Celebrity Memoirs Reveal Wild Lives
Maureen McCormick, Rupert Everett, Chris Miller Reveal Private Sides
Jan 23, 2009
The next best thing to being an actual celebrity is being friends with or married to one of them. Too bad most of us don’t fall into any of these categories and must read celebrity memoirs and watch biopics to stay apprised of our favorite stars. The following three memoirs – though representing three vastly different celebrities with completely separate careers – represent some of the best celebrity-scribed books to come out in recent years.
Here’s the Story by Maureen McCormick
McCormick has spent nearly 50 years coming to terms with her inner Marcia Brady. Typecast as the “perfect” sister, daughter, and girlfriend with her stunning good looks and onscreen charisma, McCormick seemed intent on proving that she was the polar opposite of the character she portrayed on the long-running popular network television series The Brady Bunch. She struggled (and continues to struggle) with legitimate family problems, and her descent into drug abuse, promiscuity, and spousal abuse are quite disturbing to read, though obviously relate to her childhood experiences with her family and as a child star.
Despite these transgressions, however, McCormick remains quite likable through her direct observations, simple writing style, and engaging personality. She shares intimate details about life on The Brady Bunch set, about her drug and sexual experiences, and about her dysfunctional family. Her story seems genuine, and she portrays herself as a flawed woman (who happens to look a lot like Marcia Brady) constantly working at self-improvement and striving to raise her daughter in a healthier environment than she endured.
Contains profanity, sexuality, and drug use.
Book Details:
McCormick, Maureen. Here’s The Story. Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice. HarperCollins Publishers, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-06-149014-9, 277 pages, Memoir, Hardcover.
Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins by Rupert Everett
Everett (My Best Friend’s Wedding, Shrek 2, Stardust) spends more than 400 pages writing about his wild gay lifestyle, alcohol and drug use, early life as a prostitute, practical jokes, and other eyebrow-raising behavior. Despite these activities, Everett comes across through his writing as a highly intelligent, occasionally remorseful, nice guy with a true gift for expressing himself.
Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins explores his life in the public eye and during private moments. He shares stories about famous people he’s worked with, people he’s partied with, and people he’s sparred with in the entertainment industry throughout his many years on the stage and in the movies. Sometimes coarse, sometimes poetic, Everett keeps the reader turning pages with a smooth storytelling style that’s highly enjoyable.
Contains profanity, sexuality, and drug use.
Book Details:
Everett, Rupert. Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins. The Autobiography. Warner Books, 2007. ISBN: 978-0446579636, 416 pages, Autobiography, Hardcover.
The Real Animal House by Chris Miller
The author describes this book as a “mostly lucid memoir” of his days attending Dartmouth College where he pledged the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. These experiences were transformed into the raunchy (though highly successful) 1978 comedy film National Lampoon’s Animal House. Miller co-wrote the R-rated screenplay for the film with Harold Ramis and Doug Kenney.
Watching the film, however, does not prepare readers for the memoir. Boys will be boys, and in this case, animals will be animals. This supposedly true story of Miller’s college years contains such antics as vomiting contests, body-hair burnings, and exploring new ways to use body fluids. The post-adolescent, all-male atmosphere seems conducive to far more outrageous behavior than 1970s movie censors would allow. Shocking, disgusting, and strangely addictive, this book will delight lovers of Animal House, and repel just about everyone else.
Contains extreme profanity, explicit sexuality, and alcohol/drug use.
Book Details:
Miller, Chris. The Real Animal House. The Awesomely Depraved Saga of the Fraternity That Inspired the Movie. Little, Brown and Company, 2006. ISBN: 978-0316067171, 384 pages, Memoir, Hardcover.
For more information about the movie Animal House, read Fun Facts About Animal House.
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