Customer Reviews

My Lucky Stars: A Hollywood Memoir

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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!

be so lucky. I have not read Shirley's other books and I am not sure exactly why I purchased this one other than I suppose I was feeling especially nosey and liked the gossipy aspect of the book. Shirley tells a lot of her business but I suppose at this point and time in her life she could really care less how people judge her.

I always knew she had an unconventional marriage but just how unconventional was made very clear as she sustained long term affairs with Robert Mitchum, Danny Kaye and little escapades with some of her leading men like Yves Montand. What is very noticeable is that Shirley doesn't go into any of the issues associated with having such an open marriage at the time she did it. Her escapades are told with dry humor and a sort of emotional detachment. I do, however, believe that Robert Mitchum could have been one of her great loves instead of a long term affair.

I did appreciate her attempts to provide insight as to how affairs can happen so readily when making a picture. How they are in fact aided and abetted sometimes by directors and other crew members. Some directors won't let spouses on the set, some do questionable things to provoke reactions to get you to do the movie their way.... It's all very enlightening in that you do see how insecure people such as a Marilyn Monroe type would get eaten alive by these sort of games.

I suppose Frank Sinatra was really p_ _ _ _d off when this book came out because for all her flattery of him she paints such a sad picture of him. It almost.... I said almost, makes you want to overlook his ego maniac, self centered, I am God attitude towards the rest of the people on the planet. I also found her description of Debra Winger's antics on Terms of Endearment to be totally revolting. I have to think that if behavior like this is found acceptable in order to get the best from an actor then the behavior we read about shouldn't be a surprise. The anything goes behavior that is tolerated while making the movie could in fact and does create serious behavioral problems in some stars. In other words they expect real life to be like on the movie set and it doesn't work that way.

All in all I enjoyed the book, it's very juicy gossipy bits and her insights into old Hollywood.

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.

When she is reminiscing about her life in show business (primarily Hollywood) this is a terrific book. But the past life regressions and new age psycho babble I could do without. Then again, to be fair, that is very much a part of Shirley MacLaine's personna. She seems to be an unusual mix of the shrewd and naive, and a few of her personal revelations are quite shocking, in particular the state of her marriage. And her lovers! It's a who's who of some of the more famous names in the business. She points out that it goes with the territory of being a young, beautiful leading lady.

If you are interested in acting or Hollywood or coping with life in general then you should very much enjoy this book.

Shirley MacLaine writes about her experiences as a star in Hollywood. I consider it an excellent insider's view of the actors and actresses that she has known.

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.

The reply he gave when told of the book,whose reply?, who do you think,all in hearsay of course, but i believe it.Maclaines current outing is quite enjoyable really, apart from when she takes of into phycobabble,boring,in other tomes,too serious to be a good storyteller,suprisingly in this she is different,couldve dropped a few more juicy titbits,she has probably seen it all,her tales of the mafia are fasinating,that dry detached realism of hers,really suits such a subject maybe she should write a book about them sometime,but her insights into sinatra are truly fasinating,actually they are confusing,was she cutting his throat,or what,this is what baffles me,on one page calling him god,on another icily tearing him asunder,for to sinatra disloyalty,was the greatest sin of all,what i would not have given to be a fly on the wall of a reasturent, when mclaine walked in and met him after this.

What is MacLaine's book like? Like being at a party where someone corners you, and talks to you the whole night, all about herself and her psycho-analysis of everyone else, never knowing when to shut up. Sure, I knew it was a book all about her - I was actually looking forward to reading it. Still, endless drivel and psycho-analysis on the many famous people MacLaine has met does not make for an interesting memoir. Half way through the book I gave up! I got the picture in the chapter about Lewis and Martin: the world is filled with unhappy, complex people - even Hollyworld. Next time, Shirley, remember: Less is indeed More.