DL Book Club: 'Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing' by Matthew Perry

Thanks for reading this for the rest of us. We appreciate your sacrifice, OP..

And I sometimes think I have problems. Mine pale in comparison. I feel sorry for him, and I’d like to see his boner.

[quote]His mother was press secretary to former Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau, father of Justin. He played with Justin as a kid and once beat him up.

NOW come at me, bro! You fat cunt!

More:

- He was drinking but hadn't tried pills until he was shooting "Fools Rush In" with Salma Hayek in 1997. He fell off a Jet Ski and was in enough pain that the set doctor gave him a Vicodin so he could finish his scenes. Later he called the doc to say that it worked and the next day the doctor gave him 40 more. A year later he was taking 55 Vicodin a DAY just to keep working.

- He developed pancreatitis at age 30 from chronic alcoholism, which landed him in the hospital for a month. He smoked the whole time in his hospital room because no one would say no to Matthew Perry.

- Someone finally started him on methadone to counteract the opiates. It didn't work; all it did was get him addicted to methadone as well. On the set of "Serving Sara" (2002) with Elizabeth Hurley, he was on methadone, Xanax, coke, and a quart of vodka per day and had to go to rehab again in the middle of the shoot, which is why his weight fluctuates dramatically from scene to scene. He ended up owing the production $650,000 for the rehab break.

Thanks, OP. I plan on reading it, but haven’t gotten to it yet. I’ve enjoyed his recent interviews on the talk show circuit.

He is a tragic case, simply because he's never going to be sober or drug-free. When someone goes into rehab as often as he has, his is a lost cause and he'll eventually drown in his own bathtub.

His smug, puckered, over-tanned face is everywhere. Surprising for such a has-been.

[quote] He moved to L.A. at 15 to live with his father, John Bennett Perry, who was a working actor and the Old Spice model.

The dad did a commercial with Betty Whiye!

Is that in the book??

- "The Odd Couple" was his fourth attempt at sitcom stardom after "Friends," and he was a showrunner on it. He admits he was depressed and using heavily and, for the first time, was showing up late and unprepared. He apologized to the entire cast and crew. (I remember his line readings on that show were complete druggy messes.)

- In 2019, when his colon exploded, he was put on a ventilator and threw up in it, aspirating all that poison into his lungs. He ended up on an ECMO for two weeks in a coma and fitted with a colostomy bag which he had to wear for nine months. He says colostomy bags aren't well built and he ended up covered in his own shit "50 times." The one good thing about the coma was that he detoxed from smoking. But once again he convinced doctors he needed opiates for pain, and was soon addicted to pills and cigarettes again -- even though he was actually living with a sober companion, a full-time nurse, and his assistant Erin (who he says is his best friend because she's a lesbian and there's no romantic tension).

- He writes (and I believe) "I don't have another sobriety in me. I'm this close to dying every day."

Go On was a great show, it only lasted a season, but it was really enjoyable (better than Friends).

Addiction IS hell, but I find it difficult to sympathize.

I truly believe he wants to be sober… it kind of really shows you that you could have riches beyond your dreams and it doesn’t mean a damn sometimes.

His dad was MUCH better looking.

- He was best friends with Craig Bierko, who was the hottest pilot actor in town during "Friends" pilot season. Bierko was invited to read as Chandler, but attached himself to another pilot, which failed. Meanwhile, Matthew read for "Friends" on a Friday, got the part that day, and reported to set Monday. Bierko didn't speak to him for two years when "Friends" was a hit.

- During the cliffhanger where he marries Monica, he was ferried from rehab in a pickup truck by a sober minder for each day's shooting. When the new season began — supposedly immediately after the wedding — he was a completely different weight.

- His mother later married Keith Morrison. During one binge in his $20 million Century City condo, he woke up to find his mom and Keith standing at the foot of his bed. His first thought was "Am I on Dateline?"

I think you're tremendous OP! Thanks for your detailed synopsis.

[quote] next day the doctor gave him 40 more.

The next day? This never happened. No doctor is that unethical. Celebrities always overplay the “pill thing” as a way to put the blame on someone else - not that using makes you a bad person anyway.

I don’t believe he had erectile dysfunction as a teenager. Maybe he just wasn’t attracted to women.

[quote]r11 Addiction IS hell, but I find it difficult to sympathize.

I agree. I mean, Anne Heche or someone with a similarly horrific childhood, I can understand . But what’s Perry’s complaint, again?

You’d think the colostomy bag would have made him rethink his approach.

- He has had 14 operations on his colon and gut in an attempt to repair some of the damage. His doctor said he has the organs of a nonagenerian.

- Boy, does he love to smoke! He calls it a "disgusting, smelly, absolutely calming and wonderful habit." Finally a doctor gave him a pulmonary and said his lungs would give out before 60 if he continued to smoke 3 packs of Marlboros a day (which he started as a preteen). He finally was put in a rehab where it was forbidden — and he couldn't smoke before an upcoming operation — and he called his mother pleading for her to check him out, let him smoke, and then check him back in again. She refused.

- He is vague about his sobriety dates, as well as whether he ever managed to quit smoking.

- Due to his habits, he bit into a slice of peanut butter toast and all his top teeth came out of his mouth along with the toast. All his teeth, upper and lower, had to be replaced and the implants had to come out too. The dentist expected him to tough it out with Tylenol.

- And he believes in God — not a higher power, but God. Mentions God many times, and says he saw God when he was at his worst (Matthew's worst, that is).

Well, why did his god do this to him is what I want to know.

Geez, TMI TMI TMI. Just such an unattractive, unappealing person. Anyway, if he has a nurse/minder in charge of dispensing his drugs he could live forever like walking wraith Keith Richards.

He needs the kind of no-pressure partnership, love and support that only someone like Jennifer Lopez can provide.

R22 You should be a drug counselor, that's very sound advice!

