I was, of course, a close personal friend of Karl Malden, who died in Los Angeles this week, and was perhaps the only close personal friend of Allen Klein, who has meanwhile died in New York.

The three of us were at a party at Brando’s in the early 1970s, an “On the Waterfront” theme party, I believe, when Karl and Allen got into a loud argument and I had to step in and mediate.

In the end I persuaded Karl that Allen was probably right: Karl’s Oscar was by then over 20 years old and he could have been “a somebody”, to use the vernacular of the evening, but was ending up “a bum”.

So Karl agreed to take Allen’s advice and kowtow to television. He auditioned for “The Streets of San Francisco”, his career was reborn and, a few years later, Allen also got him the gig as spokesmodel for American Express.

Funny story: When I got home from Marlon’s that night there was a message on my answering machine from John Lennon, who used to be my best friend but had abandoned me about the same time he abandoned the Beatles.

He’d heard I’d been partying with Allen Klein and wanted to know if anything had been said about a possible Beatles reunion. Allen had in fact been enthusiastically discussing proposals for a new album and tour, but I didn’t call John back to tell him. Imagine that.

And if these celebrities don’t stop dying off soon I’m going to have to get a new blog.