[from Elm Street, 10/96]

Two bored teenage girls were perched on a bench just outside a Toronto movie theatre, waiting for the early show crowd to file out. One of them looked up and nudged her friend. "Hey," she said, as the tall fair-haired man walked by with his wife. "Chandler's dad."
Keith Morrison, a national correspondent for NBC's Dateline, laughs when he tells the story on himself. "So that's what I've become," he says ruefully, "Chandler's dad." Chandler, of course, is the character played by Morrison's 27-year-old stepson, Matthew Perry, in NBC's hit sitcom, Friends. Perry's face has appeared on everything from potato-chip bags to Coca-Cola commercials to Microsoft's Windows 95 promotional video. When told of Keith's comment, Matthew laughs. "That's so not true," he responds. "But only he can say something like that."
Perry is also the son of Suzanne Perry Morrison, who married Keith in 1980 after she left her job as a press aide to former prime minister Pierre Trudeau. Now a consultant and writer, Suzanne is herself no stranger on TV. "Hundreds of thousands of Canadians watched me make a total fool of myself on national television," she jokes, referring to a dismal year she spent in 1980-81 as anchor for Global Television News. Hired for her beauty (she's an ex-model), her brains and her celebrity as one of Trudeau's most famous staff members, she was thrown in front of a camera without training, and her nervousness was painfully obvious to viewers.
Life was no easier for Keith last year when CTV abruptly fired him as their anchor on Canada AM. CBC chose the same week to fire Pamela Wallin from Prime Time News and the resulting brouhaha created headlines for days. At the same time that Keith Morrison's picture, with Wallin's, made the cover of MacLean's, son Matthew was on the cover of People. The irony of his situation was not lost on Keith. Not long after he was dropped, says Keith, "we were walking down Yonge Street in Toronto and someone came up to me and said, 'Don't I know you? Didn't you use to be Keith Morrison?'"
Dealing with their own celebrity, whether the publicity is celebratory or painful, is routine for Keith and Suzanne Morrison; they can handle it and even joke about it. What has been more difficult has been dodging US tabloids seeking the inside dope on Matthew - information about the way Suzanne, as a single parent in Ottawa and Montreal, raised him (she and his father, actor John Bennett Perry, separated in 1970 when Matthew was five months old) or if she'll dish the dirt about his girlfriends.
The tabloids went wild last year when Matthew began dating actress Julia Roberts shortly after she broke up with her husband, singer Lyle Lovett. The National Enquirer even went after Suzanne's parents - Matthew's grandparents - Warren and Lucille Langford. When the Langfords turned down interview requests, a reporter turned up in Ottawa, where they live. She made her way to the local tennis club, where Matthew had become a very good tennis player - and where he plays with his grandfather when he visits. The club manager invited the reporter back to her house and called Lucille Langford, interceding on the reporter's behalf. Your children have had more than their share of breaks, said the manager, the least you can do is talk to this reporter.
Lucille spoke briefly to the reporter, who demanded to know if she was proud of Matthew. "Of course I am," she replied, but she still refused to be interviewed. Undaunted, the reporter said she was on her way over to their house, so the Langford’s turned off the lights and refused to answer the door.
"Matthew Perry beat childhood tragedies to find success in showbiz," blared the Enquirer a few days later. The "tragedies" were that Matthew's parents had divorced when he was a baby and that he had lost part of a finger. (The tip of a finger, to be less melodramatic, lost when a door slammed shut on it when Matthew was in nursery school.) The story also stated that during his early years it was his grandmother, Lucille, who really raised Matthew because his mother was so busy working for Pierre Trudeau.
"That's not true," fumes Lucille. "We didn't bring up Matthew. Suzanne always had her own house, she got the best schools for him and she did everything she could for him. She's always been a wonderful mother and they have always had such a good time together." Suzanne admits the tabloid story hurt. "My parents did help me raise Matthew, and they are terribly close to him, but the implication that I was an irresponsible mother was awful," she says. Suzanne was so devoted to Matthew that when she was still single she often took him along on her Saturday night dates, confides her mother. And if the men didn't like it, well too bad.
As he grew up in Ottawa, Matthew developed the sense of humour that characterizes his entire family and brings Chandler to life. For starters, there is the benefit of being both Suzannes’s son and Stuart Langford's nephew. Langford is now a lawyer and magazine editor, but in the 1980s, after a successful stint as a national television reporter for the CBC, he worked as an aide to both Liberal leaders, Jean Chrétien and John Turner. Now, when he gets together with his sister, with Keith as straight man, he and Suzanne launch into comedy routines specialising in imitations of politicians. "I'm like them," admits Matthew. "And I get my dry sarcastic wit from my mother."
Their big brother's celebrity has provided its difficult moments for the Morrisons' other children: Caitlin, 15, Emily, 11, Will, 10, and Madeline, 7. "Sometimes I don't know whether kids want to be my friend because I'm Matthew's sister or because I'm me," says Caitlin bluntly. "They even ask me about the private lives of every star in L.A. - as if I would know. Well, I may know one or two things," she adds, "but I wouldn't tell anyone." And when Matthew is out in public with his family, and fans move in for autographs, it can also be very uncomfortable, explains Caitlin. "Should I stand to one side? Or what?"
And what happens when Keith and Matthew are out together? "It's very funny," says Suzanne. "Last year we all went to a Blue Jays baseball game, and the women 30 and over lined up for Keith's autograph while the younger ones lined up for Matthew's. The rest of us just crouched down in our seats."
