memoirs (13 posts)

Mackenzie Phillips' admission that her father, '60s rock icon John Phillips, raped her when she was 19 and that the incestuous relationship did not stop there has brought a variety of responses from her extended family.

The One Day at a Time star read excerpts from her memoir, High on Arrival, on The Oprah Winfrey Show today, where she also talked about the drug problems and depression that have plagued her for most of her life.

Phillips says that she finally put a stop to the sex 10 years after it started when she became pregnant and, suspecting that John could be the dad, she had an abortion.

"It was one of those moments where you're either going to live or die," she told Oprah. "I don't mean death. I mean, wake up dead. Dead to feeling. Dead to reality."

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This former bodyguard to the stars is still deciding whether to dish his A-list details.

Mickey Brett, who prompted Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt to put their legal team on standby just in case, tells E! News that he is still pondering whether to pen a memoir recounting his tales from the field working for such celebs as Brangelina, Tom Cruise and Sandra Bullock.

"I have not decided if I will write it or not yet," Brett said Thursday.

The New York Daily News reported in April that Brett was shopping a ghost-written tome that, while it treated Jolie favorably, had some lesser things to say about her mate.

Beverly Hills legal eagle Martin Singer has insisted that Brett would be in violation of a confidentiality agreement if he told all about working for the Jolie-Pitt family (a tenure that included a bust for assault in Namibia and several run-ins with the paparazzi).

Singer didn't mind spilling a few secrets, however, telling the Daily News that his clients' ex-employee was once questioned as part of a murder investigation and was not a former British SAS commando as he once claimed.

Courtesy: Brian Braff

Patrick Swayze's pen is apparently mightier than the radio. Not only is the actor "alive and well," he's writing.

The memoir he's been penning alongside wife Lisa Niemi is set to be released by Atria Books in the fall, the publisher announced today.

For the presently untitled tome, the Dirty Dancer will cover his childhood, career, marriage and uphill battle against cancer. He'll share "his brave fight against a diagnosis of stage-four pancreatic cancer, from which he has gleaned wisdom and has remained resolutely optimistic," according to the press release.

Swayze's wife of more than 30 years will add her side of the experience and the difficulty of bearing witness to her loved one's pain.

"With everything I've been fortunate enough to do in my life, and covering such a wide range of diverse subject matters, I'm told that my story has been inspirational to people," the actor said in a statement. "I will write from my heart about these experiences and, aside from the sheer pleasure of doing it, if people happen to garner inspiration from it, or incentive, or find a new way to love, it would be wonderful."

The couple has been working on the book at work at their New Mexico ranch. This photo was taken during a brief break from writing, Swayze's publicist tells E! News.

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Bristol Palin don't need no stinkin' GED.

The teenage mom-turned-teen abstinence advocate earned her high school diploma last night at the Wasilla Sports Complex, with son Tripp and parents Todd and Sarah Palin in attendance.

The 19-year-old graduated with a not unimpressive 3.497 GPA, according to People, a mere "point zero-zero-something" away from honors, says the grad.

Prior to crossing the stage to receive her congratulatory handshake and hard-won piece of paper, Palin gave a wave to her 4-month-old son.

"I'm so excited, I'm glad to have this part of my life over with," the teen told conservative Alaska talk radio personality and self-proclaimed "Palinista" Eddie Burke hours before her graduation, adding that her family was "all really excited" about her milestone.

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Brangelina is hoping it'll be don't ask, don't tell-all for their former bodyguard.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are reportedly retaining an arsenal of libel attorneys in both the U.S. and U.K. after catching wind of a planned—and not so flattering—memoir by the family's former security man, Mickey Brett.

According to the New York Daily News, Brett has been shopping around a proposal for a no-holds-barred bio and TV show based on his career as a bodyguard to Hollywood's elite. Although he plans on discussing his protection duties for Sandra Bullock, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sylvester Stallone and Richard Gere, it's the Jolie-Pitt clan that apparently takes center stage in his tome.

Brett has been guarding Jolie since 2001, and while he reportedly has kind words for the Oscar winner, Brett's not so peachy keen on Pitt.