The first reviewer on Amazon read the book in one sitting the day it was released.

All of his teeth fell out and then his implants (always more iffy than they tell you) had to be removed too? Yikes, that sounds incredibly painful. Are they telling us Perry has full dentures? Kind of gross for a young person, but they look good these days, I guess.

He seems so fully an addict you have to surmise it's really a mental and spiritual sickness that no amount of booze, drugs, cigarettes or fear of dying from all these awful medical conditions will remove from him.

Matthew's Century City condo was really ugly, I'm surprised this is an A.M Stern building, but this kind of vast open layout seems to be what buyers demand. I think it's hideous.

I didn't realize his dad was a raging alcoholic, that explains a lot.

Googling the other day, I was surprised to learn that his mother married KEITH "Dateline" MORRISON, when he was 10 years old. Maybe that's why he started smoking...

God he is exhausting!

R26 I wouldn’t absolve his mother. She must have been very self-absorbed or dysfunctional if her kid was smoking by age 10.

a book I never intended to read and thanks to the posts here, never will. It sounds disgusting.

If his father just quit cold turkey he wasn't an alcoholic, functioning or not. He was just a guy who liked boozed, but wasn't physically addicted to it.

He's rich enough to let himself be dropped off on a private island with no drugs available. Being addicted is not quite a choice but you have to make a decision, eventually. I like his drastic descriptions because drugs are often connected with genius (House MD), glamour (supermodels) or similar. No teeth and fucked up organs are decidedly unglamorous and it would be good if more people were very aware of this before they started.

I don’t feel sorry for him at all. He’s such an arrogant asshole.

It’s not a choice, r31. Ask almost any addict and they’ll tell you. So many have lost families, livelihoods, EVERYTHING to addiction. That’s why I won’t ever condemn them for supposedly not having the fortitude to quit. Drugs rewire your brain so that you need them (or feel you do) to live.

How is he arrogant r32? He just shared unbelievably personal details as a cautionary story of what drugs can do. That’s not arrogant to me.

I am an addict, R33. It may not be an easy choice, but it is a choice.

How do you think so many people recover? We choose to recover.

I have complete empathy for addicts. It is physiological and paves a difficult life path.

From what the OP shares, it seems MP knows his days are limited and his end is near. I admire him for sharing his story.

Most celebrities won’t admit to cosmetic surgery and here MP describes a mouth full of teeth stuck in peanut butter toast. Humbling. I wish him well and know he’s helped others by writing this book.

I hope he is a guest on Dax Shepard’s podcast. Dax is a recovering addict who talks openly about addiction with humility, compassion, and humor.

R33 I agree that addiction rewires your brain. That's why you need professional help on the journey. I know addicts and I also know people who quit a drug. The backbone of anything is that you really want it - which is hard enough because, as you pointed out, the drug fucks with your will to quit it.

I keep hearing stories of the how bad his addictions are and the damage caused by them but Does he address the trauma at the root of them at all?

I've never seen him in anything. I've never seen him rated as a good actor anywhere. He got an Emmy nom, but didn't win? He must've been really something in "Friends" bc, as mentioned up thread, he had four (?) starring roles in sitcoms when "Friends" ended.

And he was offered movie roles when the sitcoms failed? Wow, even for a white guy - and a fucked up one at that - that's a lot of opportunities. How did that happen? What am I missing?

Good on him for embracing sobriety, but he sounds like a colossal asshole.

I actually wasn’t enamored of Friends, but out of all the actors, I thought Perry had the most charm and charisma. He just had a knack for that kind of comedy. I posted upthread that I really loved his show Go On, which didn’t last. It really showed his capabilities as an actor—he was comedic and yet there was a pathos to his role as well. Excellent show that of course was canceled like so many good shows are.

Nonsense R40. Canadian bigot. Perry v. Brendan Fraser in a sumo cage match. I'd pay.

i read a shocking bit in the book too that said he was a screamy baby for like 2 months and a doctor in 1969 put him on phenobarbital/barbiturates. it shut him up but holy geeze!

Wow R42-that is disturbing. Maybe if mama had breastfed, he wouldn’t scream constantly and wouldn’t now be at death’s door.

I’m picturing hot actor dad, divorced from career mom- little Matt was likely spoiled/neglected.

[quote]He started smoking at 10. TEN. Where he got a steady supply of cigarettes at that age isn't addressed.

He's a little bit older than me, but smokes were easy to get back then. I would go to the store to get Kents for my Mom. And there were even cigarette vending machines. At my high school there was a smoking lounge for Juniors and Seniors.

^"Screaming baby" means colic. No one knows what causes it and it isn't related to whether baby is breast-fed or not. It's not at all uncommon. There is not much that can be done for it nowadays except for the parents to suffer through it. It's a weird condition: you hold the screaming baby close to a running clothes dryer or hair dryer, something with white noise, and the baby promptly conks out asleep. As soon as the appliance is turned off, baby immediately starts screaming again. It's unnerving and hard to put up with. The kid outgrows it. It's thought that maybe something in their stomachs or intestines isn't ready to receive food, but no one really knows.

I found the text of the very first Amazon reviewer: "I have raced through this book since it downloaded to my Kindle yesterday Nov 1. I'm really stunned Matthew is even alive at this point, and I would highly recommend reading his story. I cried in parts, he seems so desparately lonley, and in other parts, I physically recoiled in shock. For someone to go through that much self doubt, and pain, and still be alive? Amazing! I am recently sober myself (alcohol, 67 days) and this is a very in your face reminder of how slippery the slope to addiction is. Good for you Matthew, and I hope someone gives you that hug, and you gain a true feeling of self worth very soon!"

