Rita Moreno (Photo by Ruben V. Nepales) Los Angeles – The 86-year-old award-winning Puerto Rican Rita Moreno sat with us one day to talk about a myriad of topics. These included her latest TV show, “One Day At A Time,” a comedy-drama web TV series based on the 1975-1984 sitcom of the same name, her 1962 Pitoy Moreno gown which she wore again at the recent Oscars, her thoughts on fashion, her true love and her real lust, as she calls her men. An EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner, Rita talked of the late Pitoy Moreno and the gown he made for her when she won the Oscars in 1962 for her portrayal of Anita in “West Side Story.” “I met Pitoy in 1962. He fitted me,” she said. “He found that extraordinary fabric for the skirt. For whatever it’s worth that fabric really comes from Japan. It’s called obi fabric. Obi for your information is that beautiful kind of cummerbund that Japanese women wear around a kimono. That’s obi fabric. Actually it’s done in many folds. So that fabric, the whole piece of fabric was the skirt. It came just perfectly to the floor. He said if you had been two inches taller, it would not have been right. “He was wonderful. He was terrific. I didn’t know he was that big a star. I only found that out this year.” On fashion, she said, “I have a very good eye. I usually shop in my closet, that’s what I do. That’s a great book title, ‘I Shop In My Closet.’” She admitted that she has a lot of clothes. She said, “I love clothing. And shoes, but you know the trouble with shoes now is when you get older your feet don’t love those heels. So it’s always a search for little heels but that look terrific.” So what were her impressions of the Philippines while she was there, we asked. “At that time? Well, there was an awful lot of communities that were closed to the rest of the community. That’s putting it carefully,” she narrated. “With a lot of security people and those things. You could talk to the garbage man there who could tell you who fixed that election. It was kind of strange. Everybody seemed to know who was on the take and it was a very odd time.” How is it being 86 and how does she stay so young at heart? “The only thing about 86 that sucks is the memory,” she revealed. As for staying young at heart, Rita disclosed, “I work out. I write with my left hand although I’m right-handed because it makes your brain work. Did you know that? I walk backwards in a safe place because it makes your brain work. There’s all kinds of things. I do some games, television games, again for reflex purposes. And all of that really, really helps. It’s making your brain work. “And you know, so much of it has to do with attitude. I feel so grateful to still be here at 86. I never knew I would reach 86, ever. I never knew that all these amazing things would be happening for this old lady. It’s my nature. I wake up humming, I wake up singing. I wake up expecting things. Do you know what I mean? That’s me, that’s who I am.” Married to Dr. Leonard Gordon, a retired internist, from 1965 until his death on June 30, 2010, Rita confessed that before she met her late husband, she had “two kings in my life” – Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando. She confessed, “Marlon Brando was the great lust of my life. My husband was the great love of my life. But also, Elvis Presley… She added, “I wanted to make Marlon jealous because I found somebody else’s lingerie at his house one day. We’d been going together for a long time; it was a very tempestuous relationship. I went home heartbroken and weeping. I was really naïve. “The very next day after this occurred, the phone rings, hello, Ms. Rita Moreno? And I said, yes. This is Colonel Parker. I handle Elvis Presley. And I said, I know. He said, well Elvis spotted you in the commissary at 20th Century Fox yesterday, the very day that I went home heartbroken, and he said, he liked what he saw. And he said, he would like very much to meet you, would you like to meet him? And I thought about that girl’s underwear and I said, yes I would. “And you know, despite the fact that there was no social media then, we went out Elvis and I, and it was everywhere. There were columns. It hit everywhere. Of course Marlon found out and he was really upset. He was so upset he threw chairs. It was wonderful. So that’s my love life as it were.” Asked how she met Marlon Brando, Rita recalled, “I was under contract to 20th Century Fox at the time. I was asked to go get dressed up because Haile Selassie was in L.A. and he was visiting the studio. I said sure. It happened to be the soundstage where Marlon Brando was playing Napoleon Bonaparte in a film called ‘Desiree’ with Jean Simmons, beautiful girl. “We took photographs. He’s so disinterested; he had a cigarette in his mouth. Looking down at me and I’m going (opens her mouth with an amazed look). That’s where I met him. Sure enough about two days later, I got a call from him. He said Rita Moreno? I said yes? He said, this is Marlon Brando. And I went trying to be casual, hello. Oh, didn’t we meet yesterday? “I was at the Hollywood Studio Club then where I lived with all these other show business girls. That’s how I met him. It turned into an eight-year relationship, long time.” Rita disclosed that she wrote about this tumultuous love affair in her book, “Rita Moreno: A Memoir” which got published two years ago. On the TV series, “One Day At A Time,” Rita plays Lydia Riera, the Cuban grandmother. Rita admitted that the character is very similar to her. “She’s very similar to me,” she said. “You know what I did? I will tell you how I got the part. I was at a political fundraising dinner, what else is new? And so was executive producer Norman Lear. We were at the same table along with Delores Huerta, and across the table he said to me, I’m going to do a television series. It turns out I was the only one he asked first and he said, I want you to be in it. You want to be in it? And I said, yeah. And then about 10 minutes later I said wait a minute, what is it? He told me and I said I would love to do that. “So about two weeks later, we were making a deal with the agent, he and the two head writers, Mike Royce of ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ and Gloria Calderon Kellett of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ were on the phone. We were doing a conference call. “I said to Norman, I just have to say something. There’s one condition that I’m going to ask for and if you can’t provide that I don’t want to do it. They all sounded a little nervous, what is that? I said well, I know she’s an older woman, I’m playing 77 which is hilarious but I said, I want her to be a sexual person. “There was a silence. I thought, oh shit I think I blew it. Suddenly they said, yes! What a great idea. I said you know being 77, or being 86 doesn’t mean everything turns to dust down there. “I have to tell you that young people love her. People in their 20’s, people in their teens. She’s become a favorite. Because she is what they hope will happen to them when they’re older. That’s why they love her so much. “There was a little girl, a five year old girl who came to the viewing one night because you know we have a live audience, that is not a track damn it, sounds like a track, but it is a live audience…and she came back, she’s five, little girl…and her mom says, you’re her favorite character. She turns to the little girl and she says, show her Lydia. And this little tiny thing goes, what are you crazy or what? In the accent. She’s looking up at me. Children love her. Go figure. I would never have guessed that.” Her definition of happiness? “Happiness is now, because I am here. This is the third act of my life, and it is probably one of the greatest third acts ever written by the gods, as far as I’m concerned. So happiness is this minute. I’ll drink to that.”