No one in the family is complaining about how Matthew's fame affects their lives because they all know how hard he has worked for it. Matthew never wanted to be anything but an actor and at 15 moved to California from Ottawa to live with his father and break into the business. He spent nearly 10 years slogging through so-so TV roles and bit parts in movies before the big break-through with Friends. "He knows what it's like to be out there without a job," comments Caitlin. "It's wonderful," adds Suzanne. "I am filled with relief that my child is going to be all right."
And during this long period, explains Matthew, his family has kept him going. "Basically, what this success has done is taught me a lot about my sense of family. My family has taught me to prioritise. When you're not working, you're obsessed with not working. And then, when you have the success, you realise: You know what? This is not really what's most important. What's most important is my family. There are these four kids who have this all-encompassing love for me. When they see me, their entire bodies smile."
Matthew's love and loyalty clearly extends to his stepfather. Keith and Matthew have always been good friends and when CTV fired Keith, Matthew was very angry. "He's so smart," Matthew says today. "What I've always know is that this is a man who is going to land on his feet. He's never going to sit back and feel sorry for himself. There are great things ahead for him."
Matthew's support has meant a lot, says Keith, because Matthew always understood what he was going through even though the two normally do not talk about work. "He's a nice guy," Keith says, "very smart and very sweet. And we have that marvellous feeling about him that he understands what he can do in the world."
Has their brother's career given his siblings ambitions of their own? Caitlin, a clever and serious girl, finds the idea of acting tempting but her heart is set on being a poet or novelist. Her favourite authors? "Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austen." Emily wants to be a veterinarian and work with farm animals, and Madeline - or Mado as the family calls her - hasn't made up her mind; her strong suit at the moment is being adorable. Will, however, could be the exception. The spitting image of his father, he loves acting and performed in several plays at Upper Canada College in Toronto while he was a student there. If anyone follows in Matthew Perry's footsteps, it'll likely be Will.
Just two months ago, the Morrisons moved back to California, this time to a sprawling house in Laguna Beach, a beautiful oceanfront community about an hour south of Los Angeles. It's also just an hour from Keith Morrison's Burbank studio and, more important, it is not far from Matthew, who now has his own two-bedroom house in the Hollywood Hills. They'll also be near all the friends the family made between 1986 and 1992 when Keith hosted the local evening news on NBC's Los Angeles affiliate, KNBC. The decision to return to Los Angeles wasn't an easy one. The Morrisons had returned to Toronto in 1992 because they wanted to raise their children in Canada and the Canada AM job made that possible. During their years in Toronto, Matthew Perry's sisters and brother had settled happily into their schools, fallen in love with the country farmhouse their parents bought near Peterborough, Ont., for weekends and relished their visits to the Langford’s in Ottawa, where they'd also become close to their cousins, Stuart and Jeannie Langford's three daughters. The big hole in their Toronto lives was that Matthew wasn't there. Matthew, says Caitlin, was always the one who arranged their birthday parties in Los Angeles, bringing in clowns, setting up the games, running the show. Matthew would regularly spend a day alone with each of his sisters and his brother in turn, lavishing attention on each, making each feel he or she was the most special one of all. After his family moved to Toronto, there were regular visits back and forth to California, inviting them to the Friends set and introducing them to the other stars. "I love you, Matthew, I love you, I love you," faxes Madeline, often three times a day.
"Look, I'm not this wonderful guy being nice to my kid sisters and brother," protests Matthew. "I'm selfish. I like having them around. When they were in Toronto, they changed and grew bigger and I wasn't around to see that."
Even when they were apart, however, the kids never hesitated into Matthew's life where others feared to tread. They made it very clear, for example, that their choice for Matthew's bride was not Julia Roberts or any of the other gorgeous actresses he sees, but his long-time girlfriend Gabriella Allan, 26, a young Canadian actress he first met when he was 20 and whom he dated for four years before they decided they needed some time apart. "She'll always be part of his life," says Suzanne. Like Matthew, Gaby Allan comes from a well-known Canadian family; her grandfather, Ted Allan, who died last year, was a novelist and screenwriter, best known for The Scalpel & the Sword: The Story of Dr. Norman Bethune. "She's neat," said Emily, who was thrilled when Gaby took her to a performance of the National Ballet in Toronto last year and was able to get a pair of ballet slippers autographed for her. "We really love Gaby," confirmed Suzanne. "But that's something she and Matthew are going to have to work out on their own."
It may not be as easy seeing Matthew as it once was, star status has brought tight control, both professional and personal, from his handlers. He spent the summer shooting two new movies - Edwards and Hunt: The First American Road Trip, a comedy set in the 1800s with Chris Farley and SCTV alumnus Eugene Levy, and Fools Rush In with Salma Hayek from Desparado - before returning to the Friends studio and the new TV season. "I'll have more time soon," protests Matthew who expects to wrap up filming on the two features this month.
But the Morrisons have been busy themselves since returning to California. Keith spends as much time travelling all over the US on assignment as he does in Burbank. ("The kids say, 'Oh, God, Mommy's cooking tonight,'" admits Suzanne, who hates cooking and ordinarily leaves all the meals to Keith.)
Suzanne, who also has a degree in interior design from UCLA, is renovating their new house and continuing to write, working on a script she began in Toronto. Caitlin, Emily, Will and Madeline are back in school, making new friends, exploring the beaches. Celebrity is nothing new to this family nor does it impress any of them; what does make the move worthwhile, despite all the difficulties, is being together again.