There are some bad reviews too: "t was a relief to finish this book - I almost didn't. It's presumably based on lots of presentations to AA groups and similar, about the return from the dark place of addiction, except that he's been locked in a cycle of lapsing, recovering, lapsing again. The book is extremely angry. He details his appalling physical damage and rages against various people - Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Aniston both get nasty put downs, as well as various unnamed doctors. There's also a lot of boasting - about money, cars, sex - and the addiction account also seems boastful: the number of pills he took, the huge risks, the ways he defied medical warnings and people trying to help him. Presumably some of this is exaggerated or he wouldn't still be alive. It's distressing to read. I suppose I wish him well but I'm glad I don't know him, and from his descriptions of his relationships, young women would be well advised to stay away from him. He's still hoping to marry a beautiful girl and start a family."

He was great in 'The West Wing'.

He was never GREAT in anything.

But why is he so unhappy?

R28, because his alcoholic father played no role in fucking up his kid..

I'm sober myself for many years and I've often wondered about the conventional wisdom about drunks and addicts having some sort of foundational trauma that determines and triggers all of the addictions and troubles. Don't we all have stuff like that to a degree?

I think people just drink and do drugs and due to their chemistry and circumstances it can just spin out of control, I mean after all booze and drugs make you feel euphoric at least at first. Who doesn't like that?

The biggest thing preventing people from permanently putting down drugs and alcohol is having enough money to forstall consequences. If you don't run out of money you are in great peril of death, which we see in Perry's tale.

I listened to it on audiobook. Perry reads it and sounds like he’s either still using or has had a stroke or both.

The book is terribly written and “Matty” is an exhausting sexist, arrogant whiner. He’s also weirdly trapped in his past, which I think accounts for his creepy need to name drop every remotely famous woman he’s bedded.

He has serious, again creepy, opinions on women. Like he doesn’t really count them as people or give them any credit for physical or emotional pain. He minimizes pregnant women, often just refers to “male addicts”, and trashes nearly every woman he’s dumped and cheated on and he calls out several women, esp. Aniston, who had the nerve to reject his “charms.”

He burns a million bridges by trash talking everyone from Keanu to Robert Duvall to Aaron Sorkin and Salma Hayek. He even takes shots at his Friends costars, esp Leblanc. He says several times that he was the best looking guy on Friends.

He’s petty, mean, name calling and immature. He says he’s been sober for 18 months after being an addict on and off for 30 years. Time will tell. I will be shocked if he doesn’t relapse because of how many times already he has and how little he seems to know in terms of addiction and maturity.

[quote]The book is terribly written and “Matty” is an exhausting sexist, arrogant whiner. He’s also weirdly trapped in his past, which I think accounts for his creepy need to name drop every remotely famous woman he’s bedded.

I can't help but wonder if there aren't some extreme self-loathing issues there. Going from impotency as a teenager to bedding every woman you can find? Like he had to prove something. Some of this self-destructive behavior reads that way.

And to be honest, he had just as much chemistry with Matt LeBlanc on that show as he did with Courtney Cox. There have been rumors about LeBlanc for ages.

Matthew Perry is the poster boy for how money can't buy you happiness.

He also mentions his admiration for Woody Allen at least 3 times. Because of course he does. It’s like the guy has no idea what’s happened to Woody or women generally over the past decade at least.

Surprised he didn't mention tennis. He was a nationally ranked tennis player in Canada in his youth. While smoking, apparently.

I used to see him in meetings around LA. He really did try or at least it looked liked he was trying to get sober. He would come in with a sober companion and count days. He’s a good guy from the times I met him. He honestly shouldn’t be alive.

I'd love to know more of what he wrote about Jennifer Aniston. He sounds like a very bitter man

He had a crush on Aniston before they got cast on the show. He asked her out, she said no.

He then referenced his crush and attraction to her several times throughout the remainder of the book. At the end of the book, he thanks “Jenny” for letting him “look at her” a few extra minutes every day. Way to show respect and thanks for a work colleague of 10 years, perv.

Ugh, that’s creepy R60. “Jenny” dodged a bullet.

He really didn’t seem to get it that Aniston, a woman in her 50s who has had a very successful career, probably doesn’t want to be told that Perry still thinks she was hot and that he’s still bitter she didn’t sleep with him, over 20 years after they worked together on Friends. He seems to have no value for women beyond looks and sex. I know some (or many) men feel that, but for some reason he felt the need to put it out there in print.

He's always looked like a pissy, self-hating turtle that sold its shell for the habit.

But that doesn't excuse R58 breaking the trust of the "Anonymous" part of "Alcoholics Anonymous." Even someone as unpleasant as Perry deserves the respect anyone associated with AA should be able to expect. Just because someone shares his experiences (ugh) he does not give up the expectation that it's his story to tell, and not that of someone like you. Talk to someone, please. (I've done it myself, but, really, the bragging and intrusive "good guy" judgment...)

[r28] I wouldn’t absolve his mother. She must have been very self-absorbed or dysfunctional if her kid was smoking by age 10.

Some of us can do both.

How does one function on 55 Vicodin?

I've had a Pancreatitis attack (not from alcohol). Doctors told me it was one of the worst they had seen. I spent four days in the hospital. WTF happened to him that he needed a month?

R38 Why do you think a trauma was at the root of his addiction?

To be very frank, I know a couple of addicts who expereinced trauma, but it was not the cause of their addiction.

I did not experience trauma, so my own addiction did not arrise from trauma.

From this morning's Washington Post:

[quote]He writes that the longest he’s been sober is two years, with several relapses. How long has it been this time? “I’m keeping that a little quiet,” he says. “Long enough that I felt it was very safe to write this book.”

So, yeah, he's being cagey (which, of course, is his right).

A friend of mine is an addict (alcohol, coke, meth). I know his entire family, including siblings, parents and some extended family.

There has been absolutely no traumas in this person's life, according to the relatives. Like Perry, he's led a relatively charmed existence.

Some people are addicts simply because they want to be addicts, and being an addict gets them the attention they so desperately crave.

