Shockaholic

Shockaholic (2011) Carrie Fisher

This weekend I bought Carrie Fisher's new book, Shockaholic. She's already done four novels, all loosely based on her life, starting with her best known: 1987's Postcards From The Edge which was made into a movie starring Meryl Streep, Shirley McClaine, Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, and Richard Dreyfuss and directed by Mike Nichols (Dreyfuss is thanked on Postcard's acknowledgements page; he went through rehab around the same time that she did).

Around the same time that the Postcards movie came out, Fisher realeased her second novel, Surrender The Pink. I read in an old Entertainment Weekly interview that Steven Spielberg bought the movie rights before the book was even finished. Reading the novel you can see why there is no Surrender The Pink- The Motion Picture. I started reading with a lot of interest because the book is supposed to be based on Fisher's relationship with Paul Simon and the two of them are an odd pair that I find interesting. But the book is made up of the kind of dialogue that dragged down Postcards- the worst part of her first novel were the sections where the characters had converations about their feelings.

I haven't read the two newer novels, Delusions of Grandma from the 90s or The Best Awful from around 2005 but from what I understand Delusions is more of an invention and Awful is almost entirely drawn from real events in Fisher's life, from the birth of her daughter to her ex-husband leaving her for a man to her cable TV interview series to her opiate relapse (Oxycontin) to her stay in a mental hospital.

A couple years ago Fisher went on what she called her "one and a half woman show" Wishful Drinking and released a book based on that material. It was a great book with some interesting stories, but most people felt the same way I did: the book was too slim and most subjects were touched upon too briefly.

Her new book, kind of a Wishful Drinking II, is Shockaholic. While this one is also too slim (162 pages) it covers its subjects in more detail. In this case I wish there were more subjects and a little less detail. There are really only five main subjects: her ECT treatments, Michael Jackson, a 1985 blind date with Chris Dodd (plus Ted Kennedy), her step-father Harry Karl, and her father Eddie.

All of it is interesting, especially the MJ section, but I was hoping for more stories about the movies she made, and I don't mean Star Wars. I'd like to here about The 'burbs and The Time Guardian (though she does mention Hollywood Vice Squad and Liberty.

Anyway, while the book is needlessly vulgar in spots, it's well-worth reading and a lot of fun.



Note: The top image is the one that's on the cover of my book. Before Shockaholic was released I saw the bottom image on Amazon. I belive the bottom image was used on non-US editions of the book, but that's just a guess.

Last Carrie Fisher post

Last time we spoke we were talking about that David Spade movie- I couldn't really get into it; it just wasn't Joe Dirt.

The other night I was flipping around and Wishful Drinking was on HBO- it was during the Hollywood Inbreeding section- and I stopped to watch it again.

There's one thing that came up and I'd meant to discuss it earlier: This is the kind of trivia that fascinates me and it's one of the aspects of Carrie Fisher's life that I'm really interested in.

Carrie Fisher and Paul Simon were together ("on and off," she says) for about 12 years- roughly 1978 to 1990. In the beginning they were both part of the cool Saturday Night Live crowd. Simon was good friends with Lorne Michaels and Fisher partied with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi (plus SNL guest host Buck Henry- I know him as writer of To Die For and The Graduate).

Fisher and Simon married in 1983 and divorced about a year later but they got back together at some point and tried to make things work. Let's talk for a moment about the songs. Simon's 1983 LP Hearts and Bones was meant to be a Simon & Garfunkel record but it didn't work out and it ended up being a solo album. It's been acknowledged that two songs, "Allergies" and the title track, are about Fisher. The first has a few good lines but it suffers from early-to-mid-1980s production; it was an ugly time for music. Songs from that era- unless they were made by Prince or Cyndi Lauper or, of course, Tom Waits- just haven't aged well. Even Elvis Costello couldn't escape this. Listen to his records from that time. He's said that the keyboards that were popular then "date-stamp" the songs.

While "Allergies" has the stamp, "Hearts and Bones" sounds more like one of Simon's songs from the 70s. Not in a bad way, it just has certain touches. It wouldn't sound out of place played along with "Something So Right" or "Still Crazy After All These Years".

It's been suggested that the song "Graceland" makes references to Fisher and that sounds right to me. Three other songs from Graceland's Side One are probably about her too.

So the two divorce and while he has huge success with the Graceland album- I think it got the Grammy for Album of the Year- she made movies like Hollywood Vice Squad.

