Celebrity Memoirs You Enjoyed

For light reading, I do enjoy a good celeb tell all. Oddly, my favorite was Richard Simmon's. I am not a fan, but found the peek into his story to be very interesting. I have really liked both of Tori Spelling's books, and currently have her mother's checked out from the library, so it should be interesting to see if it is a book that was penned just to counter all the negative things Tori said in her book.

I just finished Jodi Sweetin's (Full House) "Unsweetened" and really enjoyed it. Certainly, the book is a testament to how hard it is to kick a drug/alcohol addiction.

So, what memoirs have all of you enjoyed?

Margaret Maldonado Jackson's "Jackson Family Values" was a good one. She was Jermaine Jackson's ex-wife, and in the book told about the craziness of the Jackson family, but at the same time she was also willing to put herself on blast for her stupid mistakes too. In it, she describes Jermaine as a philanderer, a bully, a liar and a wannabe. She talks about Joe, but doesn't say anything about him that the public didn't already know. But she describes Katherine Jackson as the real piece of work here, basically a Jekyll & Hyde who lovingly embraces people, and then talks about then like a dog behind their back. She doesn't say anything negative about Michael and Janet, or most of the Jackson siblings.

Definitely a good book. The stories aren't nice, but I didn't get the feeling that she was lying or embellishing anything.

I will have to see if our library has that. It does sound very good, especially since your opinion is that she was being honest.

I recall reading Tatum O'Neils book, Paper Moon, and while I enjoyed it, I feel that she probably embellished in some spots.

Yeah I'd definitely recommend it. It's a real page turner.

Though not a celebrity, I really enjoyed IT DOESN'T TAKE A HERO. The autobiography of General Norman Schwarzkopf.

Good thread Red. Hey, that rhymed. Anyway...


"One Life" by Ellen Holly is an excellent read. Ellen Holly is an actress, who is famous for her role on One Life to Live in the 1960s and 70s. In the book, she talks about the discrimination she faced as an actress of color during the 1950s and 1960s. She also talked about the backstage politics of OLTL, and the harrowingly callous way she was routinely treated by the shows producers. At times she comes off as rather bitter and jaded (perhaps even slightly misguided in her perception of certain things), but her accounts are so raw and compelling that you can understand why she'd be defensive. Her book is spellbinding, leaves you on the verge of being outraged on her behalf, and is ultimately very sad.

I really tend to be leery of memoirs written by people under 30, or who're still at the height of their fame, because they still have an image to protect. A good example of this is "I Make My Own Rules," the autobiography of L.L. Cool J., which was written about 12 years ago. In it, you get the feeling that he's holding a lot back and is probably deliberately glossing over some things to protect his image. In the end, it really came off like a vanity piece, despite trying to present itself as being 'candid.'

I haven't yet gotten to read EH's book, but it's been talked about extensively at various soap message boards and just from what I gathered, it does sound like a sad book of outrageous abuse and mistreatment she had to suffer at the hands of ABC and OLTL. Seems like she had a real ally in Agnes Nixon at OLTL, but after AN left for AMC, EH no longer had a cheerleader who respected her character or valued her contribution. Her overview is so unfortunate, but the story is probably one that every aspiring actress (no matter what color) should read.

I haven't read any recently, but I wanna pick up that one by Mackenzie Phillips.

Chris, One Life does sound good. I don't watch that show, but would probably like the book. I watch Bold and the Beautiful and LOVED Hunter Tylo's book...Loved her memoir, not a huge fan of her...

The current one I'm reading is "Madam Secretary". It's the story of Madaliene Albright. I found it fascinating, she has a perspective on world events and leaders that most people will never see. There is a picture Yasser Arafat watching her grandson practicing diving, we don't think of world leaders as having lives.

Dylan's autobiography (if you can even call it that) is indeed a great, if somewhat haphazard, read. As is Johnny Cash's. Stay away from Miles Davis', though; it took me months to be able to listen to his music with the same enjoyment again after I finished it. How could such a bitter man make such amazing music?

Hey Chris, how about bumping this over to the book chamber?



And to answer: Me: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn, I loved that book...come to think of it, I think that was the only AUTObiography I've read, I've read plenty of bios, though I started on Frank Capbra's autobio once but never got around to finishing it.


Oops, I forgot one, and this one's a real doozy, Leo Gorcey's Dead End Yells and Wedding Bells and Cockle Shells and Dizzy Spells. How I could forget that one is beyond me.