My Lucky Stars

Another great Shirly Maclaine books on her life in hollywood. Amazing women to have put so much living in one lifetime..if only we could keep up with her. What a wonderful life's jouney this women has had. recomend.

This is a "Hollywood" memoir, not a "Shirley MacLaine" memoir, so be advised. Yeah, she's in there all right, but you get more, so much more. It's one of the most intelligent of all the star bios. If you are looking for a lot of mindless tibits and giggly gossip, you won't find much of that here. But if you are looking for real insight into some of our star icons, like Sinatra, Dean, Mitchum, this is the place to find it. Further, if you have any interest in what making movies is like, if you want to be an actor, director, cameraman or marry one, this is the book for you. If you are a creative person who puts yourself out there for the public, you will love this book. No one else has nailed this experience like MacLaine has. I will never see the Oscars or star interviews the same way again. In fact, the writing is so exceptional and insights so wide-ranging that this book should be required reading in any film class.

Is anyone's favorite star Shirley MacLaine? I doubt it. But she's spent a lot of time thinking about stardom and Hollywood and audience and appeal, and in MY LUCKY STARS she gives it to us without holding much back. Her love affair with Robert Mitchum is presented as a Romeo and Juliet folie a deux in which the two of them entered a private world out of which they never really found their way back out. When she became intimate with Yves Montand, even after knowing what he had done to Marilyn Monroe, his co-star on an earlier picture, you really have to wonder if Shirley has a masochistic streak. (I suppose co-starring with Jerry Lewis, you'd need one.) And frankly, her description of a sizzling sex affair with Danny Kaye didn't ring true. Far more solid is her recounting of Debra Winger's acting out on the set of TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, and in one of the very last chapters, "SAY ANYTHING," Shirley really lets her hair down with a series of anecdotes about her fellow stars that are too hot to repeat; she protects their anonymity by not revealing their names, but their identities will be obvious to anyone who knows anything about Hollywood. The story about John and Bo Derek is far more graphic and gruesome than anything you could have imagined. Well, maybe it's not the Dereks, since Shirley doesn't name them, but hey, she does everything but draw their faces on the margins of the chapter. Read it if you're in the mood for a good shock. By her own accounting, Mac Laine has now made three comebacks in the movies (with THE TURNING POINT, with TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, and with GUARDING TESS). She might go on to do more, who knows? You may not like her any more than you did before you started reading this book, but you'll have gotten a grainier look at Hollywood life than anything since the last Bruce Wagner novel. Well done, Shirley MacLaine!

I'm never quite sure what to think of Shirley MacLaine -- I've enjoyed many of her movies, yet she can prattle on and on regarding various subjects. So I found her biography surprisingly enjoyable. The worst parts: analysis of what it means to be an actor, a star, a resident of Hollywood. These passages tend to ramble. The best parts: Lengthy chapters on professional relationships with such people as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. And for those wary of her work with metaphysics, she keeps this book firmly focused on Hollywood. Overall, MacLaine shares many stories that provide insights into what it means to be a movie star. Judging by this fact only, the book is successful.

Ms MacLaine's latest autobiography is informative, entertaining, witty and revealing- without being overly self-indulgent. MacLaine's own brand of self-mockery and mirth fills each and every page winning the reader over immediately. You may not be a fan yet - but you will be.