"Is this a match made in heaven?" a reporter asked Rodney Dangerfield on the night of his latest wedding reception.
"Heaven! Try a few floors lower! The priest asked me, `Do you promise to take this woman . . . until Wednesday do you part?' Huh! I tell ya, I get no respect."OK, so Dangerfield - the well-known stage comedian and comic actor - didn't say anything like that Saturday night. At least, not to the few members of the press who were present.
Actually, he behaved a lot like a guy who recently got married for the second time, at age 72.
Hopeful and maybe a little nervous.
Dangerfield and Ogden native Joan Child, 42, wed on Dec. 26, 1993. According to his publicist, the ceremony took place at a familiar stomping ground for Danger-field: Las Vegas, Nevada.
The new Mrs. Dangerfield flashed a confident smile Saturday night at the Ogden Radisson.
Rodney Dangerfield just seemed eager to make the night go as smoothly as possible.
"I think she married me just to get even with her parents," said Dangerfield, with typical, self-deprecating humor.
Not likely.
"We love it! We love it!" said the mother of the bride, Evelyn Child, of her daughter's marriage.
Both she and Delbert Child, the father of the bride, are big fans of Dangerfield's comedy from way back.
"I've always liked him," said Evelyn Child.
Was he, in person, as you expected?
"Oh, yes," she said. "I think he's a great guy."
The newlyweds, who have known each other for 10 years, are in town only for the weekend. They will reside in Los Angeles, where they met, and where Joan Dangerfield owns an exotic-flower shop called Jungle Roses.
According to the publicist, the Dangerfields will not take an official honeymoon. She said "they've been on one" for the past two months.
Dangerfield recently finished work on the upcoming Oliver Stone film "Natural Born Killers." He said he has "just a cameo role - about 10 minutes." He wrote his own lines for the part.
"It's a heavy villain," said Dangerfield, apparently referring to the nature, not the weight, of the character. "They kill me in the end, and the audience will be glad. I'm a bad fellow."
He said the movie should be released in May or June.
This is the first marriage for Joan Dangerfield, a graduate of Weber High School. She also served a brief stint as a guest writer at the Ogden Standard-Examiner.
The reception in the Radisson's Skyline Room was a family-only affair. There was no sign of any Hollywood types, and the newlyweds acted like you would expect any newlyweds to act.
"Is this a match made in heaven?" a reporter asked the couple.
"Yes," the bride quickly affirmed.
"Made in heaven? We'll see," said the groom. "I hope so."