"Cybill Disobedience" is the
title of Cybill Shepherd's autobiography which I happened to find for
free on Amazon's kindle store. It was published in the year 2000 and has a
very telling subtitle: "How I Survived Beauty
Pageants, Elvis, Sex, Bruce Willis, Lies, Marriage, Motherhood,
Hollywood, and the Irrepressible Urge to Say What I Think".
To me, Cybill Shepherd's name
was known as that of an actress, and I could sort of put a face to the name but have
never seen any of her movies or the various series she has starred in
during the 1980s and 90s; nor have I ever heard
her sing, in spite of a rather impressive discography.
That did not make reading her
book any less interesting. The way her life changed from pretty girl
with what transpires as a rather unhappy home life to
landing her first modelling jobs and then on to becoming
a movie star and singer, with a career that had many ups and downs,
plus a complicated personal life to match, is described in what sounds
like an honest, no-fuss manner. (I have deliberately chosen to say
"sounds like", because I can of course not really
tell how much honesty there is in an autobiography by someone I do not
personally know.)
There is sadness in the book,
but also a lot of humour. More than once, I found her choice of words
quite wonderful. For instance, she says about her first phone call from
Elvis that he had "a voice like melted Kraft
caramels". Some of the people mentioned only go by nicknames such as
The Suit or The Executioner, while others - her co-stars, husbands,
partners and relatives - appear by their full names. Not everyone she
worked with on or off camera gets away lightly, but
there is no nastiness and nothing that sounds too outrageous to be
true.
As the book was published in
2000, I wanted to know what happened in the 15 years since, and looked
her up on wikipedia. Already in the book are described some of her
activities for equal rights, and I was pleased to
read that she was honoured in 2009 by the Human Rights Campaign in
Atlanta with a National Ally for Equality award.
What do I think of Cybill
Shepherd now, after I have read her autobiography? Well, she comes
across as a very "human" human being - with just as many faults and
strengths as everyone else, and she is not ashamed of admitting
to the former and playing on the latter. Admittedly, I am still not
overly interested in watching any of the movies or series she has been
in, and I am not going out to buy one of her records anytime soon. But
the book made for an interesting, entertaining
and sometimes thought-provoking read, with the free copy showing only
minor typing errors. Therefore, 4 out of 5 stars, I'd say.
Paul and I loved watching Moonlighting when it was first out. Though it degenerated into something too formulaic, at its best it was hilariously funny. I remember one episode of a foot chase where we could not stop laughing for quite some time. But I had no idea of what she did later, and I am glad to hear it.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad how sometimes a good series goes down the hill after a while, isn't it? In the book, Cybill has a lot to say about "Moonlighting" and also how things changed there for her, subtly at first, and then there came the day when she just knew the series was going to be stopped soon.
DeleteI wandered off to read a bit more about Cybill Shepherd and got sidetracked. Like Kristi I enjoed Moonlighting when it started but grew tired of it. I can't recall anything else she was in.
ReplyDelete"Moonlighting" is probably what made her known best to a wider audience. I've never seen it and don't even know whether it ever aired in Germany.
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