Her friend John Belushi didn't make it; he had overdosed in 1982. Life went on. His friend Dan Aykroyd had been writing a script and a part just for him. After Belushi's death Aykroyd kept writing and Bill Murray ended up playing the part when Ghostbusters was made the following year. Bob Woodward wrote a book about Belushi called Wired. Among the many sources was Fisher. She doesn't pop up in the book very often but when she does it's usually saying something thoughtful.

Sometime around 1985 Fisher overdosed on painkillers and ended up in a drug clinic. She got clean and wrote about the experience in the 1987 novel Postcards From The Edge. I read it last summer. It holds up pretty well, even a lot of the jokes, so I can see why it was such a big deal back then.

Plans were made to turn Postcards into a movie starring Meryl Streep. Fisher was hired to write the screenplay and Mike Nichols signed on as the director. As Fisher says in Drinking, in the late 1980s she was living in New York with Simon and she kept leaving to visit the movie set. This led to the end of their relationship.

1990. The movie of Postcards came out. Fisher's second novel, Surrender The Pink came out (like Postcards, this book draws from her life and Pink is based on her relationship with Simon. Simons album Rhythm of the Saints came out. It contains what Fisher says is "the last song Paul ever wrote about me"; it's called "She Moves On".

Now, I read and watched Postcards, I read Pink, and I know a lot of Simon's songs, plus I'll read whatever magazine article I can find online. But none of that means anything. Nobody really knows what happens in a relationship. The people actually in it don't always know.

But there's one thing that I find interesting. Simon & Garfunkel provided the songs for Mike Nichol's The Graduate. They all became friends I guess. Then Garfunkel was cast in Nichol's next project, Catch-22, while Simon was left alone and pissed in NYC. Simon ended up putting his anger into the 2011 Honda Accord theme song, "The Only Living Boy In New York".

Twenty years later, Mike Nichols took away another partner and Simon wasn't even asked to provide any songs (Carly Simon did the music).

That is what really fascinates me about the whole thing.

More Carrie Fisher

My obsession with Carrie Fisher is winding down. I caught Wishful Drinking on HBO OnDemand three times (I read the book last November), and yesterday I found some old articles about her from Entertainment Weekly.

You know, she used to be a script doctor. From what I understand that job pays a shitload of money- studios, desperate to finish out-of-control movies, call in writers to fix the script: pulling the story together and, especially, punching up the dialogue.

Whoopi Goldberg brought CF in fix Sister Act when Whoopi was fighting with Disney (Disney Pictures, not Walt). CF also helped with Hook and The Wedding Singer.

Yesterday I read an article from 1990. The movie version of Postcards From The Edge was about to come out at the same time as CF's second novel, Surrender The Pink. The story said that Steven Spielberg bought the rights to Pink before the book was even finished. I've read both novels and I can say: Surrender The Pink is a big disappointment. Especially considering it's about CF's relationship with Paul Simon. That relationship fascinates me- their early days with the SNL crowd, their marriage that lasted about a year, and all the songs he wrote about her: "Hearts and Bones" from Hearts and Bones, "Graceland" from Graceland, and "She Moves On" from She Mo- The Rhythm of the Saints.

But anyway, I think I've found out all I can.

More Carrie Fisher

I didn't find out until last night, but Carrie Fisher used to have her own show on the Oxygen Network for two seasons back in 2002 and 2003- Conversations From The Edge With Carrie Fisher.

The interviews were done in her home and she talked with George Lucas, Jude Law, Diane Sawyer, Diane Keaton, and Janeane Garafalo.

There was only one interview available to watch on the internet but it is the one that I would most want to see: Courtney Love. The interview was awesome. Very intimate- they talked about everything. Courtney described her type: frail. She's attracted to frail, fragile men. She said that's why she was attracted to Edward Norton- he was slim, with thin wrists and thin ankles.

If you get a chance, watch the whole interview on Youtube.

This morning I found a website called Fuck Yeah Carrie Fisher. It's mostly photos and 85% are from Star Wars but there are a lot from the 80s and early 90s. She was so cool and stylish. I poured over three pages and added the site to my Favorites so I can go back and see the rest of it.

Can't get into the new Clash Of The Titans

I have watched so many movies over the past couple of days. I just caught the second half of Jennifer's Body and while that was on I watched Straight-Jacket on Youtube (still have to see 5/7 to 7/7).

I also watched a couple lengthy Carrie Fisher interviews from the 1980s. Plus I discovered- some guy must've videotaped every Entertainment Tonight and local news story on the Twilight Zone deaths ever broadcast. I think it goes to Part 23, seriously. Plus, I didn't realize there was footage. Or, I didn't realize the footage was out there. You don't see anything, but it's no less distubing.