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Here's hoping Kanye West eases up on the all-caps for his next writing venture.

The blog-happy hip-hop star is collaborating on Glow in the Dark, a "deluxe volume" about his most recent world tour that will feature documentary photographs of West's good life onstage and off, sketches and other conceptual plans for the tour's set design and costumes, exclusive commentary and a greatest-hits CD from the Glow in the Dark set list.

"Kanye West has turned his talents as pop artist to books," Charlies Miers, VP and publisher at Rizzoli New York, said in a statement to E! News.

"With a CD that includes Star Wars-like symphonics from the show as well as interview with Spike Jonze, it is not only a memento of one of the most successful musical performances of the year, it is an experience all its own."

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Patrick Swayze's increasingly dramatic story is headed for yet another medium.

The actor and his wife of 33 years, Lisa, "will be collaborating on his memoirs," Swayze's rep, Annett Wolf, tells E! News. "There is no further information at this time."

But what a tale the 56-year-old actor could tell, going from unknown dancer to up-and-comer to full-fledged heartthrob after starring in Dirty Dancing to cult-favorite character in Road House to established leading man in Ghost to reborn character actor in Donnie Darko to...

You get the picture.

And along the way, there were struggles with substance abuse and now, sadly, a battle with pancreatic cancer that has thrown Swayze back into the public eye with a vengeance.

The ever-upbeat star of A&E's new series The Beast returned home last week after a short stint in the hospital to treat pneumonia, telling People, "I am alive and plan on continuing to stay that way."

Growing up Brady wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Erstwhile Marcia Brady Maureen McCormick is telling all—and we mean all—about her formative years both on and off TV, revealing new details about her depression, drug addiction, unwanted pregnancy and what can only be described as an exhaustive history of suitors in her new memoir, Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice.

In addition to discussing an unusual string of relationships with Steve Martin, Michael Jackson and her TV bro Barry Williams, the actress and sometime country singer also reveals that she once traded sex for drugs and engaged in full-on binges at the Playboy Mansion and at the home of Sammy Davis Jr.

Marcia, Marcia, oh, Marcia.

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New York Times Nonfiction Best-Seller List. Doesn't automatically make you think of Tori Spelling, does it?

But atop that prestigious list is exactly where Spelling's first memoir, sTORI Telling, lies, according to figures released yesterday by the national newspaper.

Taking into account the success of her Oxygen reality show Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, the recent fervor over the new 90210 and Spelling's poignant, Joan Didion-reminiscent prose (or fluffy conversationalist style, whichever), this book has only been gathering steam since its March 11 release.

The 288-page tale of growing up Spelling has been on the Times' list for 14 weeks and, now in its 19th printing, was perched in second place last week.

And why not?

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Either Robert Downey Jr. figures he has plenty of living to go or he's just too busy these days in the wake of his monster Iron Man success.

Whatever the reason, the onetime Oscar nominee confirmed today that he is putting off plans to write a memoir for publisher HarperCollins that had originally been slated for release later this year.

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Courtesy Skechers

Despite the handful of reality shows, the magazine covers and her own cranking publicity machine, apparently there are some things we don't yet know about Tori Spelling.

The 35-year-old celeb-about-town announced Monday that she's working on a follow-up to her best-selling memoir sTori Telling, this time prosaically tackling the trials and tribulations of Mommywood.

"Writing my first book, sTori Telling, was an amazing, cathartic journey for me," the former Beverly Hills 90210 (and future 90210) actress said. "Now, being a mom of two beautiful babies, I'm excited to share more stories as I embark on this new chapter of my life."

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Look who's expressing himself.

Madonna's younger brother, Christopher Ciccone, is penning a memoir about his famous sister set for release next month, publisher Simon & Schuster announced today.

"Ciccone's extraordinary memoir is based on his life and 47 years of growing up with and working with his sister—the most famous woman in the world," the company said in a press release.

The publishing house has ordered a monster first printing of 350,000 copies of Life With My Sister, set to hit shelves July 15.

Madonna's publicist, Liz Rosenberg, said there would be no comment "at this time."

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