Tag Archives: celebrity memoir

In a galaxy far, far away…

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A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away .. a book by Princess Leia floated into the atmosphere..

Okay, well it wasn’t that long ago and not that far away, but on Wednesday, my current book was feeling a bit too heavy and I needed a one night break.  Walking past a shelf by the office kitchen, I stopped to browse the back of Carrie Fisher’s autobiography Wishful Drinking – a mere 162-paged hilarious book full of pictures and (as per the flap copy suggested) “the crazy truth that is her life”.  Not only am I not a huge Star Wars person, but I hardly knew anything about Carrie Fisher and who she was.  Now, however, I am quite the expert.

This book was insane, sad and hilarious, all tied up in two little buns!  I was caught laughing out loud  multiple times on the subway and definitely got a few of those looks (yeah, you know exactly what I’m talking about).  Regardless, I’m pretty sure I can make you want to read this in a few small points:

1. Carrie is the product of Hollywood’s Sweethearts gone wrong.  Actress Debbie Reynolds (from Singing in the Rain) and crooner Eddie Fisher were married just long enough to have two kids before a tragic accident lead to Eddie leaving Debbie for Elizabeth Taylor (who also happened to be a close friend)!  Trust me, this story is a twisted one.

2. Carrie addresses what it was like (and the awkward situations arising from) being the most fantasized-about woman for nerds worldwide.

“Oh my God!  I thought about you every day from when I was twelve to when I was twenty-two.”
And instead of asking what happened at twenty-two, I said, “Every day?”
He shrugged and said, “Well, four times a day.”
Welcome to the land of too much information.

3. Her father accidentally eats his own (wildly expensive) hearing aids!  Now this story was the one that had me howling on the subway.  A detailed account of how this came to be is the perfect way to bring you back to life after the crowded, mind-numbing half hour subway ride to and from work.

4. Her mother bought her and her grandmother a very specific erotic toy for Christmas!  The rational of why it is the perfect stocking stuffer is definitely worth a read.  Christmas IS coming!  Just joking..

5. Even through all her crazy stories, Carrie is a warm person.  Her pride in her daughter, one of the only things she thinks she did truly well, is extremely touching.  She is honest about all the insane events that occurred in her life and open about the fact that, although she knows it is different from the lives of most people, it was all she ever knew.

If you loved this, you will love the book, and thankfully her second memoir, Shockaholic  (detailing her experiences with electro-shock therapy) is in stores now!  I will most definitely be grabbing one of those for myself!

Carrie’s book is also a one woman show that aired on HBO!

Portia de Rossi’s triumph over adversity

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“I didn’t decide to become anorexic. It snuck up on me disguised as a healthy diet, a professional attitude. Although there was a certain glamour to anorexics, I didn’t want to be one. I just wanted to excel in dieting. And weighing in at 80 pounds on 300 calories a day, I was the best little dieter there ever was.”
 
In scalding, revelatory prose, Portia de Rossi reveals the pain and illness that haunted her for decades, from the time she was a 12 year-old girl working as a print and runway model in Australia, through her early rise to fame as a cast member of the hit shows Ally McBeal and Arrested Development. All the while terrified that the truth of her sexuality would be revealed in the tabloids, Portia alternately starved herself and binged, putting her life in danger and lying to herself and everyone around her about the depth of her illness. Elaborate rituals around food came to dominate every hour of every day, to the exclusion of anything else.
 
“Dishes and utensils became an important part of the ritual. I would travel with them–wash them in hotel bathroom sinks, hide them away in a suitcase. My anxiety about eating was instantly allayed when I saw my little white bowl with the green flowers. I had to see the crack at the bottom of the bowl at all times. I ate every meal with chopsticks. I would rhythmically lift one grain of quinoa to my mouth at a time. My allotted 40-grain portion could take all day. Good for a Saturday.”
 
Portia takes the reader back to pivotal moments of her childhood and unearths the casual comments and subtle cues that set her on the road to anorexia. She reveals the heartache and fear that accompany a life lived in the closet, and is brutally honest about her own early relationships (including one failed marriage) and her first fumbling attempts to acknowledge the fact that she was a lesbian. All this is set against the bright lights and long hours of her acclaimed work on such popular television shows as Ally McBeal, Arrested Development, and Better Off Ted. Afraid to reveal much of herself around her fellow cast members, she cut herself off from them and sank deeper and deeper into a life that was dominated solely by her unrelenting desire to be ever thinner, ever more in control of her body.
 
“So how does it feel to be obsessed? Obsession isn’t a feeling like love, or disappointment, or fear–it is who you are. It is your identity. It removes all rational thought and replaces it with a single, repetitive thought. Sound awful? It isn’t. It’s lovely. To think of nothing but your next meal, the calories consumed already that day, the amount of time on the treadmill to take it all away. It’s true that you hate it at times, blame it for everything that’s bad in your life, but you’d be nothing without it. Without it, I literally wouldn’t have had a thought in my head.”
 
From her lowest point, Portia began the painful climb back to health and honesty, ultimately falling head over heels in love with Ellen DeGeneres, whom she married in 2008. Since then, Portia’s career has continued to flourish and she has emerged as an outspoken and articulate advocate for gay rights and the issues of women’s health. In this remarkable and landmark book, she is giving the world a story that inspires hope and nourishes the spirit.
Watch for appearances by Portia November 1st on Oprah and Ellen on November 4th. Unbearable Lightness is in bookstores November 1st.