Top Tweets for #DollytParton

Here’s a personal, true story from Barry Livingston about Dolly that reveals her generous, sweet nature. "I had a friend (Ray, a fake name I’ll use here) who was a paparazzi, a photographer who followed celebrities to catch pics of them around town to sell to tabloid newspapers. Anyway, Ray was outside a club, the Viper Room, in Hollywood the night that River Phoenix overdosed. Ray found him lying on the sidewalk near death. Instead of taking the “million dollar photo” (the phrase used by Ray’s paparazzi pals) of a world famous actor on death’s door, Ray did the right thing and ran to a phone booth (no cell phones back then) and called for an ambulance. When paramedics arrived, River was gone. Afterwards, Ray’s pals kept razzing him about not taking the pic of River that would have made him rich. Ray was conflicted; he knew he passed up a once in a lifetime opportunity but took solace that he did the right thing. Because Ray was the person who discovered River and called for the ambulance, his name got into the newspaper as did the story about him not taking the pic of the dying actor. Not long after, his phone rang. It was Dolly. She said she’d read about the incident and heard he was being laughed at by his paparazzi pals. Then, she told him she going to send him a plane ticket to Nashville and wanted him to do a private photoshoot with her. He not only flew out to Nashville (at her expense) but one of the pics he took she chose to use for an album cover. Her thoughtful generosity opened up a whole other world in his photography career. Her actions never made headlines but it spoke volumes about Dolly’s character. RIP sweet, sweet Dolly."