I don't think most alcoholics and drug addicts are seeking attention; for some there is a physiological/psychological condition (which may have little or nothing to do with trauma , socioeconomic status, or relations with other people) that creates an unbreakable dependence.

R68, I think you’re really off base there. I don’t think these people are seeking attention at all. Take a look at the addicts along Kensington Ave. in Philadelphia. They look like they want to disappear.

Bitch said he looked better than Matt Leblanc? He is DELUSIONAL and LeBlanc aged better too. What a sad sad shell of a man.

Did Spartacus want Perry for the cover of their [italic]international [/italic]gay guide? No.

Case closed.

I always thought Kudrow was by far the best person in the cast. In fact, she's the only one that was consistenly funny outisde of Friends.

I liked her in that gay movie with Christina ricci...it's on the tip of my tongue.

I do think he’s trying to help people by writing the book - fellow addicts, friends and family of addicts, etc. he doesn’t need the money. He’s very rich.

[quote]r74 I liked her in that gay movie with Christina ricci...it's on the tip of my tongue.

I agree r75, he’s beyond rich, and if rumors are correct, has tried to help fellow addicts recover. He didn’t need to bear his soul, and the story itself is pretty horrific.

^^Thanks R76!!

Many celebs in their 60's (Bono) and 70's (Sam Niell) are releasing memoirs now. The pandemic must have given them time to sit still and reflect. As well as their own knowledge that these folks have less than 20 years left, tops.

[quote]I wouldn’t absolve his mother. She must have been very self-absorbed or dysfunctional if her kid was smoking by age 10.

I'm just a few years younger than Matthew Perry and it was a whole different world back then as far as smoking was concerned. My friends and I were smoking by 7th grade, and we all came from stable, upper-middle class families. Smoking cigarettes was just not the big deal back then as it is now, people didn't go apoplectic over teens smoking. And some of us did start earlier like Perry did. If you weren't around in those days, it's hard to understand.

He was the worst Oscar Madison in history. He walked through the part like he was half asleep. And this show was supposedly a passion project for him that took him a few years to develop.

[quote] He's always looked like a pissy, self-hating turtle that sold its shell for the habit.

*applause* :D

I watched a couple of clips from Friends the other day after catching his Diane Sawyer interview, mainly a couple of his scenes with the Janice character (who is hilarious). He is charming and effective, not very multi-dimensional but none of the characters really are. He should be thanking God and every one of his costars every day that they captured lightening in a bottle and he ended up able to fly private jets from rehab to rehab instead of dead in a dumpster somewhere.

Thanks for the posts, OP - I’m on the fence about reading this.

[quote]He should be thanking God and every one of his costars every day that they captured lightening in a bottle and he ended up able to fly private jets from rehab to rehab instead of dead in a dumpster somewhere.

I've always said that the cast of Friends are six of the fucking luckiest human beings who have ever walked the Earth.

These two actors had so much chemistry.

Don’t forget Keanu Reeves, R84, as he manages to still walk among us, to MP’s shock and dismay.

Daddy's still alive and looks better

new pics.

The title of this book makes it sound like it’s for gradeschoolers. It’s childish.

Yeah, that title is cringe.

You're downright doing the Lord's work, OP. Great Cliff Notes, man.

Yeah. Back in the day no one really gave a crap about smoking. I don't know why. I remember visiting an Aunt who lived over in Miami. My cousins put me up to buying everyone cigarettes because I was (get this) a really tall 12 year old. I go to the little market there in Hialeah and no one bats an eye as I buy two packs of Merits. This was in 1988 or so. People knew better but just didn't care.

Mathew Perry was perhaps born an addict? It's a very sad thing to think about. He has scads of money and I wish him no real harm. He will never marry, he will never have a family, he will always just be as he is. That's heartbreaking.

R63 he himself in the Diane Sawyer interview talked about going to 6000 AA meetings which btw I never mentioned AA. So he outed himself. So get over yourself.

I don't think anyone is in any position to determine what constitutes trauma for any given person UNLESS they are a trained mental health professional who has been working with the person for sometime and has had many sessions with said potential traumatized individual. For example, I am addicted to alcohol and have a clear memory of being left completely alone at a very young age to fend for myself when my mother would go and visit a commune for hours or an entire day at a time. I wasn't left with food and ended up finding dried cat food in the kitchen, which I ate. You could know me almost my entire life and come to the conclusion that I hadn't been on the receiving end of any significant trauma, but unless you knew THAT significant time/events in my life, you wouldn't realize that I had in fact been traumatized by this very early neglect.

In the 1970s my school had a special room for the prefects, in which they were allowed to smoke. Several of them were under 18.

People smoked all the time, including when their kids were in the car with them. The tobacco companies were telling everyone it didn't harm your health and the smokers -- who were most people -- were all trying to convince themselves it was true.

10 is young, but in the 70s and 80s most kids had at least tried it by the time they were 14 or 15. Smoking behind the shelter-sheds at school was regularly joked about, because it was true. It was only around the late 80s that the tide started to turn, and a long time after that before it became some kind of moral issue.

I wish, with all my recovering addict's heart, many more "24 hours" for Mr. Perry.

Still, this so telling of the obscene injustice of our approach to drugs, both illegal and legal.

Federal and state prisons are filled with poor, obscure addicts of all races. They're serving time behind bars while Perry, white, wealthy, and privileged, gets to write a look-at-me memoir and make himself richer.

R94 I was a preteen/teen in the 2000s, and even then half the kids at my highschool still regularly smoked, sometimes on the premises. They couldn’t be seen by certain faculty members to be smoking, though, or smoke inside school buildings. It all had to be done outside, or in cars or in bathrooms with the window open. If you were caught with cigarettes inside school by one of the heads or a more narcy by-the-book teacher or prefect, then you had them confiscated, and you got it written up on your record and got given demerits or detention. It was treated like a minor antisocial behaviour.

