I said. That’s when the star rather sadly made the above remark.

Click here to see photos of Liz’s favorite divas and other divine females.

I was stunned by Cher’s confession. She’d never admitted how much in love with him she’d been, or how much their parting had hurt. Also, Cher rarely lets you in that much.

She is candid, earthy, funny, honest. One always feels she is speaking off the top of her head, with complete veracity. ("Look, I think she’s very talented, but why does she have to act like such a c**t," she said of Madonna — on the "Today Show"!) But Cher keeps her sentimental/romantic/intimate emotions close. The one heartbreaking exception was her eulogy for Sonny Bono, which never would have happened, had she known it was being filmed.

Cher is probably my favorite "diva." I know Bette Midler, Mariah Carey, Madonna. I like all of them, and find each one oddly vulnerable at the core. But Cher has a straightforward, no-bullshit quality that stands alone. Her vulnerability is combined with an almost Zen-like quietude, an outward passivity that masks her drive and ambition. She has her own internal push-pull about fame, which is why she often retreats for long periods of time, restoring herself. She is a truly lovely person. (I’m sure she can be maddening, in the manner of all great stars, but her essence as a human being is gentle, thoughtful, inquisitive.)

And because she is all those things, I am thrilled to know that Cher seems to have found some love and comfort in the person of Tim Medvetz. He is variously described as a "daredevil/biker/mountain climber." He is 38 to her 62. She looks forty-ish, and is in vibrant health; the disparity isn’t obvious except on paper.

The tabs say Cher is planning to marry Tim. This is what I know: It’s serious. She’s mad for him. She is extremely happy. This does not translate inevitably to marriage. I’d be surprised if she made such a commitment at this point. That said, I was surprised when she told me she would have married Robert Camilletti.

Personally and professionally, she has come back again and again, always stronger – at least on the outside. (She returns to Caesars Palace on August 6, continuing her long engagement there.) But she has been a bird with a wing down on the inside for a long while. I hope Cher flies high from now on.

——————————

Speaking of divas, one of the originals, the late Lana Turner, will be the subject of a luscious new book titled Lana: The Memories, the Myths, the Movies. This is a tribute, penned by her daughter Cheryl Crane, with assistance from Cindy De La Hoz.

Cheryl, who suffered and survived a horrible childhood and adolescence, has already written her own life story, Detour: A Hollywood Story, in which she told of a mother she adored, but one whose stardom and self-love always stood in the way. It was a candid but not brutal memoir. Lana herself might have been hurt to read how often, without realizing it, she placed pleasure over the duties of a parent. Lana was married seven times, had many romances. Her most infamous affair was with gangster Johnny Stompanato. Johnny took to beating Lana. One night 14-year-old Cheryl ran to her mother’s defense. Johnny wound up dead in the movie queen’s frilly pink boudoir, with a butcher knife in his stomach. (For my money, this still stands as the movie-star scandal to end all!)

Hollywood legend insisted that it was Lana who really killed Johnny, but allowed Cheryl to take the rap – as a minor she could not be sent to prison. Cheryl did spend years in and out of various clinics and homes for wayward girls; is it any surprise that after the killing — and the sexual molestation she suffered at the hands of one of Turner’s husbands — that the child became "wayward"? Cheryl herself has consistently denied her mother wielding the knife as a lurid myth, always taking blame for the "the event" as she and Lana would come to refer to the terrible night.

So there will be no shock revelations in this new book, which arrives in November. It’ll be a glossy coffee-table celebration of Lana’s deluxe brand of glamour. (Nobody suffered in diamonds and furs quite like Lana.)