Archive for 'BOOKS'
Andre Agassi Reveals The Truth Behind His Hair In His New Autobiography, ‘OPEN’
Posted on 02. Nov, 2009 by CSS.
In his new autobiography, former tennis star Andre Agassi admits the lion mane-hairstyle he sported during the 1990s was actually a wig used to shield his baldness. Agassi said he wore a hairpiece held together with pins in his first Grand Slam final, the 1990 French Open final, and blames his concerns that it would fall apart for losing the match to Andres Gomez.
Before the match he prayed “not for victory, but that my hairpiece would not fall off”, he writes in Open.
“Every morning I would get up and find another piece of my identity on the pillow, in the wash basin, down the plughole,” he writes. “I asked myself: you want to wear a toupee? On the tennis court? I answered myself; what else could I do?”
But the wig began to disintegrate as he took a shower the night before the Paris final — “probably I used the wrong hair rinse,” Agassi, now 39, continues.
“Of course I could have played without my hairpiece, but what would all the journalists have written if they knew that all the time I was really wearing a wig? During the warming-up training before play I prayed. Not for victory, but that my hairpiece would not fall off.”
He says, “With each leap, I imagine it falling into the sand. I imagine millions of spectators move closer to their TV sets, their eyes widening and, in dozens of dialects and languages, ask how Andre Agassi’s hair has fallen from his head.”
Agassi won eight Grand Slams during his career and is one of only six men to win all four major titles.
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New Excerpt From Andre Agassi’s Book Hits The Internet, Agassi Lied To Tennis Officials About Crystal Meth Use
Posted on 28. Oct, 2009 by CSS.
Andre Agassi’s upcoming autobiography, Open, available Nov. 9, contains the revelation that the eight-time Grand Slam champion used crystal meth in 1997 and lied to tennis authorities when he failed a drug test.
According to an excerpt of the autobiography posted online Tuesday, the eight-time Grand Slam champion writes that he sent a letter to the ATP tour to explain the positive test, saying he accidentally drank from a soda spiked with meth by his assistant “Slim.”
“Then I come to the central lie of the letter. I say that recently I drank accidentally from one of Slim’s spiked sodas, unwittingly ingesting his drugs. I ask for understanding and leniency and hastily sign it: Sincerely,” Agassi writes. “I feel ashamed, of course. I promise myself that this lie is the end of it. The ATP reviewed the case — and threw it out.”
In reality it was “Slim” who introduced the now-retired Agassi to the substance, dumping a small pile of powder on the coffee table, which both snorted:
“I snort some. I ease back on the couch and consider the Rubicon I’ve just crossed,” Agassi writes. “There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I’ve never felt so alive, so hopeful — and I’ve never felt such energy.”
“I’m seized by a desperate desire to clean. I go tearing around my house, cleaning it from top to bottom. I dust the furniture. I scour the tub. I make the beds.”
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Andre Agassi Crystal Meth Confessions In Autobiography ‘OPEN’
Posted on 27. Oct, 2009 by CSS.
From the confines of a page-turning autobiography premiering next month, tennis legend Andre Agassi will reveal that he used crystal meth during his tennis career, according to a publicist for Knopf Publishing House, a division of Random House.
In Open, available Nov. 9, the eight-time Grand Slam champion admits using the illegal drug just before his marriage to former model Brooke Shields in 1997.
The admission will appear in excerpts of the book that are scheduled to appear in Sports Illustrated and PEOPLE later this week.
“Those excerpts contain revelations about Andre’s use of crystal meth when he was a tennis player,” said Paul Bogaards, director of media relations at Knopf.
The information was first made public this morning on the Twitter page of Sports Illustrated writer Richard Deitsch.
“FYI: There’s an off-the-charts book excerpt from Andre Agassi in the forthcoming SI: He admits to taking crystal meth during his career,” said the message, posted at 10:36 a.m. It was shortly after deleted.
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Mock Memoir On Sarah Palin, ‘Going Rogue: An American Nightmare’ Set To Release Same Day As Her Memoir, ‘Going Rogue: An American Life’
Posted on 27. Oct, 2009 by CSS.
A parody of former Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s eagerly-awaited memoir is set to be released the same day her real autobiography hits booksellers’ shelves next month.
With a nearly identical cover photo, Going Rouge: An American Nightmare looks strikingly similar to the planned cover of the Alaska governor’s Going Rogue: An American Life.
The mock memoir, compiled by the left-wing editors of Nation Magazine, “examines Palin’s quirky origins in Wasilla, Alaska, her spectacular rise to the effective leadership of the Republican Party, and the nightmarish prospect of her continuing to dominate the nation?s political scene,” OR Books said on its website.
Palin’s memoir, published by HarperCollins, has an initial print run set at 1.5 million copies, and is an early bestseller on Amazon.com.
Both books are set for release on November 17.
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Jodie Sweetin Memoir, ‘unSweetined’ Hits Stores November 3
Posted on 25. Oct, 2009 by CSS.
Jodie Sweetin, who grew up before our eyes playing Stephanie Tanner on Full House, was high on cocaine even at appearances where she claimed to be sober, she says in a new memoir.
