Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography

Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography

A teen idol at fifteen, an international icon and founder of the Brat Pack at twenty, and one of Hollywood's top stars to this day, Rob Lowe chronicles his experiences as a painfully misunderstood child actor in Ohio uprooted to the wild counterculture of mid-seventies Malibu, where he embarked on his unrelenting pursuit of a career in Hollywood.The Outsiders placed Lowe at the birth of the modern youth movement in the entertainment industry. During his time on The West Wing, he witnessed the surreal nexus of show business and politics both on the set and in the actual White House. And in between are deft and humorous stories of the wild excesses that marked the eighties, leading to his quest for family and sobriety.Never mean-spirited or salacious, Lowe delivers unexpected glimpses into his successes, disappointments, relationships, and one-of-a-kind encounters with people who shaped our world over the last twenty-five years. These stories are as entertaining as they are unforgettable.From Publishers WeeklyLowe, actor and 1980s teen idol, delivers a keen and insightful look at how the movie industry packages a celebrity, the phenomenon of "objectification," and being "The Next Big Thing." His astute look into a Midwest childhood, as well as counterculture Malibu as a young adult, raises lifelong issues of isolation and detachment for him as he adapted the persona of "a people pleaser with very few personal boundaries." Lowe vividly records the making of Coppola's The Outsiders, witnessing the emergence of Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, and Patrick Swayze alongside his own career launch. He offers insightful anecdotes about people he knew throughout his career, such as Jodie Foster, Andy Warhol, Roman Polanski, Jane Fonda, Michael Dukakis, and Princess Stephanie of Monaco. In an era that he describes as self-indulgent, he discusses his alcoholism, his video escapade, and his life as defined by the term "Brat Pack." In the end of this honest memoir, Lowe tells of his reformed life, in which he got married, had a family, and landed a career-defining role in The West Wing. (May)Review"A lovely autobiography, equal parts dish and pathos."--Vanity Fair"[Lowe] writes viscerally and insightfully...He looks back at the aberrant highs of his heart-throb days, the changing nature of stardom in Hollywood, the trade-off he has made between high life and home life, and the step-by-step effort behind his show business survival. He looked like the callowest kid in the "Outsiders" crew. Now he looks like the sturdiest of them all"--The New York Times"I really enjoyed it...Thoroughly entertaining: the Brat Pack years, the Wayne's World years, the Alcoholic Obscurity, the Glamorous Romances (Princess Stephanie of Monaco!), the Inevitable Rehab, and the Triumphant Comeback on The West Wing."--Time Magazine"[Lowe's] charming, honest, even affectionate memoir is the story of strong guts behind a strikingly handsome face...A book to recommend widely."--Booklist"A fresh pop-culture history of Hollywood in the