"Dear Mom, Sis: Hope you take my book in the spirit in which it was intended!"
Yes, celebrities live by different rules, but publishing a book that exposes your family’s secrets, hangs out its dirty laundry for all to smell, and settling scores with siblings in public is a cruel and unfair thing to do no matter who you are….or what the provocation.
Now actress Ashley Judd has published her account of what it was like growing up with Mama Naomi and Sister Wynnona, and her verdict is reportedly harsh. Ashley doesn’t need the money, so the only reasons for publishing “All That Is Bitter and Sweet: A Memoir” now are unethical ones: getting the satisfaction of vengeance, and hurting her own family members.
You should have waited, Ashley.
[Note: The original post was written from two sources that suggested that “I’m Not the Fat One” was the title. I apparently was taken in: this was a joke. My fault. Sorry Ashley.]
Ethics Alarms 
Why would anyone buy her book?
I mean, it’s not as if she were anybody important.
I don’t understand personal celebrity memoirs in general. At least with Bush’s memoir, you get an insight to his thought process, how an administration operates, how history was affected by decisions, and perhaps helps you understand politics.
If she had written about her life as an actress, you could learn about Hollywood, the trials of becoming an actress.
But writing about your family? Seriously? If someone’s reading about her family to understand their own family…. it doesn’t make sense. To understand your own family, all you have to do is put down the book.
Actors are, as a general proposition, insecure, neurotic, and the product of dysfunctional families. They do these kinds of memoirs as therapy. Most wait until the people they say the worst things about are dead, however.
JM, Actors Equity Assn. is an international (USA, Canada, UK) union of professional stage actors. I’ve been an Equity member since 1967.
I haven’t written my memoir yet. When I do, I’ll put you on the list for an autographed copy.
Since I’ve run a professional theater company for 16 years and have directed many AEA members, I know the association well—and the frailties of the profession. Not some, but most of my best friends are actors—but stable they’re not.
Huh, I’m not the Fat One? Where’s that coming from?
Thanks, Fred—I stupidly fell for an on-line joke, and checked it with a source that has also fallen for the same joke. Fixed. Thanks. My fault.
Pobody’s nerfect.
Not that I really care, but I always thought Ashley was the “elegant” Judd. Guess I’m wrong. She needs therapy, big time. And I’d love to be a fly on the wall at Judd family gatherings now…
And by the way, I doubt that without the Judd family name she would have had one chance in hell of making it in Hollywood. Sure she’s a talented actress, but talent is rife in this country, the best actors mostly unused, and connections/good agents make all the difference. She used the Judd name to get her chance. And this is the thanks the family gets? Hope her book tanks, but it probably won’t.
It used to be that people wrote their memoirs in the twilight of their earthly careers. Maybe she figures she’s in her’s! The parts must be slow in coming, I guess. The next step for a fading actress is usually to pose for Playboy. Or has that happened already?