Mommywood [Hardcover]

Tori Spelling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 2009

If you thought Tinseltown was tough...

Tori Spelling might have grown up with everything a girl could wish for, but these days she's just another suburban working mom...whose toddler regularly recognizes her in the pages of Us Weekly. Welcome to Mommywood, where the stars are two feet tall and your neighbors know who you are before you move in.

Like most parents, Tori wants her children to have the one thing she didn't have as a kid -- a normal family. On their hit Oxygen reality show, Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood, the starlet and her husband Dean McDermott regularly wrestle dirty diapers, host the neighborhood block party, and tackle temper tantrums on the red carpet. But when the cameras aren't rolling, Tori's still having awkward run-ins with a former 90210 costar at a laser tag birthday party, scooping rogue poo out of the kiddie pool on a resort vacation, and racing to win back her pre-baby body before the media starts calling her fat. For all her suburban fantasies, Tori Spelling is no June Cleaver.

With the same down-to-earth wit that made her entertaining memoir sTORI telling a #1 New York Times bestseller, Tori tells the hilarious and humbling stories of life as a mom in the limelight. From learning to be the kind of parent her own mother never was to revealing what it's like to raise a family while everyone is watching, Mommywood is an irresistible snapshot of celebrity parenthood that you won't get from the paparazzi.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the opening ultrasound scene, in which Spelling frets that her unborn son's nose is too big, through her two bouts coping with baby weight and numerous shopping sprees, the memoir focuses heavily on appearances. What rescues the book from complete narcissism are Spelling's sense of humor—which is truly fun and alive to irony—and her obvious love for her small children. Listeners will respond to her desire to create a real life for them, even as they raise eyebrows at her decision to have their childhoods broadcast on reality television. Spelling narrates with a chatty Valley Girl style and loads of inflection and drama—whether or not the circumstances warrant it. (A scene about showing up with the wrong Halloween costume at a party is delivered with the same agitation as one in which her baby loses consciousness from a seizure.) A Simon Spotlight Entertainment hardcover. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

About the Author

Tori Spelling is an actress whose career spans theater, television, and film. She's received critical praise for her work in such independent films as Trick and The House of Yes. She both starred in and executive produced the comedy series So NoTORIous on VH1 and the popular reality series Tori & Dean: Inn Love on Oxygen. She lives with her husband, Dean McDermott, son, Liam, and daughter, Stella, in Los Angeles.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 243 pages
• Publisher: Gallery Books (April 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 141659910X
• ISBN-13: 978-1416599104
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (162 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #402,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tori Spelling is an actress whose career spans theater, television, and film. She's received critical praise for her work in such independent films as Trick and The House of Yes. Recently she both starred in and executive produced the comedy series So NoTORIous on VH1 and the popular reality series Tori & Dean: Inn Love on Oxygen. She lives with her husband, Dean McDermott, and son, Liam, in Los Angeles.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 78 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Guilty Pleasure Alert April 14, 2009

By Rachel Kramer Bussel VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

90210 actress Tori Spelling won me over with her first memoir, sTORI Telling (it actually prompted me to check out her show So NoTORIious, which I found hilarious), and I was eager to read her followup, Mommywood, especially now that she's got two kids, son Liam and baby Stella. Mommywood is her term for being a mom in Hollywood, and details her experience giving birth to Stella while filming her reality show Tori & Dean, her anxiety about being the mom of a girl, and shares mostly amusing stories and occasional insights.

When Spelling dishes on other celebrities, most of the time, she's hilarious, such as when she got invited to a birthday party for Diddy's twin daughters. She can't figure out why she was invited since they don't really know each other, and hilariously has to look up his kids' gender online, only to mistakenly buy them clothes for one-year-olds, when they're turning two. There, she encounters Gwen Stefani. "We talked about babies and siblings for a few minutes, and then we had nothing else to talk about and said good-bye."

However, sometimes this celebrity namedropping goes awry. An encounter with Luke Perry at her stepson's birthday party is pretty boring. He gives her the cold shoulder presumably because he's mad about something she wrote about him in her first book. That story seems like a stretch and really has no drama or interest. Similarly, her rant against Chelsea Handler is interesting at first (Handler has railed on Spelling on her show, and they share a publisher, Simon Spotlight Entertainment), but goes on too long.

When Spelling truly shares, such as about her dealings with her stepson, Jack, and his mom, she makes this book about something real that stepfamilies do actually deal with, and does so in a sensitive way.... She talks about how her relationship with her husband has changed, and that sometimes he misses the "old Tori," one who got drunk and stayed out late and was wilder, sharing that sometimes she does too, but mostly she's happy with their mellower lifestyle.. There's also plenty of funny stories about her son pooping in pools, and about being recognized both in her homey neighborhood and while on vacation.

The other major theme here, much as in sTORI Telling, is her mom, Candy Spelling, who also has a new memoir out now, Candyland. In her first book, she painted a sympathetic portrait of a neglected Daddy's girl whose mother could have given her everything she wanted, but was competitive and withholding. Here, though, Spelling is even more bitter, and the rants about her mother (who doesn't get thanked in the extensive acknowledgments) get draining after a while. Spelling's entire list of things she wishes to teach her daughter reads less like a heartfelt look at parenting a girl than a way to get back at her mom by complaining about all the things she did wrong.

