Is That Incest?
Carrie Fisher has a new book coming out. For some reason I always think she has written 20 biographies about herself. Maybe it is because she has given so many interviews. Anyway, she has a new book coming out called Wishful Drinking. In this book she basically whines about how popular her mother Debbie Reynolds was while Carrie was growing up and how she didn't get enough alone time with her mother and blah blah blah. As a result of this lack of alone time she turned to drugs. Basically all of her life's problems based on that. I know Carrie is a manic depressive, but basically it seems as if she lays the blame for everything bad that has happened in her life at the feet of her mother. How about taking some responsibility for yourself and your own actions.
Now, the one that was in the book that I do blame on her mother and which just blew me away is that Carrie's mom suggested that Carrie go ahead and get pregnant and have a baby with her stepfather. Ummm, Carrie's mom says sleep with my husband and let him get you pregnant. OK, I can see where that would be reason to have a drink or 20 for about a year. But after that. No excuses.
um yeah....I used to think too that Carrie just blamed her mom for everything - taking no responsibility but um...if her mother suggested that what other bizarre things were suggested or done in front/around her as a child? I'm guessing this isn't the ONLY weird thing that was said or done...mabye Carrie has a point about her mother.
ReplyDeletedamn!
ReplyDeleteFrom the Baltimore Sun:
ReplyDeleteWhen Fisher was in her late 20s, her mother badgered her repeatedly to have a child. That's not so unusual. But Reynolds' choice of a father for the unborn baby was her husband and Fisher's stepfather, Richard Hamlett.
"She asked, not just once, but many, many times," says Fisher, in that familiar voice that puts the "rasp" in "raspberry."
"My mother could no longer have children, and Richard wanted to have a child, and my womb was free and we were family."
Her mom sounds crazy, manipulative and unable to understand boundaries, much less her role as a parent.
I've always liked her. She has that sarcastic sense of humor that I admire. I do agree that she needs to be accountable for her own actions, but she sure didn't hit the parent jockpot.
ReplyDeleteI saw her interview her Father and she practically begged him to see his grandchild. I felt sorry for her. Debbie is so "on" all the time, I imagine having her for a Mother is no day at the beach.
as an adult its time to deal with it and move on but as a child this kind of dysfunction would shape and mold you in a really fucked up way. so yes Debbie has some responsibilty in this, she is the mother afterall.
ReplyDeletedear santa,
ReplyDeletewill you please bring 'edit' to blogger for Christmas?
jax
Ooh, Jax, I'm adding that to my letter before I send it off to the North Pole!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I had no idea that Debbie Reynolds was Carrie Fisher's mom. I learned something today.
ReplyDeleteOh and Carrie, quit whining. You were Princess Leia for fuck's sake! I don't think life gets any better than that!!!
maybe debbie was just ahead of her time, trying to convince her young daughter to surrougate for her .. or maybe she is just insance ..
ReplyDeleteI sympathize with Carrie. My mother has a 50's throwback mentality that says moms stay home and dads go to work. Even when Mom should have gotten off her damn ass and took a job at the local hospital so we had better benefits. My poor dad worked 6 days a week, 12 hours a day. Couldn't even lift his head up to eat. She had free babysitting and everything. But she wouldn't do it because her Sister worked at the hospital. I don't know what it is about multiple (as in 4 or more)sisters in the family hating on each other so much. And she loved to tell me how I'm going to be a secretary and mother to her grandchildren growing up and nothing more than that. My mom has an f'-d up way of seieng the world. Some people can see through the crap pretty easily. Took me 40 years to wade through all the bullshit, which I have only just recently gotten out of. See ladies - when you go through that you just don't see straight.
ReplyDeleteSo while most of my crap came courtesy of my mom, she needs to move on. I have.
OK, I'm done. Thanks for listening. Feel free to send a bill. this is much better than a psychotherapist.
Boy, and to think I was upset with my mom for not getting me what I really wanted for high school graduation. This is about as fucked up as you could get. Maybe Debbie was sleeping the day they passed the mothers protection chip. She obviously lacks it.
ReplyDeletelol@edit blogger
ReplyDeleteDebbie has always been all about Debbie, America's Sweetheart.
ReplyDeletePoor little Debbie, Eddie Fisher left her for Elizabeth Taylor. After Eddie dumped her my Mom still remembers Debbie posing for the paps holding either Carrie or Todd or both and she had a safety pin holding her clothes together. How pitiful.
Poor her, hubby number whatever (the Karl's shoes heir) gambled away all her money and she didn't know it and she had to work so hard to repay his debts.
I remember reading an interview with Debbie and the writer commented on Debbie drinking a lot of champagne. Debbie is a lush and Eddie is addicted to meds.
Like I said, not the parent jackpot.
Yes, this sounds insane.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, people often use family members as surrogate mothers when conceiving a baby that way.
Is that more/less insane?
How do we know this was true--did Debbie ever admit to it??? Just curious because she can really say anything, but that doesn't mean it happened. If it did that's really sick.
