Penny Marshall lives a charmed life—and has written a memoir to prove it, said Jen Yamato in Movieline.com. Three years after being diagnosed with both lung cancer and a brain tumor, the 68-year-old director and comedienne is healthy and strong again, but tired of people thinking they’ve already read her obituary. “The rags still say, ‘She’s dying,’” Marshall says. “That’s not helping me get work!” In My Mother Was Nuts, the former Laverne & Shirley star writes candidly about abortions and miscarriages, her past use of recreational drugs, her relationships with Rob Reiner and Art Garfunkel, and the making of such hit films as Big and A League of Their Own. “You want to set the record straight on certain things,” she says. “Because there are so many rumors.”
Reading Marshall’s book, you get the feeling that she’s projecting a bit with the title she chose, said Craig Wilson in USA Today. “Yeah, I’m nuts, too,” Marshall admits. “But it came from my mother.” The ’70s and ’80s were wild times for the TV star, full of partying as well as pregnancies she could link to no obvious fathers. “I thought it was immaculate conception,” she jokes. Her marriage to Reiner didn’t last, but they “laughed a lot,” she says. Then there was the time she got Garfunkel and Paul Simon to sing together in her apartment. “I didn’t know their problems,” she says. “I asked them to play, and it was magical.” Looking back, she has only one regret. “I regret I got cancer,” she says.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
What would it be like in jail for Trump if he's convicted?Today's Big Question The Secret Service has begun grappling with how to protect a former president behind bars
-
How much can you save shopping secondhand?The Explainer Many Americans are buying pre-owned items to counteract the effects of inflation
-
Downtown St. Louis is in a real estate 'doom loop'Under the Radar The city is ripe with abandoned buildings and vacant lots, with its real estate market in dire straits
-
Also of interest...in picture books for grown-upsfeature How About Never—Is Never Good for You?; The Undertaking of Lily Chen; Meanwhile, in San Francisco; The Portlandia Activity Book
-
Author of the week: Karen Russell
feature Karen Russell could use a rest.
-
The Double Life of Paul de Man by Evelyn Barish
feature Evelyn Barish “has an amazing tale to tell” about the Belgian-born intellectual who enthralled a generation of students and academic colleagues.
-
Book of the week: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis
feature Michael Lewis's description of how high-frequency traders use lightning-fast computers to their advantage is “guaranteed to make blood boil.”
-
Also of interest...in creative rebellion
feature A Man Called Destruction; Rebel Music; American Fun; The Scarlet Sisters
-
Author of the week: Susanna Kaysen
feature For a famous memoirist, Susanna Kaysen is highly ambivalent about sharing details about her life.
-
You Must Remember This: Life and Style in Hollywood’s Golden Age by Robert Wagner
feature Robert Wagner “seems to have known anybody who was anybody in Hollywood.”
-
Book of the week: Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire by Peter Stark
feature The tale of Astoria’s rise and fall turns out to be “as exciting as anything in American history.”