The one-time child star comes clean in her new autobiography, unSweetined, recounting nights of endless partying and almost constant drug use. The twice-divorced mother of one is telling the truth about her life outside the spotlight for the first time.
Jodie, then 14, says she had her first glass of wine at the 1996 wedding of Full House co-star Candace Cameron-Bure. The incident, coupled with a rash of bombed auditions, sent young Jodie into a downward spiral of addiction. Even her first marriage to a police officer couldn’t curb the actress’ addiction to meth.
“I did a few key bumps and headed to the lecture hall, where a sold-out crowd waited to hear me speak,” Sweetin writes in the excerpt. “I thought for sure that one of the professors would take one look at me and kick me out. But none did. They wanted to hear about the trials and tribulations of Jodie Sweetin, or at least the Jodie Sweetin I had created,” she continues.
“They didn’t think I was coming from a two-day bender of coke, meth, and ecstasy,” she writes of a speech she gave at Marquette University in Wisconsin. “And they didn’t think I was lying to them with every sentence that came out of my mouth.”
Sweetin, used the money from her appearances to pay for $700 a week habit.
“Even I started believing my own lies,” Jodie explains. “No one grilled me on my sobriety or questioned the facts in my story.”
Her lowest point came when she drove drunk with her infant daughter, Zoie, in the car. “I am not perfect, but perfection does not make a parent. Love does,” the 28-year-old mom writes in a letter to her now 18-month-old daughter.
Jodie is currently embroiled in a bitter custody battle with Zoie’s dad, former husband Cody Herpin.
“Life isn’t like a Full House episode,” Jodie writes. “Uncle Jesse isn’t going to come into that courtroom and convince the judge to rule in my favor by singing a Beach Boys song….But that’s life, and I think I’m finally starting to get it.”
unSweetined hits bookstores Nov. 3. If your interested in pre-ordering you can head on over to Amazon.
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Google Giving Amazon A Run For Their Money, Launching Online Google Bookstore
Posted on 15. Oct, 2009 by CSS.
Search giant Google plans to launch an online store for electronic books in the first half of next year, offering about half a million books online, The Huffington Post reported Thursday.
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Chris Pine Is The New Jack Ryan In The Tom Clancy Franchise
Posted on 15. Oct, 2009 by CSS.
The 29-year-old will play the CIA analyst in a revival of the series based on the popular Tom Clancy novels, according to Variety.
“Tom Clancy created an unforgettable character with Jack Ryan,” Paramount Film Group president Adam Goodman told the trade paper Wednesday. “With Chris in this role, we’ve taken our first step in creating a re-boot that lives up to the successful lineage of the franchise.”
Baldwin was the first to play Ryan in 1990’s The Hunt for Red October. Ford played him in 1992’s Patriot Games and 1994’s Clear and Present Danger. Most recently, Ben Affleck took over the role in the 2002 hit The Sum of All Fears.
It looks like Chris Pine beat out a much older George Clooney. Clooney had previously expressed his eagerness to take on the famous role of Jack Ryan.
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Tracy Morgan Book “I Am The New Black” Bashes Fellow ‘SNL’ Alums
Posted on 14. Oct, 2009 by CSS.
Tracy Morgan is bringing his no-holds barred approach to comedy to the pages of a new autobiography. In his tell-all book I Am the New Black, in stores Oct. 20, the Emmy-nominated 30 Rock star fires off at former Saturday Night Live co-stars Chris Kattan and Cheri Oteri.
SNL’s “Dominican Lou” writes: “I had my finger on the pulse of urban comedy, but when I brought my act to SNL, those motherf***** just felt bad for me…..None of the cast I came up with saw this future for me. No, sir. All I have to say about that is, where’s Chris Kattan now? Where’s Cheri Oteri now? That bitch can’t even get arrested.”
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Sarah Palin “Going Rogue” Book Cover
Posted on 03. Oct, 2009 by CSS.
HarperCollins unveiled the cover image for former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s eagerly-anticipated autobiography on Thursday.
Going Rogue: An American Life, already a top-seller online, weeks before publication. The cover features an outdoor shot of Palin wearing a red fleece top against a backdrop of powder-blue Alaska sky.
Palin’s memoir goes on sale Nov. 17.
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Lauren Conrads Book “L.A. Candy” Movie Rights Purchased By “Twilight” Producers
Posted on 01. Oct, 2009 by CSS.
Lauren Conrad’s bestselling semi-autobiographical debut novel is being adapted for the big screen, Variety reported Tuesday.
Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey, executive producers of Twilight, have purchased the film rights to the book through their Temple Hill company. Lauren is expected to serve as an executive producer.
L.A. Candy was inspired by the socialite’s experiences as star of the popular MTV docudrama. It follows 19-year-old Jane Roberts from her arrival in Hollywood through the height of her fame as a reality TV star. Lauren is set to pen two more books featuring Jane under the Harper-Collins imprint.
“Lauren, who became an icon in that reality show world, came to us with a structure of how to tell the story in an interesting fashion that was separate and apart from the book,” Bowen told Variety Tuesday. “We loved her take. Her book is an honest portrayal of what it must be like to set out to be normal, then sign on to become famous and eventually realize, wow, this isn’t at all what I’d planned for myself.”
