For celebrities, having one’s life exposed on the front page of a magazine is part of the job. Putting one’s name on a book, though, is optional.
And at this weekend’s Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, more celebrities are taking that chance and finally being the ones to write about themselves. And though their books differ in style and genre, they are unified in purpose.
From encouraging child literacy to sharing life lessons or helping the unfashionable, celebrity authors only want to help.
Academy Award-winning actress Ellen Burstyn decided to make a contribution by telling about her life journey in her new book “Lessons in Becoming Myself.” Burstyn will be discussing her new memoir this weekend at the Festival of Books.
One reason that Burstyn, star of such films as “Requiem for a Dream,” “The Exorcist” and “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” decided to write a memoir was so she could use her celebrity status to reach people in a positive way.
“I thought maybe my story would encourage other people to look at their stories as lessons and not just as catastrophes,” Burstyn said.
“I know a lot of people carry their past with them and struggle with dealing with it and transforming it into positive energy, and I’ve been doing that for many years.”
Burstyn has been working on this memoir off and on since 1990. The writing took on different forms before becoming an intimate narrative in the first person.
“One version of it I wrote it all in the third person,” Burstyn said. But she later reconsidered doing it in a fictional voice.
“I just felt that it would be more meaningful for people to know that it was actual and that the experiences I went through were true, so I made that choice,” she added.
As a famous actress, Burstyn has led a life that many people have followed and have cared about. But though her life is glamorous, Burstyn insists that it was not always Hollywood sunshine.
“There were a lot of things that I don’t usually let out and that nobody really knew about me, and I considered leaving them out and doing the pretty version of my life, but I figured that’s not really going to help anybody,” she said, though she said she is proud now that she let it all out on paper.
“It has been difficult, but people have responded very well to the level of candor and honesty that I’ve brought to it, so I’m glad now that I did.”
Another celebrity who aims to help people through the written word at this weekend’s Festival of Books is Tim Gunn.
Known for his mentor-like role on the TV show “Project Runway,” Gunn, along with co-author Kate Moloney, will be speaking about their new book “A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style,” which steers readers toward finding their own best look.
As the chair and assistant chair of the fashion design department at Parson’s, the new school for design in New York, Gunn and Moloney, respectively, are authorities in the fashion world. They look at fashion in terms of artistic expression rather than gunning for the hottest trend.
“We are coming from an academic perspective ““ it’s not really about what is selling. We don’t really have that constraint,” Moloney said. “We both look at fashion with a broader lens.”
Gunn and Moloney had thought about putting their fashion expertise on paper before the success of “Project Runway” launched Gunn to celebrity status.
“We’ve been working together for four years … and we’d always talked about working together on a book,” Moloney said.
Moloney said that “Project Runway” provided the platform and the momentum to make it work, and that Gunn’s polysyllabic vocabulary is actually the way he talks and writes.
While Gunn and Moloney are aiming to help the insecure adult crowd, Tina Louise is setting her sights on inspiring a much younger age group. Best known for her role as Ginger on “Gilligan’s Island,” Louise will be reading her new children’s book, “When I Grow Up,” at the festival.
Louise was inspired to write “When I Grow Up” by the young students she works with in the New York public schools.
As a volunteer reading teacher for over 10 years, Louise has noticed that the students consistently love books about animals. So to write “When I Grow Up,” she went to the library and researched what different animals could do and paired those abilities with the skills it takes to work in a certain profession.
“If a spider can build a beautiful web, I can be an architect,” Louise said.
Though her book has been well-received by parents and children, her idea was initially a hard sell.
“My idea was really different,” Louise said. “I ran up against (publishers) who only wanted fairy tales ““ it was really annoying.”
Louise has had a chance to see firsthand the response children and parents have as she reads her work at book signings across the country. She involves the children in the readings by asking them what they want to be when they grow up, and she said she is always amazed at their response.
“(One time) there was this group of boys, they kept putting up their hands ““ they wanted to be everything,” Louise said. “The more kids, the better it is, (but) as long as I can have a front row of kids, it’s good.”
Louise has done about 10 book signings since “When I Grow Up” was published in March, and she can’t wait to read it again this weekend.
“I’ve tried out my act on the road; each time is different,” she said. “We’ve been selling them out 200 at a time. Hopefully I’ll sign at least 500 at UCLA.”
Louise believes in the importance of getting parents to read to their children, and she said she is proud of the fact that her book can become one of the tools to strengthen both the child’s love for reading and the parent-child connection that happens when they read together.
“I feel very gratified in this accomplishment, probably more so than a lot of things I’ve acted in,” Louise said. “I feel the gratification that I’ve accomplished something. It’s a totally different feeling.”
She likes her role as an author so much that she is working on a second children’s novel.
“People said they liked my work as an actor, but somehow it doesn’t resonate the same way,” Louise said.
“When I go to school I feel I’m making a difference; when I’m helping an individual child, I know that I’m making a difference ““ I know it.”