This summer I read what might be my favorite celebrity memoir, Choose Your Own Autobiography by Neil Patrick Harris. This is likely the most creative memoir I've read, as you truly must choose which path to follow in order for the book to make any sense. However, at the end of each chapter, you are directed to a true account of something which has happened in NPH's life or a fake one. Following these rabbit holes leads you to an account of Neil Patrick Harris, the clerk at a local video store dreaming of fame; Neil Patrick Harris dying in an avalanche on his way to visit Big Bird; Neil Patrick Harris, suburban nice guy best known for performing magic at children's birthday parties. But if you choose correctly, you get to read about a young boy from New Mexico taking a jump into acting at the tender age of 15; moving to LA with his parents to film a successful tv show (Doogie Howser MD, a favorite show of mine in the late '80s); NPH the acclaimed stage actor; Neil, the young man stumbling through the confusing world of human sexuality, and ultimately arriving at an answer that means love and marriage and beautiful twins; Neil Patrick Harris, once again starring on a successful tv show (How I Met Your Mother, or HIMYM for fans like me).
This book is fun, a little trippy, at times laugh-out-loud crazy, and other times incredibly tender and sweet. I had the thought when I had exhausted every page and finally put the book down, that perhaps NPH had chosen this particular format because, for a celebrity, he has lived a relatively normal, well-adjusted life. Interject a chapter of him being born to a crack addict mother or written from the point-of-view of Barney Stinson to scintillate the reader looking for some juicy gossip or disbelieving the tales of parental love and magic clubs in the hills above LA. Despite the false leads, the Neil Patrick Harris narrating his life distinguishes himself from the characters he's best known for playing (including a version of himself in the Harold & Kumar movies) as a man who is both sensitive to others and curious about how things work. He has strong loyalties to his family and friends and recognizes that his early success and career as an actor has opened doors for him to experience the world and seems truly grateful for it. He describes moments of uncertainty professionally, moments when it was absolutely necessary to have a PR person on staff, and the difficulty of becoming a father privately.
In recent years, I've found time to read many autobiographies from people I've seen on tv. I really enjoy sTORItelling by Tori Spelling, who I watched over the years on 90210 and various made for tv movies. She has published subsequent books about her life as a mother and reality show star, but I chose not to read those in favor of her mother's book, Stories from Candy Land. Because, if celebrity blood in the water is what you want, what could be better than a mother and daughter feuding with each other via memoir? Another book I enjoyed was Judy Greer's I Don't Know What You Know Me From. Judy is Hollywood's favorite supporting actress, playing the slutty best friend or harried assistant to the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Katherine Heigl, and Jennifer Garner. I loved her most on Arrested Development, as the insane Bluth Company secretary, Kitty.
I've read books by Lisa Rinna, Anne Heche, Paul Feig, Amy Pohler, Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, Kate Gosselin, Lena Dunham, Aiden Shaw, Nora Ephron, and Chelsea Handler. Scanning through the Amazon top sellers in Celebrity Memoir, I see even more that look good. I didn't know Candice Bergen wrote a book! Why is Bill Murray's memoir all about golf? What was it like behind the scenes at the Price is Right, the Playboy Mansion, the Warner Brothers studio? Curiosity has me in its grips.
A few things I've learned from reading about the lives of celebrities from their (ghost authors') mouths:
- Money and fame are great, but really we all have hard choices and unexpected joys. The houses might be nicer, a baby nurse and agent necessary, and heart breaks a little more public, but we are all people. We love, we fight, we make bad choices, from time to time, we get some things right.
- Celebrities have lives off-screen, often populated by people I've never heard of. While I might expect that someone's co-stars are the most important figures in their lives, I've often found that celebrities more often hang out with non-famous people. They have friends from high school or trusted hair stylists or gay husbands who go out to dinner with them, take trips to the beach together, and become godparents to each other's children.
- Everyone has had something embarrassing happen to them in a bathroom. Whether at summer camp or middle school or the Oscars, our most private moments have the greatest chance at becoming humiliating.
How do you feel about memoirs? Do you read books by "serious" people like politicians and chefs and public school teachers, or do you love a gossip-soaked celebrity tale? Who has topped your list of favorite author/public figure?
