Am currently listening to Mathew Perry’s reading of his book; feels odd. with it’s odd mix of my life was extraordinary–look who I got to date and who my mom is–but also awful. Do you even have to be awesome enough to be worth a book outside your fame when you’re famous; guess “that” was the book I” was looking for! fool me.
by heavensdumptruck
15 Comments
Perry’s hot years were well behind him when he wrote that book. As he wasnt a “creator” really, celeb sex is all he got. See Glory Days by Springsteen.
Yes, probably the best example that I can give is Who on Earth is Tom Baker. It’s an autobiography that doesn’t focus on his most famous role.
I haven’t read his book but I feel like it would probably be really difficult to write an honest autobiography when you’re famous *without* name dropping? Unless it was only about the celebrity’s life before becoming famous, celebrities are going to meet and talk about other celebrities.
why are you reading a book about a celebrity if you don’t want to hear about their life or celebrities? this is 100% on you.
It’s certainly possible to write without bragging, but I don’t know if Perry specifically had the humility it would take to do that. As for name dropping, I have no idea how someone like Perry would write an autobiography and leave out celebrity names. His professional and social circles are filled with famous people and those are the people his audience will want to read about. I guess it’s possible to anonymize all his anecdotes by saying “I was hanging out with Celebrity X one time and we got into this hilarious situation…” but that sounds like a frustrating read. You’ll want to know who he’s talking about. His book was met with a lot of hate when it came out due to his self-pity, self-aggrandizement, and inability to take responsibility for his own failings. Also, the Keanu thing. Never read it myself, so I couldn’t say. Of course, all the hate disappeared after his tragic death and you’ll never hear a bad word uttered against him except for maybe how sad it was that he was an addict. From where I stand all I can say is that he seemed like a deeply troubled person and I’m not surprised by your reaction to his book.
The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles was a favorite of mine growing up. I had no idea that Julie Andrews was the author until it was pointed out to me.
I enjoyed the first volume of David Sedaris’s diary, much of it was from before he was famous.
Name dropping made Rob Lowe’s book extra entertaining imo. Olivia Newton John never named names, not as entertaining, but honorable and classy.
It’s definitely more possible than he makes it look
I don’t read a lot of biographies auto or otherwise but this strikes me as something that will depend a lot on what kind of celebrity it’s about
An actor will of course spend time and have stories about other actors or on sets or at award shows
But I could see a musicians biography being more full of more “mundane” people who just happened to be back stage or at the airport or truck stop/hotel the tour bus was at
Sometimes celebrities write fiction. Just off the top of my head, Emilia Clarke (played Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones) wrote a comic book.
All I remember from Patton Oswalt’s Zombie Spaceship Wasteland was him lamenting that Fugazi was pushing the boundaries of punk music less than an hour away from where he grew up, and instead of being a witness to that he was stuck in a shitty job at a movie theater in his home town. It’s possible he did some bragging or name dropping later in the book, but it’s not what stuck with me. So maybe the answer is to try reading books written by stand up comics rather than actors?
Most Hollywood celebrities are either actually going to interact with other celebrities or they’re intent on giving the appearance that they do. So ultimately, if something worth writing about happens to them, someone else who’s famous will probably appear in the story.
I’m…not sure what the problem is? He was famous….so his life was among other famous people…how would he write a biography without name dropping.
I feel like Jeanette Mccurdy found a happy medium. She *does* name drop but very little and only when that particular person is relevant to what she was writing about in that portion.
I liked Nick Offerman’s “Paddle Your Own Canoe”.
It was funny and interesting and the only “celebrity” I can remember him mentioning off the top of my head was his wife, Megan Mullaly.