Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 22, 1994 TAG: 9409240018
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOCELYN McCLURG THE HARTFORD COURANT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
All are telling their life stories in books being published this fall.
The crush of celebrity autobiographies attests to the genre's popularity with both readers and publishers (if not always with the critics).
``It's a very competitive fall,'' says Bob Miller, publisher of Hyperion, which is publishing the Reynolds and Evans books as well as Peter Manso's biography ``Brando,'' due in stores Friday.
There have been so many celebrity autobiographies in recent years, you have to wonder if publishers ever worry about running out of celebrities.
Movie stars, TV actors, former TV actors, politicians, radio personalities, Persian Gulf War heroes, former first ladies, comedians, musicians, athletes - anybody in the public eye, it seems, can be an author.
Many of these books end up on the best-seller list, some for epic runs. ``Barbara Bush: A Memoir'' and ``Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me'' by Marlon Brando both made their debut on the Publishers Weekly best-seller list Sunday. Katharine Hepburn's autobiography, ``Me: Stories of My Life,'' for which the actress received a reported $4.25 million, was 1991's No. 1 hardcover nonfiction best seller and a subsequent smash in paperback. The success of Howard Stern's ``Private Parts'' may be viewed by some as evidence of the decline of Western civilization, but it was a bonanza for Simon & Schuster.
Celebrity autobiographies aren't fail-proof. In one of the most celebrated defections since Nureyev left the Soviet Union, Oprah Winfrey ``postponed'' her memoir with Knopf at the last minute last year. Readers who went ga-ga over ``Roseanne,'' the first autobiography by comedian Roseanne (formerly known as Roseanne Barr and Roseanne Arnold), apparently had had their fill of her by the time she published ``My Lives'' earlier this year.
But even if Roseanne's second book didn't set any sales records, she has helped create a whole new celebrity subgenre: the stand-up comic tome. Jerry Seinfeld's ``SeinLanguage'' was a hit, and now Paul Reiser, Tim Allen, Garry Shandling, Brett Butler and Ellen DeGeneres are sharpening their wit and their pencils for books that translate their TV shticks to the printed page.
Why do publishers keep churning out celebrity memoirs?
``Because the appetite of the American people for celebrities keeps growing exponentionally, and we have to serve it,'' says Harry Evans, president and publisher of Random House, which published Brando's autobiography earlier this month.
Talk shows and magazines such as People and US have fed the celebrity cult, and publishers, just like TV and other media, are ``trying to answer a need in the audience,'' says Lisa Drew, publisher of Lisa Drew Books, a Scribner imprint that just published Barbara Bush's memoir.
Hyperion's Miller says that a celebrity autobiography has to give a fan ``more than what they're already getting for free'' from a star's TV appearances. A book by a well-known person provides ``what feels like intimate contact,'' Miller says. ``You get to know them better.''
Certainly, autobiographies sometimes turn into confessionals about celebrity peccadilloes (think of Glen Campbell). But what's most important, says Miller, is that they accurately capture the ``voice'' of the celebrity, even if they're written by a ghostwriter. People who buy celebrity memoirs expect them to deliver a ``full life,'' says Drew.
``Just putting a celebrity's name on a book can be a recipe for failure if there's not something there,'' Miller says.
Burt Reynolds' forthcoming ``My Life,'' due in October from Hyperion, promises to reveal that Sally Field was the great love of his life ... how his close friend Nancy Reagan helped him to track down and quash persistent rumors that he had AIDS ... that Loni Anderson destroyed their marriage.
These kinds of tabloid revelations are exactly what you might expect from someone who has been a tabloid stalwart.
On the other hand, at least one reviewer has criticized Brando for barely mentioning his children and wives in his autobiography.
Evans, of Random House, defends Brando's decision, saying the actor ``is unsparing of himself.'' (Undoubtedly Manso's gossipy biography will pick up the slack.)
Of course, revelations that emerge from autobiographies help feed the celebrity machine. But publishers don't like too many juicy tidbits to leak out in advance - just enough to pique public interest. For example, shortly before Barbara Bush's autobiography hit bookstores, her pro-choice stance made headlines.
``You want to control the publicity a book by a major celebrity has because publicity is a major, major function of selling the book,'' Drew says.
Barbara Bush has been on the campaign trail for her book, appearing in 12 cities and all over television, from David Letterman to ``20/20'' with Barbara Walters. Bookstore appearances by celebrity authors can also sell lots of books. (Brando is not doing publicity.)
``We are interested in publishing books by well-known people because they attract attention,'' says Hyperion's Miller.
There are other benefits for publishers. They can make a lot of money from a hot-selling celebrity book, even though they often have to shell out big bucks for them.
Brando received a reported $5 million to write his life story, and he admits in print that ``I'm writing this book for money because Harry Evans of Random House offered it to me.''
Evans says Random House has already made almost half of Brando's advance back through the sale of serial and international rights. Publishers also say the profit they make from big books like celebrity autobiographies allows them to subsidize more modest books.
(Or, as Brando writes in his memoir, ``[Evans] said that if his company published a book about a movie star, the profits would enable him to publish books by talented unpublished authors that might not make money. ... I thought it was odd of him to admit that he published trashy books so that he could issue those that had real value.'')
Such altruism aside, some media pundits are cynical about celebrities as authors. USA Today columnist Joe Urschel recently called celebrity memoirs ``egocentric blather.''
``It's as hard to generalize about celebrity books as it is to generalize about fiction,'' Miller says. ``There are good ones, and there are bad ones.''
by CNB