Delusiastic!

  George Cukor and Katherine Hepburn When I was growing up on Chrysanthemum Lane, a short, steep, dead-end street in one of many canyons of Los Angeles, our family had a special brownie recipe. Everyone who tasted those brownies always said they were the best they’d ever had—not only were they packed with chocolate, but they were super moist inside, a little fudge-y even. Our recipe was called Lil’s Brownies, but the thing was, we didn’t even know who Lil was because the woman who gave us the recipe wasn’t named Lil. You see, back then, our just down-the-hill neighbor was a perfect looking woman named Laura, with silky brown hair in a flawless pageboy, thick gold earrings, and simple, elegant clothes. She was an interior designer who was married to an architect, an interesting though somewhat quiet man whose father was a well-known Italian Jewish composer, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Laura and Lorenzo had two sons, who were a few years younger than my brother, Danny, and me, and my brot