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Entertainment | 10/20/2008 11:00 am

Carrie Fisher Tells All in Book, Wishful Drinking

By The Staff at wowOwow.com
Amazon

No way did Carrie Fisher have anything to do with her ex-husband Bryan Lourd’s change in sexual orientation.

That’s what she says in her memoir, Wishful Drinking, published by Simon & Schuster, due to hit bookstore shelves in December. "Wishful Drinking" was also the name of her one-woman show, of which the book is an adaption.

"He told me later that I had turned him gay … by taking codeine again,” Fisher writes in her book. “And I said, ‘You know, I never read that warning on the label.’ I thought it said ‘heavy machinery,’ not homosexuality — turns out I could have been driving those tractors all along!"

Fisher had a daughter, Billie, with Creative Artists Agency superagent Lourd. 

The New York Post reports that Fisher comes clean in the book about her addictions, her commitment to a mental hospital, her manic depression and her suicidal thoughts, avoiding self-pity in favor of humor.

Her dad, Eddie Fisher, left her mom, Debbie Reynolds, for Elizabeth Taylor after Taylor’s husband, Mike Todd, died. She talks about that, and what a bad husband her father was, as well as her first husband, Paul Simon.

Of "Star Wars," in which Fisher starred as Princess Leia at age 19, she said she was looking at her white costume when director George Lucas said, "You can’t wear a bra under that dress." "Why?" asked Fisher. "There’s no underwear in space," he replied.

In the book, Fisher also reveals what it was really like to grow up a product of "Hollywood in-breeding," to come of age on the set of "Star Wars" and to become a cultural icon and bestselling action figure at the tender age of 19.

"Intimate, hilarious, and sobering, Wishful Drinking is Fisher, looking at her life as she best remembers it (what do you expect after electroshock therapy?)," the Simon & Schuster website says of the book. "It’s an incredible tale: the child of Hollywood royalty — Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher — homewrecked by Elizabeth Taylor, marrying (then divorcing, then dating) Paul Simon, having her likeness merchandised on everything from Princess Leia shampoo to PEZ dispensers, learning the father of her daughter forgot to tell her he was gay and ultimately waking up one morning and finding a friend dead beside her in bed."

3 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

kermie b
Wow! I thought I had a crappy childhood. This sounds like a must-read.
By kermie b on 10/20/2008 2:33 pm
Elizabeth Bennett
The play was terrific, so I expect the book to be a best seller. Even so, it was sad to find out what a difficult life she had. One would think that going from Hollywood Princess to Science Fiction Princess would be a hoot. She does have a great sense of humor, and she knows how to tell a tale. I have enjoyed her other books as well.
By Elizabeth Bennett on 10/20/2008 2:49 pm
Sandbee (FB) 54
Sounds like a fascinating book, must get on the list at the library.
By Sandbee (FB) 54 on 10/20/2008 4:56 pm