Shirley MacLaine abruptly stops talking and turns her head to address a publicist who has crept into the Toronto hotel room.
"Yes?" she says in a sharp tone of voice. "What are you hovering for?"
The minion mumbles.
"Go on," Ms. MacLaine commands, waving one hand in the air at the woman to shoo her away. "I'll be out in a minute."
Out skulks the woman with her clipboard.
"I can be so intimidating," Ms. MacLaine says wickedly. She laughs lightly and pats at the edges of her perfect strawberry-blondish bob. "I hate hovering," she explains sweetly, batting her hazel eyes at me.
An interview with Ms. MacLaine is a fluid thing, as she sweeps in and out of personae. On a stage of one sort or another since the 1950s, first as a hoofer on Broadway and then in Hollywood, she knows how to play herself on the stage of everyday life, too.
She is shrewdly aware of how others bow to her and she will use the power of being the legendary six-time-Oscar-nominated actress (she won for Terms of Endearment in 1984) when it suits her. But if she controls how others perceive her, she also at times clearly doesn't care what anyone thinks.
Most of the time, she is as real as your mother in black pants, a scarlet boxy jacket and comfortable shoes.
"I did Restylane a couple of times," the 74-year-old says. "Frankly, it hurt. So I didn't do that any more." She says her secret to having a youthful appearance is exercise - an hour-and-a-half hike every day in the mountains near her house in Santa Fe with her beloved dog, Terry - and good lighting.
"Lighting is happiness," she booms. "I would rather have a good chimera light than a man," she deadpans.
Age is not slowing her down. Her 12th bestselling book, Sage-ing While Age-ing, has kept her on top of the New Age mountain. Few can write about reincarnation, alternative medicine, a past life as a princess in Egypt and UFOs with as much batty authority as Ms. MacLaine.
In recent years, she has appeared in Bewitched with Nicole Kidman, In Her Shoes with Cameron Diaz and Rumor Has It with Jennifer Aniston. She played Coco Chanel, the late Parisian style icon, in a TV movie for Lifetime that aired this past weekend. She has a line of jewellery designed to "balance" and "attune" the chakras of the wearer with coloured stones. She does philanthropic work for which she was honoured at the Best Buddies Gala this month in Toronto.
Her spirituality has helped her with the problem called celebrity.
"It tells you that you're less significant than fame tells you that you are," the sister of Warren Beatty explains.
"The paparazzi I have a real problem with," she adds, using her fingers, two of which are adorned with her chakra rings worn at the tips over the fingernails, to make points in the air for emphasis. But she has come to terms with that, too. "That's when I have to go into this space about fame and remember that when you come to the highly sophisticated, realized level of spirituality there are no secrets, so what am I saying, 'They're invading my privacy.' What does that mean?"
It's hard to say, but what I think she means is that as a truly spiritual being, she understands that we are all one throbbing mass of humanity and she shouldn't get snippy with people probing her private life.
Which she doesn't. She will talk about anything.
I ask about her romantic relationships.
"My job in life was to help the guy I was with, to help him see his full potential," she explains easily. "They all complained about that." She shrugs slightly. "They saw it as me being disappointed in them." She shakes her head and pushes at her bob again with her hands. "Very strange," she sighs with bemused resignation.
Her only marriage was to Steve Parker, a film producer and businessman. She has one daughter, Sachi Parker, and two grandchildren.
"I was married for 30 years, but he lived in Japan," she explains. "I lived with many other men."
Was there a happy period in her marriage?
She allows a short silence, as if carefully considering the question. "No," she concludes with certainty.
Why do it then?
"Because he was my best friend. I think he kept me from marrying someone where it would have been passionate."
Whom?
"Many," she answers. Her lovers included Robert Mitchum and Danny Kaye, among others. "Men always wanted to get married, in my experience. So I stayed married to Steve so that I wouldn't marry them. I didn't like the idea of marriage. I find it too compromising, too confining. My parents had a 55-year bad marriage. I never knew anyone in a happy marriage."
She lives alone in her house in Santa Fe, with 12 dogs as well as horses, elks and coyotes.
"I adore being alone," she says. "I cannot live without being alone for a lot of the time. ... I think a lot of people think they shouldn't be alone. They think they should be afraid. They think they are missing being the other half of something."
Doesn't she miss intimacy?
"I have that. I have a lot of friends who are around. I'm having a wonderful time in my life now with my platonic relationships with men and women, because when that sexual tension is off the requirement of the interplay, then you get to who the people really are, and to yourself."
She doesn't miss sexual intimacy?
"No. I don't miss that like I would have when I was younger. Oh no. Uh huh," she says, wagging one bejewelled fingertip.
Why?
"Because I am happy and content with myself. I cuddle with my dog."
She has written a book about the spiritual richness of having pets. Terry, her female terrier, was apparently with her in a previous lifetime in ancient Egypt.
Ms. MacLaine has palpitated every corner of her soul in an effort to know herself, and she makes no apology for the affectionate self-regard her investigations have yielded.
"Who can say it's crazy if it's my experience?" she asks rhetorically. "It's a very self-centred time of life, which you could say is selfish but you have the right, I think."
I cannot leave without asking about UFO sightings.
"They come around my ranch a lot," she says without hesitation. "They are always there when I am not there." She smiles knowingly. "My friends who stay there when I am on tour see them all the time."
Does she know why they don't come when she is there?
She looks at me with a serene expression. "Because I'd probably get on them and leave."
Follow on Twitter: @Hampsonwrites
