(Newser) – Ryan O'Neal appeared on the Today show yesterday to chat about his legal coup regarding an Andy Warhol silkscreen of Farrah Fawcett. It wasn't exactly a dry, legalese-filled chat. Instead, O'Neal revealed that Fawcett granted him permission to appear on the show that very morning, because, you know, he talks to her. "She said I could do it," he explained. "I talked to her this morning."

O'Neal said he was having minor skin cancer surgery when he learned that the case had ended in his favor, not that of the University of Texas (which Fawcett bequeathed all her art to; more on the case here). His son Patrick "texted me. I was lying on an operating table. There was blood running down the side of my face and then there were tears running down the side of my face mixing with the blood. It was a pretty amazing moment for me." He also went on to say that the school went after the painting in the first place because "I have enemies, and one of them sent 90 emails to the regents there, said I stole it." (Read more celebrity stories.)