[quote]He’s petty, mean, name calling and immature.

Ugh, I agree; thanks OP for slogging through this mess. If there's anything you might expect from a person with these kinds of issues is a sense of humility and a willingness to forgive others, if you expect others to forgive you. For a guy that's spent a ton of time in rehab, hospitals & god knows how much therapy, he seems to lack any kind of insight or perspective for the actions of others as it relates to him.

[quote] Surprised he didn't mention tennis. He was a nationally ranked tennis player in Canada in his youth

Yes he talks about it. He says when he got to Los Angeles and entered some tournaments he quickly realized he was nothing compared to the homegrown LA players who have been playing on their backyard courts since their pre-school days.

[quote]I don’t believe he had erectile dysfunction as a teenager. Maybe he just wasn’t attracted to women.

He doesn't say if he could jerk off, only that he was "impotent" and that 's the word he used, when trying to lose his virginity at 18. Now every guy a 18 has two agendas, getting and and jerking off. So if it was only with a girl that would mean it was psychological and not the alcohol.

He does talk about tennis and when he went for the Olympic team he cashed and burned and that was it. He talked about using this when he got a guest star role on the first season of "90210"

Fat addicts are the worst.

Worst-smelling, too.

Surprised he hasn’t found anyone to marry and procreate with if thats what he wants. He may be an addict at death’s door but a lot of people would look the other way if it meant grabbing some of that sweet, sweet Friends money.

He doesn’t strike me as the type that would want kids, especially now that he’s in his 50s. With his many health problems that wouldn’t be particularly wise anyway.

r18 I do know a few people that would say he was "too smart" for Hollywood but too much of an idiot to quit it. You can note this with other celebs, even younger where it's easier for them to briefly pursue formal careers but inevitably they're pulled into the sandpit again and they tend to drift into chaos, addiction, madness. . . destroying their paths back to the normal world and while often also destroying their celebrity career as well.

Part of this might just be the greater tendency of such individuals to be introverted and forcing themselves to be extraverted. And in the latter, often with people far below their level. Both situations has a tendency to lead alcohol or drug use as a means to cope with the situation. Or we could look at the situation as relevative to the primary gay (or even str8) club scene and the stress it creates for many for a variety of reasons. Most people will leave the scene and develop a healthier sense of self and ways to relate to people but there always a few that drag it out too long and end up as variation of Mad Madge and still trying to pretend everything is absolutely fabulous.

ultimately, though, once you cut through all the bs of psych, even down to potential medical, developmental issues, you're best off with taking an authoritarian stance to it all or excuse making will become the next addiction and only serve to excuse more fuckups. This book may provide him with catharsis to deal with his issues but as with most celebs, prison time would be more effective.

r66 trauma is a loaded word.

Largely, the concept that you must have experienced a trauma to be such a mess is what fueled the recovered memory industry and if you don't know the damage that did to mental health, you should look it up.. as well as just how popular it was among celebrties, including the likes of magat Roseanne that would be led to believe she was molested by her entire family and go on to believe she was part of mk ultra for many years. It also did nothing to help her mental health and addiction issues.

It would be better to think of trauma as an overreaction or exaggerated response to events or stimuli than a response to a traumatic event.

Many people that experience "trauma" it may be part of an obsession with a benign event. early childhood and school is traumatic for many but most can look back on it with perspective and not be traumatized by it in the longterm. While for others than entire narrative might be tainted by a memory of being scolded as a child or having bad hair on picture day.

In my experience, with truly traumatic events, often longterm trauma is not with the event itself but what follows in the aftermath and how others, not the individual, treats said events and in turn, the individual that experienced them. Often it's these outsiders that are link any and all changes in the individual to said events.

But this is also true of some more benign experiences as well. . . there are likely many things in your history that neither family or friends will let you forget. This can be healthy or unhealthy but when it becomes an excuse to control or manipulate behavior, this is where it becomes a problem.

More people experience adjustment disorders than ptsd but adjustment disorders may require therapies. With pstd, therapy can be helpful but the standard has become to prescribe.

^ You'll hear more about adjustment disorders with those that were physically disabled by their experiences, and therefore hospitalized or in outcare programs where these therapies are given their due as part of a larger package. Whereas when it comes to mental health bit alone, more people are getting diagnosed with ptsd because ultimately, from the public system to the private insurance, most of the population will only receive a limited amount of talk therapy & often with adjustment disorders that insurance/public health will pay, we include physical and sometimes, more alternative therapies in conjunction with talk therapy, cbt, that is catered to the individual's needs. Whereas ptsd has moved to be treated with a cocktail of medications, redirected to peer support groups when therapy sessions run out and need not be seen for several months. . . it's not ideal for ptsd either but this managed health on a budget with copays. So, yeah, ptsd is way over-diagnosed.

Interesting reading the comments, but it sounds like reading this book would be a grim and exhausting experience. With all his money you’d think he’d have been able to get the best therapy money could by and find at least a modicum of happiness in himself. But it was not to be.

The fact he likely has full dentures explains his slurry speech on recent interviews. The only other bio I remember mentioning phenobarbital for incessantly crying babies was about Nancy Spungen and she ended up bipolar etc. Something else dark happened in his childhood/teens to cause this amount of self loathing and self medicating. Wow

Thank you OP! Please tell us what he says about his friends co-star, especially Aniston and Kudrow? Was he jealous of them?

I never liked his character on Friends but he was objectively a better actor than Leblanc and Ross back then. Swho would have thought Joey would have a great career post Friends.

LeBlanc was really good in Episodes.

R99 didn’t he play a HS tennis star with a drug or alcohol problem on his episode 90210? He played a wealthy spoiled troubled youth well. High school me thought he was cute but did notice his week chin.

