USA TODAY International Edition
5 striking details from new Fisher bio
To say Carrie Fisher lived an eventful life would be an understatement.
Before her fatal heart attack in 2016, Fisher had catapulted to icon status as Princess Leia in “Star Wars,” authored multiple books, wrestled with drug addiction and worked to destigmatize bipolar disorder, a condition she personally dealt with.
All these facets of Fisher’s life and more are explored in great detail by author Sheila Weller in “Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge,” out Tuesday. Weller’s sources include Fisher’s friends and colleagues, who share stories and observations that are hilarious and heart- wrenching.
Here are just some of the many details in Weller’s book that may surprise even the most devoted Fisher fans.
She knew her marriage to Paul Simon was over after an ectopic pregnancy Weller doesn’t shy away from investigating Fisher’s hardships.
One such experience, she writes in the book, is Fisher’s ectopic pregnancy in 1984, during her marriage to famed musician Paul Simon.
As a result of the condition, Weller reports Fisher, then 27, “not only lost the baby – this is inevitable in such pregnancies – but was very ill after the surgery.”
According to Fisher’s friend Alice Spivak, Simon did not handle the event well.
“Paul was very cold to her during this time,” Spivak said. “It was a terrible time for her. He seemed distracted and not thinking of her. She considered
what she’d had as a ‘ near- death experience.’ She said that Paul was not only unmoved by ( what she went through); he actually appeared to be angry with her about it.”
Fisher’s ectopic pregnancy, and Simon’s response to it changed their relationship forever, Spivak added.
“This is when Carrie knew the marriage to Paul was over,” she said.
She cut two ‘ dark stories’ from ‘ Wishful Drinking’
Fisher had a reputation for her humor and honesty. She opened up about her life in her memoir “Wishful Drinking” ( 2008), which she later developed into an acclaimed onewoman show.
According to the show’s director Tony Taccone, however, Fisher found two events from the book too difficult to tell in the early stage productions: her “psychotic break” and the death of her friend Greg Stevens in 2005.
“They were very, very dark stories, and she wrote them out in a way that was unbelievably moving and scary and brilliant,” Taccone said.
“And I said to her, ‘ Put these in the show and the show will be amazing.’ And she looked at me and said, ‘ I can’t do it.’”
She sent flowers to O. J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark
Weller doesn’t only dive into Fisher’s struggles. She also describes her generosity in several episodes throughout the book.
In one such anecdote, Weller reports Fisher reached out to a woman in need of support: famed O. J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark.
Weller writes Fisher “felt for Marcia’s public humiliation” when the lawyer and divorced mother had to plead with Judge Lance Ito for a half day off due to child care issues.
“I got ( expletive) from Ito! I thought
I was gonna get slammed by the public with ‘ She can’t handle it as a prosecutor! Women can’t do this job!’” Clark said.
To her surprise, Clark said she walked into court the next morning to find a “huge basket of flowers from Carrie, with a note that was so empathetic and right on it made me think, ‘ Oh my God, God! This is what I needed!’”
She threw the most sought- after parties in Hollywood
It’s no secret Fisher’s parties were some of the most star- studded events in Hollywood. Weller gives readers an inside look at just how many celebs crossed paths at her “legendary joint October birthday parties with Penny Marshall.”
“I was there for two of the parties,” said Trish Lande, who worked with Fisher on her third book, “Delusions of Grandma,” in 1990 and 1991. “Honestly! I came home from the first one and started to make a list of who was there and realized it would be easier to make a list of who wasn’t there.”
Weller writes the strict “guest list was such that celebrities got quietly excited over fellow celebrities.” Attendees included Elizabeth Taylor, Francis Ford Coppola, Tom Hanks, George Lucas, Meryl Streep and Barbra Streisand.
“It amused the hell out of me to see these people,” Lande added, “who didn’t weigh more than an ounce, who tortured restaurants all year long ( for healthy, low- cal food) and there they were, bellied up, eating like they’d never had food before.”
She stood up to sexual predators before # MeToo exploded
Though Fisher died before the # MeToo movement went viral in 2017, the actress and writer had already stood up to a Hollywood producer abusing his power.
When a producer ( who isn’t named in the book) told Heather Ross, an actress and Fisher’s friend, she’d “never make a movie in my town” if she resisted his advances, Fisher gave him a special gift.
Weller writes Fisher sent him “a Tiffany- gift- wrapped box containing... a cow’s tongue.”
“If you ever touch my darling Heather or any other woman again,” Fisher wrote in the attached note, “the next delivery will be something of yours in a much smaller box!”