Hilary Liftin did a great job making this a fast, fun read. Spelling proves that she can laugh at herself, and her kids (she jokes that "her gays" - her group of close gay friends - have dibs on when they can take her son Liam to a gay bar, then reveals that he's been to one for the premiere of her reality show). Spelling comes across as likeable, sometimes ridiculous (she leaves a stroller in a parking lot when she can't get it to close), and, for a celebrity memoir, honest. Of course, she acknowledges that being "Tori Spelling" is part of her shtick, her way of making a living, and at times her insistence that she "needs to work" doesn't really ring true, but despite those few quibbles, I recommend Mommywood to anyone who devours the tabloids, whether they do so proudly or sneak them as a guilty pleasure. Read more ›

41 of 49 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The cover sold me, the writing kept me reading April 14, 2009

By Amy Y. TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Got this on my kindle as soon as it came out and haven't put it down until now that I've finished it. The shot on the cover is great- very 1950's June Cleaver- okay, but on to the important stuff. It was a great read. I think there are going to be alot of people who bash this book because they don't like Tori but I don't know that much about her(well, didn't before reading this). I found her writing(or her co-writer's) to be relaxed and funny.

She is very honest. I loved how she wrote about seeing her baby on the ultrasound and was wondering if he was going to have an abnormally large nose then how she worried if she was being too superficial or not! Loved how she talked about her sex life after having kids and I can really relate to the morning rituals with the kids in bed and the changes pre to post kids(i.e. no more lounging in bed on weekends until all hours).

I am a mother of two and know it is difficult to be a mom- to be a mom with the press following your every move and being in the public eye with everyone having preconceived notions about you and your family... whew! Especially difficult! Still, I got the sense that the mommies of Mommywood don't have to deal with all the minutia that we regular old moms have to deal with.

I think this is a very interesting glimpse into the world of celebrity moms. I don't think every word Tori(or her co-writer) wrote was meant to be serious- definately some tongue-in-cheek moments. And sorry, the voyeuristic side of me loved reading this.

I think it comes down to this: if you are a fan of Tori Spelling, you will enjoy this glimpse into her personal life. If you aren't, don't byuy the book.... If you have no opinion, it is a quick, easy read with some good laughs and touches on the issues that so many of us have: wanting what is best for our kids, no matter what our circumstances. I enjoyed it but I had no bias toward Tori to begin with so take it as you will... Read more ›

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars HYSTERICAL...AGAIN...She does it AGAIN! May 17, 2009

By Cr8Tive Mama

Format:Hardcover

Tori...I love her. You will want her to be your FRIEND...lol...she is just so stinkin' funny and down to earth. I read her first book. Then I read her mother's book...and now this one. Her mother is honestly missing something. But Tori, gets it. She makes her shortcomings known and her feud with her mother is obvious...but at least Tori owns her BS and admits her shortcomings. Her mother, clearly has no clue and is always the victim. I adore Tori Spellings and it wasn't that way until I read her books. I hope she will write another...and another. (yep, I'm a mother, by the way.)

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars A guilty pleasure without the actual pleasure June 20, 2009

By The Cranky Editor

Format:Hardcover

From the opening pages of Tori Spelling's searing new memoir, "Mommywood," readers will realize that we are in for a rare tale of pathos and depth. In that first scene, Spelling recounts the devastation and fear she experienced when, at a 3-D ultrasound for her first child, she realized that his nose looked too big. Gigantic, even. She could not believe that this horrifying defect, which could well destroy Liam's Hollywood career before it even began, went unnoticed by her husband and doctor.

Spelling knew it was vital that baby Liam have a perfect nose, because she had made the noble decision to record his every smile, poopy diaper, temper tantrum, and birthday bash for all of America--no, the whole world--to see. On her reality show "Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood," which airs weekly on the Oxygen network, Spelling vents to fans about the tribulations of having two tiny children who are followed everywhere by the paparazzi she invited into their lives.

In the book, she reveals her fascinating quest to lose the baby weight from Liam even while getting pregnant with her daughter Stella. She courageously opens up about her sex life. She trashes her mother's catty trashing of her and discusses Mom's shopping and wanton materialism. She reveals how, after redecorating their home, she realized it was far too small and bought a mansion instead. She frets at length about the faux pas of arriving at a birthday party for celebrity twins with the wrong present because she had never actually met the children and didn't know their ages. She also wonders aloud why it is that Luke Perry, her old co-star on 90210, snubbed her at another child's birthday party, finally concluding that it may have something to do with what she said about Perry in her last memoir, "sTORI Telling...." (Although it was only published a year ago, there obviously needed to be another memoir for 2009, because a lot has happened in Tori Spelling's life. It would have been a tragedy had we not been told, for example, what Halloween costumes she chose to dress the kids in for 2008.) Read more ›