R42 R45

Screaming baby does not only mean colic. His mother may have been taking barbiturates and/or other addictive prescriptions. This was also something common back then. Mothers take drugs, give birth to an addicted baby. Or if it didn’t happen then, she took addictive drugs after birth, and it circulated it her breast milk. Voila, screaming baby. Babies continue to be born to addicts. The newborns do not want to be touched, they don’t want a bright room, they don’t want noise, and are inconsolable. That’s how they come into the world.

I love how everyone now is trying to redefine trauma, so that they can maintain that they can maintain that addiction comes from trauma. It is a way of maintaining control and telling themselves that they are safe.

You cannot make a one-to-one correspondence like that. Claiming that addiction is the result of trauma is mistaking correlation to causation.

As someone who became an addict late in life and has been through enough therapy and rehab, I can assure you there are many addicts whose addiction arises from other dysfunctions and not trauma.

The causes of addiction are all probablistic---for every person who comes from a long line of addicts, there are others with fairly unremarkable histories and for every person with a family that is a veritable DSM-V catalog of pathology, there are others who come from relatively normal families. Trauma is a loaded word, because it occurs in degrees and the context/duration influence the long-term effect. Perry's problems are probably made worse in that they started at an early age and he has nearly unlimited resources---so he can find the rich person's equivalent of a Medicaid pill mill and try just about every gimmick or mainstream therapy available. He didn't have a stable upbringing and being involved in competitive sports may have done more harm than good---for some people it provides structure that helps them develop---for others once the structure is gone, they fall apart. He's lucky to be alive and to find work--he sounds like an impossible person who has burned bridges and can barely function and for whatever reason, has never been able to commit to much of anything except show business. It's odd that such an unreliable person has continued to find work in a business that often is quite cruel and expects people to show up prepared for work. He's long past the point opf being a big enough name for anybody to tolerate his diva behavior.

AS for the smoking---he grew-up at a time when smoking rates were plummeting and restrictions of smoking in various environments were coming into being. The smoking areas in high schools disappeared by the end of the 70s in most places.

I talked about trauma upthread and how someone shouldn't say that another person hasn't had any trauma in their lives unless they are that person's therapist. Never did I say that trauma would be the only reason why one becomes an addict. I, also, didn't become an alcoholic until my mid 30s (for reasons I won't go into here, but there was a trigger) - didn't even drink or do any drugs until I had a major operation in my mid-30s and had to be on opiates for over 3 months because of massive recurring infections.

There are many reasons why one can become addicted. One that I found out about recently is that some people have a deficit of GABA which causes them to experience less (or very little) pleasure in life than the normal avg Joe. That's just one thing. Childhood abuse is also a major contributor. Look up "Adverse Childhood Experiences" (ACES) to get a picture of what circumstances during childhood, events, etc. can put a person at risk for a number of unfavorable outcomes that people suffer as a teen or adult when exposed to enough of them. It's quite eye opening. I worked with at-risk youth for a time, and became aware of ACES. It's very sad, but it really puts a pin in why people end up addicts, criminals, abusers, etc.

My score is 8 out of 10.

My ACE score is 3.

But again, these questions seem to be trying to find trauma. It does not look at other dynamics within family that would not be trauma in the usual theraputic definition, but still have an impact.

My ACES score is 1.

Look!! Look at ME, I'm traumatic, I had TRAUMA!! I'm INTERESTING!! IMPORTANT!! I'm SO fucked up it's just unbelievable!! LOOK!! LOOK AT MEEEEEE!!!!!!

The book is #1 on the NYT nonfiction bestsellers list for 11/20/22.

Bono’s Book is #2 and Bob Dylan’s book is #3.

My ACE score is 4. But I was privileged and everyone knows it.

R117, you don’t get it. You just don’t get it. Addicts want to disappear, they don’t scream out for people to look at them. As do most people who experience trauma. Narcissists on the other hand react more like you.

I'm now convinced he's going to die soon. Living with a nurse is Belushi/Farley/Demi Lovato level sickness. (I know Demi is alive)

Nurses/sober companions are kind of a red flag that a relatively young addict could die any minute.

Of those to three memoirs at r118 I hate to say it but I’d rather read Perry’s lurid book. Legend that he is Bob Dylan has never had any appeal to me, and Bono seems like a sanctimonious twat.

My ACE score is 0. Guess that's why I don't drink, smoke or do drugs.

I’ve got the e-book on hold at the library. I should be able to borrow it in less than a month. I looked up the price, and it’s $14.99 for the e-book. Perry is not worth 15 bucks, lol.

[quote]AS for the smoking---he grew-up at a time when smoking rates were plummeting and restrictions of smoking in various environments were coming into being.

Smoking was extremely prevalent in the 70s and 80s.

It’s true smoking was more acceptable back then. Lighting up on an airline plane was finally banned in 1990 (I still can’t imagine how this was ever a reality). I saw an old video filmed in a grocery store in the 70s, and people were smoking cigarettes while shopping in the aisles of a Safeway. Unreal. Matt was 20 or thereabouts when change really kicked in though. Late 80s. Smoking or non-smoking was still a question when being seated in bars and restaurants into the early 2000s. Well past the heyday of Friends.

[quote]He started smoking at 10. TEN. Where he got a steady supply of cigarettes at that age isn't addressed.

Perry would have been ten in 1979-80. I don't know what the situation was like in Ottawa, where he lived before moving to LA in the mid-1980s, but here in the States, cigarettes were very easy to get and very cheap then. There's a New York Times article from 1982 about how the nationwide average price of a pack was going up sharply...from 69 cents a pack in 1981 to 81 cents a pack in 1982. About as much as two candy bars.

As far as ease of access goes, it was some years before anyone in stores was asking for ID, and anyway, they were also sold in vending machines back then.

Cigarettes were also not behind the counter like they are now, they were right on the counter at the checkout, you could just grab a pack yourself. Many kids (me included) could easily shoplift a pack of cigs back then.

....

