Heaven Can Wait: Back in LA, Rams go for a Hollywood sequel

By EDDIE PELLS

AP National Writer

ATLANTA

Before there was Jared Goff, there was Warren Beatty.

Years before Goff or any of today’s Rams were born, Beatty had been carried off on his teammates’ shoulders to celebrate a Rams title that only Hollywood could dream up.

He played quarterback Joe Pendleton in the 1978 Academy Award nominated movie “Heaven Can Wait.” At the end, he leads LA to an otherworldly Super Bowl victory over the Steelers.

It all happened during a time when the real-life Rams, with Joe Namath, Rosey Grier and the rest of the Fearsome Foursome, embodied everything about Hollywood cool, even if the notion of them winning the Super Bowl felt like something that could only happen in the movies.

It was a time when the Steelers were winning all the Super Bowls and the Cowboys were becoming America’s Team.

But, Beatty told The Associated Press, “there was no reason not to make the movie about the Rams.”

“They were fun. It was fun,” Beatty said. “The only word I can come up with is, ‘fun.’”

Funny, too.

In “Heaven Can Wait,” Beatty’s character, Pendleton, is snatched away to heaven before his time by an overzealous escort (Buck Henry). After realizing the mistake, the escort and his boss, Mr. Jordan (James Mason), try to place the quarterback back into his original body, only to discover he has been cremated. The search for a substitute body ensues, and the result is a touching love story (with Julie Christie) punctuated by a steady stream of laughs, most courtesy of Pendleton’s hysterical, cheating wife (Dyan Cannon) and her bumbling, ridiculous lover (Charles Grodin).

About a year after the movie came out, the Rams, behind a backup quarterback, Vince Ferragamo, made a magical run that ended in the franchise’s first Super Bowl – against the Steelers, no less, just like in the movie. Only LA lost that one, 31-19.

Fifteen years later, the Rams moved to St. Louis and lost their LA connection for two decades.

But now they’re back, Beatty’s a fan – and there’s a delicious irony developing.

At the end of “Heaven Can Wait,” the Rams are in the Super Bowl and their quarterback is knocked senseless by a vicious hit.

Pendleton, in need of another, more-permanent body to inhabit, takes over and, a few minutes later, scoops up a fumble and runs it in for the winning touchdown.

In the movie, the quarterback wears No. 16 on that classic, blue-and-yellow Rams home jersey. And Joe Pendleton becomes Tom Jarrett. In real life, a guy named Jared – Jared Goff – will wear the blue-and-yellow No. 16 for the Rams today.

Will LA win again? Now, there’s a sequel Hollywood would love.