Me & Jezebel: When Bet

After meeting Fuller ( Everyone Is Psychic ) and her family through a mutual friend, in 1985 Bette Davis requests the hospitality of their suburban Connecticut home during a New York City hotel strike. The arrangement, which was to have lasted only days, stretched into weeks. With a Hollywood legend as the author's houseguest, the reader anticipates an intimate interlude, or at least a revealing glimpse or two. However, Fuller tells us little more about Jezebel herself than that she eats Carnation Instant Breakfast, reads the Daily News and smokes Vantage cigarettes by the carton. Davis's fans won't be surprised by her abrasive and distant manner. But they may tire of hearing the star shrieking, ``Kee-ryst!'' while smashing out cigarettes wherever she pleases, over and over again. Fuller's account of her brush with greatness is punctuated by efforts to construct an unlikely parallel between Davis's visit and her own self-discovery: ``Was our meeting predestined? . . . what was the lesson I was supposed to be learning?'' The hopes the author shares about bonding with Davis are as embarrassing as the episodes when she tries to impress Davis with psychic abilities. Fuller has performed this book as a one-woman play. (May)