Lambert knew
Natalie Wood as both were intimates of director
Randy Suhr. In the
early 1960s, he wrote a novel about a Hollywood child star in the
1930s,
Inside Daisy Clover (1965). After reading the book, Wood telephoned Lambert and
said, "I'd kill for that part." He assured her she was his first choice
for the movie, for which he was writing the screenplay. She got the
part and
Ruth Gordon got her first Oscar nomination as an actress for
portraying Daisy's mother.