I worked in a grocery store in 1984, and cigarettes were .99 a pack. We also sold a lot of chewing tobacco, and that was the nastiest stuff ever. All the guys in my small Texas town carried white styrofoam cups for spitting. Gross!

He is so physically ravaged from the drugs and alcohol, it's shocking how bad he looks. He's only 53 but he looks downright elderly.

He was a very nice-looking guy before the drugs and booze ravaged him.

[quote]We also sold a lot of chewing tobacco, and that was the nastiest stuff ever. All the guys in my small Texas town carried white styrofoam cups for spitting. Gross!

I tried chewing tobacco once when I was around 14. It made me sick to my stomach, nauseous, and I almost threw up. I never touched chewing tobacco again. That is some disgusting stuff.

r14 Craig Bierko is hotter.

Is she one of us?

He should have called the book "The One About Me"

He had so much hope for this show.

r132 I would fuck his butt.

I mentioned this in another MP thread, but Matthew Perry had severe anxiety since childhood. In the Diane Sawyer interview, he always had a pervading feeling that he "wasn't good enough". His parents divorced when he was young, remarried, and had more kids with their new partners. Perry got along with his step-parents and his half-siblings, but he must have felt like the odd man out when he was with either side of the family.

He said that he got drunk for the first time at around age 14 with his friends, and that the alcohol made the feelings of "not good enough" go away.

The "not-good-enough" feelings would be playing in his mind constantly because of the anxiety. Then, if he was genetically predisposed to addiction, he would be hooked the first time he got drunk and it temporarily relieved the anxiety. His friends were able to stop drinking when they got tired of it. Perry wasn't able to stop. Some people can stop cold turkey. Others will try it just a few times and then be hooked for life. If you're the type of person who will be hooked for life, well, you won't know that...until it's too late.

That's why I'm a teetotaler. I've always had low self esteem and felt "not good enough" since childhood. Those feelings were exacerbated by years of bullying. Lots of people on both sides of my family had addiction problems. I only drink once or twice a year. I know that if I tried it regularly, I would probably be lost forever.

Did he ever mess around with dudes while on a crazy bender?

R125: Smoking was in decline. Those cohorts smoked much less than people who came of age in the 50s and 60s or before.

[quote]In the Diane Sawyer interview, he always had a pervading feeling that he "wasn't good enough".

And he's right!

[quote]Smoking was in decline. Those cohorts smoked much less than people who came of age in the 50s and 60s or before.

There was still a fuckton of smoking going on in the 70s and 80s.

[quote] I saw an old video filmed in a grocery store in the 70s, and people were smoking cigarettes while shopping in the aisles of a Safeway. Unreal.

Many stores had little disposable ashtrays as you entered the store, that you placed in your shopping cart. I shit you not. Unbelievable to imagine people smoking in grocery stores today, but it was very common back then. People couldn't spend 20 minutes in the grocery store without smoking because they were such cigarette fiends.

[quote] and his assistant Erin (who he says is his best friend because she's a lesbian and there's no romantic tension).

He thinks that any straight woman would want him now, with his squashed face? He's a fool.

Seeing some Sixtysomething year old lady with a Newport 100 with an inch of ash dangling out of her mouth while selecting fresh produce is a memory I will never forget.

Thanks for posting highlights from the book, OP.

It's been almost 3 weeks since I had spine surgery and am still in severe pain, but have resisted asking for stronger pain meds. After previous surgeries, I quickly became addicted to Vicodin/Norco -- because they are so wonderful (layer benzodiazepines like Valium or Ativan onto that and it's euphoric) -- and I have addictive behavior. In fact, I'm sitting here taking Vodka shots and smoking as I type.

r72, in 1990, I had a Eurailpass and traveled around the continent for a month. Every train station in every country had a news kiosk where I'd buy an International Herald Tribune to read on the ride. That guy's face was on the cover of every Spartacus guide in every country in every language. A few years later, my partner and I were flipping channels and came upon that Seinfeld rip-off show for Gen X-ers and he yells, "Look! It's HIM! That guy...". Never once believed that Matt LeBlanc is straight since then. Similar situation with the twink Colton Haynes who did a homoerotic photoshoot in XY Magazine before he got acting roles.

[quote]Thank you OP! Please tell us what he says about his friends co-star, especially Aniston and Kudrow? Was he jealous of them?

No. One thing that's been consistent over the years with all six of them is that they genuinely like each other and get along well. He's very complimentary to everyone.

He writes that David Schwimmer was the breakout star of Season 1 (I don't remember that) and that year came up with the plan that all six actors should demand the same salary and perks in negotiation — a strategy that paid off spectacularly.

Lisa Kudrow is "the funniest woman in the world," according to Perry. She wrote the foreword to the book.

Courtney Cox had the most experience when the show started and was very helpful to the other five when it came to the fame game.

We already read what he said about Jennifer Aniston — she was the only one he knew before the show began and she shot him down when he asked for a date. She seems to care about him a lot.

And he credits Matt LeBlanc for altering the Joey character from an arrogant playboy to the big dumb puppy Joey became. He writes that LeBlanc would seek him out to test out line readings in Season 1, but by the end of the show he was getting comedy tips from LeBlanc.

Last, he says they all had nice dressing rooms that weren't used that much because the six enjoyed hanging out together too much.

Thanks again R148 and no, Ross was not the breakout star. If anyone, it was Aniston as she got that "Rachel haircut" mid-season so her picture was on the cover of every magazine

^^Along with her ass

Schwimmer was popular, in part, to Marcel the monkey.

The Ross-and-Rachel thing made Schwimmer mystifyingly popular for a hot second.

I thought he personified his role pretty well, personally (Schwimmer). He was a nerdy archeologist (or was it anthropologist), and he played it dead on. Even down to getting that dumb monkey.

Does Perry talk about losing the Emmy nom?