ReplyDeleteI think you should give her a break EL. If there's one thing that's hard to get over, its fucked up parents. They're around in a time of your life when all your basic programming takes place. When you are exposed to repeated chaos in your life during the same time you're learning such valuable lifelong programmed lessons such as "brush your teeth twice a day" and "always scrape your plate before you put it in the sink"...isn't it only natural that you might then have lifelong issues? Yes, its her responsibility to face those issues, but come on. Its awfully hard to completely blame her for her actions when she was programmed to have inappropriate ones from a young age. And for acknowledging her manic depression, you sure seem to be unconcerned with actually respecting it!
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying you shouldn't take responsibility for your own life but geez. Its like asking a carpenter to build a house when he only has a screwdriver and a few nails for tools.
@Califblondy - the safety pin wasn't for holding Debbie's clothes together, it was a diaper pin. They had two little kids just months apart, and supposedly poor Debbie, America's sweetheart, was just a little supermom, being photographed in Mom Mode with the diaper pins (this was before disposables with tapes, we actually used pins) while mean old Liz Taylor ran off with her babydaddy.
ReplyDeleteThat probably pretty much ended Eddie Fisher's career, which is a shame because he had a magnificent voice.
I've read Carrie's books and saw her quasi-autobiographical movie. Her mother was a self-centered lush and obviously perverted on top of that.
ReplyDeleteCarrie has taken control of her life since her youth.
Debbie is also racist. Anyone else remember the uproar a few years ago when she talked to an entertainment show about all the opportunities for Hispanic woman in the US because everyone was always looking for good maids and nannies.
ReplyDeleteAs for Carrie, I think she's probably over the trauma of having Debbie for her Mom. But she isn't over making a buck off of her Mom. Seriously. This is her career now. Can anyone remember the last time she had an acting gig?
Ms. - Carrie was on 30 Rock last year and has a role in The House on Sorority Row w/ Rumer Willis coming out next year.
ReplyDeleteI think that Carrie had a pretty f'ed up life and it's gonna take her whole life to deal with that mess.
Syko, I'll tell Mum she was wrong. She's told me the story about Debbie trying to get sympathy a million times. Hmmm, I wonder what else she's been wrong about?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was really little my Mom played Eddie Fisher records. Eddie did have a good voice, but I liked Sinatra more.
yes, but they both look fabulous in that pic.
ReplyDelete@DNfromMN
ReplyDeleteA one-off part on 3 Rock doesn't pay the bills. I'd say the same thing about the part in Potato Head's film.
I'm not disagreeing she's had a wacky life, but I do think there is a financial motivation for continually dredging it up. I haven't read the books, but get the impression she's recounting the experiences rather than saying she's still a mess. Is this accurate?
LOL! Carrie Fisher and Patti Davis, Reagan's daughter, should hang out together. It wouldn't surprise me if they have hung out together before. Patti Davis doesn't have much to say these days since Reagan died.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed everyone's thoughts, but wanted to correct a misapprehension. Carrie has done very little performing since about the age of thirty because she has been doing something else. For many, many years Carrie has been just about the top (and best paid) comedy "script doctor" in Hollywood. That means that she has punched up--without writing credit--the dialogue of many dozens of big studio comedies and a few television specials.
ReplyDeletemngddess feel free to email me. I thought maybe you were my older sister until I saw you were my age! It takes you 40 years, and your parents dying to wade through all the bullshit. My mother sure played me against my father many times, when it was convenient for her. Mothers are the master manipulators. BUt I have a feeling that in this case, the apple did not fall far from Debbie's tree.
ReplyDeleteIf your primary care-giver is someone who would suggest such a fucked up thing- if that's any indication of where Carrie Fisher's coming from and what she grew up with- wow. That's an entirely all-encompassing pathology right there. I can't imagine what else that woman shaped her with, what else she had to completely relearn after the immensity of becoming sober.
ReplyDeleteI actually applaude Carrie for writing books about her fucked up childhood. If you can work out your traumata while making abuck or two out of it - kudos to her! And also kudos for speaking out about her mother. There is just too much going on in families behind closed doors which never should go on in the first place. But, if it happened: Be outspoken about it. Don't blame yourself. Blame the people who did it.- And it seems to me as if Carrie was doing exactly that.
ReplyDeleteIn the late 70's, Debbie and Ricky Nelson used to share the same hookers in Vegas, but not together. It was a well known here and verified by the hookers involved in great detail to me. Debbie especially liked the lady leather lovers.Her daughter has followed in those footsteps and prefers women as well.
ReplyDeletemngddess, my SILs are the same. They're all at each other's throats right now. And my mother had the same views as yours, despite the fact she worked 2 jobs. Except I was supposed to be a bank teller so my math would improve.
ReplyDeleteI think Carrie's books are a way for her to deal with this all. She went through some really weird shit. What is it about having your image on film/tv that fucks people up so much? Is it just the fame, or is it something more?