The Exorcist Was Inspired by Blatty's Neighbour Shirley MacLaine and Her Daughter?👿😇👺😎

Sweet Charity (1969)

It has been speculated that Shirley McLaine, a former neighbour of the William Peter Blatty in California, may have been the basis for the Chris MacNeil character in 'The Exorcist'?

 'The Exorcist'

Shirley MacLaine: The Fool's Journey and No One is an Island?🎥🃏🌴🎬

NPR's Book of the Day
(November 15th, 2024)

After reading Shirley MacLaine's 2011 book 'I'm Over All That' and watching the weird 1969 movie 'Sweet Charity' recently, I did a search for podcast episodes featuring, or about Shirley MacLaine, and one interesting one that came up was an episode about the 1973 movie 'The Exorcist' and how Blatty had modeled the mother and daughter of his book on MacLaine and her daughter Sachi.

X012 The Exorcist (1973)

I'm a big fan of the original movie, but I'm no believer in Satan or Hell, although I found it interesting that MacLaine's co-star in the movie 'Sweet Charity' actually was a Satanist around the time he played Big Daddy and sung 'The Rhythm of Life' in that movie, according to his Wikipedia page.

"Davis experimented with Satanism following his 1968 divorce.[44] He became a warlock in the Church of Satan and was a friend of its High Priest, Anton LaVey. Even after cutting ties with the Church, he continued to perform Satanic rituals.[83]"

Sweet Charity (1969)
Sammy Davis Jr.: Big Daddy

Shirley MacLaine's 2011 book 'I'm Over All That' 

Shirley MacLaine's 2011 book 'I'm Over All That' 

The Rhythm of Synch is hard to beat?-)

The Possession of Joel Delaney (1972)

Life According to Stephen Hawking and Shirley MacLaine? 🌠🔭🔮🤩