We’d like to alert our Los Angeles readers that one of the semifrequent contributors to this blog, Ray Cochran, will be reading on the “Heart Attack” program at Melt in Your Mouth, the monthly spoken-word series at the Secret Rose Theatre in North Hollywood on Sunday night at 7. Cochran has written so many little pieces for us that many staffers at WOW have the impression that he works here but they haven’t met him yet. “Which one is that Ray Cochran?” they ask. In fact, even this editor hasn’t met him. On Sunday he’ll regale the audience with a tale of his brush with greatness – Liza Minnelli. Can people still be regaled? Find out. Says he:

This particular piece I’ve written is about the dark side of fabulous: working with Liza Minnelli. The fabulous? Penthouses, Sandalwood Rigauds, helicopters (that generation loved helicopters), Warhols, and Elsa Peretti Teardrops. And it’s underbelly? That fateful day in the Essex House Hotel when, just for me, she disappeared into her bedroom and re-emerged in a vintage Halston. Something told me it was foreplay. Luckily, I had my head screwed on straight. Unlike some, my homosexuality can’t be bought for a vintage Halston sheath.

(Details)