So I'm watching the new Clash Of The Titans now and what I miss is that really scary-looking guy, you know the one. He looked really evil and I think they made up the character just for the movie. Also the scenes with Medusa were much scarier in the original.

The other day I was reading about Tobie Maguire- he was in Empire Records but he requested that his scenes be cut, however, he's still listed in the credit. I caught the last half today for the first place and I can say it doesn't hold up very well. That's unfair, I don't think it was trying to.

New cable

Now that we have all the HBOs and Showtimes at home I'm seeing all kinds of cool shit. Yesterday I saw Wishful Drinking and right now I'm watching The Jackel. I've already seen it, as well as Day of the Jackel; incidentally, I saw both movies on Cape Cod over ten years ago.

I like the original, and I like the new version too, but I have to admit: I'm very upset by the violence in The Jackel. Poor Jack Black. And the guy walking down the stairs. And the gay guy. It's awful and brutal.

And speaking of...I saw Edge of Darkness too. When I first moved here and was out looking for a job I saw them filming scenes. I stood and watched just a few feet away from where I eventually landed a job and remain to this day. Pretty cool.

In the movie I saw a lot of places I recognize.

By the way, I think this role was a smart choice for Mel Gibson. I've never been a fan, and his drunk driving incident and recorded phone calls didn't improve things, but I felt so sorry for his character that I was able to forget all that.

But the thing is, there are three scenes in this movie that are so brutal and upsetting that I couldn't really enjoy the movie overall.

Auto-biography

Does it look sexier when I write it like that? A little, I think. The brief impression of someone choking themself while they write.

Anyway, in 2010 I read four memoirs, all good, and all written by women.

Official Book Club Selection Kathy Griffin
Are You Somebody? Nuala O'Faolain
Rat Girl Kristin Hersh
Wishful Drinking Carrie Fisher
I recomend all of them, but I suggest pairing them to balance things out. Take them two-at-a-time.

Pair the Irish ladies, O'Faolain and Griffin. The sad story of Are You Somebody? will be softened by Griffin's book. And Wishful Drinking will cheer you up and bring you back to reality after Rat Girl.

Since Fisher's and Hersh's books both deal with mental illness and feature odd, old-Hollywood actresses- Debbie Reynolds and Betty Hutton- their stories are strangly similar. Both Hersh and Fisher were diagnosed with manic depression just as it was going through its name change to bi-polar. Their mental heath workers also told them both about historical figures who were bi-polar, such as Saint Francis.

I'm looking to read another autobiography soon but I think this time I'm gonna go with a man. I just can't think of anyone yet. Any suggestions?





Note: Another similarity between Rat Girl and Wishful Drinking is the focus on the personal shame of being mentally ill. Hersh writes a lot about being ashamed of her manic behavior. And Fisher tells about the time that she went off her medication and didn't sleep for six nights- she thought everything on TV was about her and when she checked herself into the hospital she signed "Shame" instead of her name.

"Wishful Drinking" Carrie Fisher

I've been very into Carrie Fisher since this summer when I picked up Postcards From The Edge for $.25 at a thrift shop. The book is a little dated and vulgar in spots, but still funny and interesting.

I'm probably the only person who likes her AND has no interest in Star Wars. I saw those movies a long time ago but I barely remember them.

When I think of her I think of The 'Burbs, a late-80s movie she did with Tom Hanks. I've always liked that movie. It's exciting and really sets a mood.

Anyway, I think she's cool and she's led such a full life. Here are just some fun facts:

Her first movie was Shampoo and during filming Warren Beatty offered to take her virginity (she mentioned this to Madonna during their "Big-Time Girl Talk" Rolling Stone interview).

She was good friends with the original Saturday Night Live cast and nearly married Dan Aykroyd.

She stole Paul Simon away from Shelley Duvall while Duvall was stuck in England shooting The Shining.

They were together, on and off, for about 12 years and were married for a year in the early 80s; the wedding date was the same as Madonna and Sean Penn's- August 16th.

The song "Graceland" is about her. Also "Hearts and Bones", "Alergies", and "She Moves On".

Her daughter Billie is friends with Frances Bean Cobain.

She worked as a script doctor on Hook, Sister Act, and The Wedding Singer.

I read the book version of her one-woman-show Wishful Drinking the other day and it turns out that it was filmed for HBO and they're running it this Sunday, December 12 at 9pm. I don't get HBO but I'll see it eventually.