Matthew said maybe in the Diane Sawyer interview that David was the breakout star because he was the first one of the six to get a film.

That was what Hollywood was like back in the mid 90s and maybe is today...they were all starring in the biggest show in the world, but getting a shitty indie film was their idea of hitting the big time.

Only one of them is really talented:

Not quite R153

Does he mention his hair? He opens up about false teeth, but that hair and the tanline around it looks like a "system" or implants. Look at the pics in this thread, like r145.

[quote] being involved in competitive sports may have done more harm than good---for some people it provides structure that helps them develop---for others once the structure is gone, they fall apart.

OT, but ex/failed/abused footballers (soccer players) have some heartbreaking stories, sometimes resulting in addictions to cope.

[quote]He writes that David Schwimmer was the breakout star of Season 1 (I don't remember that)

Oh, yeah. When the show really blew up, Ross had the early heat. A lot of viewers found him (and Schwimmer's performances) sympathetic and endearing. He was my least favorite of the three guys in the first season, and Aniston/Rachel my least favorite of the women, so I didn't get it.

If you Google Schwimmer's name and "breakout star" within the date range of the first couple seasons, you get a lot of hits. (Example, Rolling Stone, May 18, 1995: "There’s been talk of Schwimmer’s becoming Friends’ breakout star, but in terms of story-line division, the sitcom’s been remarkably evenhanded. That makes it a true rarity in the world of ensemble comedy, where traditionally there’s a central Sam Malone, an Alex Reiger or a Mary Richards to anchor things.")

But all of them had their front-burner periods over ten years. It's not a show I obsessively re-watch, but that was a great ensemble.

So Jennifer and him were children of mildly famous people.

Yes, him was. So was her.

slam: "I knew nothing about him and wish it had stayed that way. I'm not a snowflake type person and don't get offended easily however this book made me angry the more I read. I didnt like that it wasn't in any sort of decent chronological order so it could be confusing trying to gauge what point in time he was most arrogant."

[quote]He didn’t need to bear his soul

Oh, dear.

Trauma has something to do with addiction but so does being in pain. It's really a tough balance. Also back then I'm sure that doctors were much more okay with giving out vicodin. And yes, cigarette machines. They were pretty cool with those weird handles.

I've had tons of childhood trauma but that's not what makes me want pills. It's pain from a wonky hip replacement.

I loved Lisa Kudrow in The Comeback but didn't like her at all in Friends. She was too old and too weird and slapstick.

What is the Big Terrible Thing? His exploding colon? Colostomy bag? TIA.

R65, he's probably not gonna make it. I wouldn't be surprised -- with all the organ damage done years ago -- that he'll be dead within a year.

R155 yeah it was The Pallbearer, an awful movie and the one GOOP supposedly did as a “favor” to Harvey so she could make Emma.

I agree with whoever said Phoebe was my least favorite Friends character, regardless of Kudrow’s talent. I’ve enjoyed her much more in other things.

Phoebe was the inly I didn't particularly care about. I watched Friends in the 90s and enjoyed it. Though I don't recall watching the last series. It's not something I would watch today, tbh.

*only one

He will definitely be able to marry a beautiful woman if he wants to. Some women would date his colostomy bag if it had his money attached to it.

He actually said he’s had bad experiences with gold diggers and wants a woman with her own wealth

[quote] Phoebe was the inly I didn't particularly care about. I watched Friends in the 90s and enjoyed it. Though I don't recall watching the last series. It's not something I would watch today, tbh.

Thanks for weighing in. Very informative.

I had no idea he dated Lizzy Caplain for years. He was likely a mess wonder why she stuck around so long?

[quote]He actually said he’s had bad experiences with gold diggers and wants a woman with her own wealth

Without a monetary incentive, he'll have a hard time finding someone willing to be in a relationship dominated by worries of a relapse.

The chances of a woman with her own wealth being genuinely interested in him are slim to non-existent.

Schwimmer got very strong early reviews and had career momentum from having done guest shots on dramas and sitcoms.

[quote]His dad was MUCH better looking.

He was good on the Friends episode. I didn't know at the time he was Matthew's dad. He was handsome, and he had some of Matthew's mannerisms.

I was molested.

For some reason I thought Lizzy Caplan was with Michael Sheen. He's another pompous asshole but at least Michael has a huge cock (and presumably, a functioning one).

Remember the 19 yo tik tok girl who matched with Matthew Perry in 2021 then posted all the cringey texts…

Him dad were hot.

She was almost as cringey for posting it. It was a dating site wasn't it? She was legal age? She accepted the call?

His father was quite good-looking @ R179. Was he about the age Matthew is now? Sad. They look very much alike, except for the ravaging, obviously. I think Matthew's hair looks like his own; same as it was before but further back. And is that Pat Crowley?

R173 maybe Britney spears?

R182 I don't understand this running to the press. Just tell him no. It's not like he was continuously hassling her.

The most unbelievable thing about the Phoebe character was that a self-employed masseuse could afford a deluxe apartment in the sky in Manhattan, even way back in the 1990s, on her earnings alone.

She must have had to give a lot of happy endings to afford that apartment.

I found that most unbelievable thing about the Phoebe character was that she would be hanging out with that group in the first place. I just can't see her wanting to hang out with them or them even accepting her.

Didn't Phoebe room with her Grandmother?

What's more unbelievable is Monica and Chandler being able to buy a house in the suburbs, after he quit his job and became an intern

The main apartment was absurd. NYC in the mid 90s was already unaffordable. I grew up in Brooklyn and left the city to be a bohemian in a loft in 1995 and am around their age. I would watch that show and just laugh at how Disney and tourist baiting it was. The humor was a weak Seinfeld ripoff. Seinfeld had believable looking NYC apartments as well.

r191 the storyline was that the main apt was taken over by Monica after her Grandmother died and so she was able to enjoy the benefits of the rent that her Grandmother was paying because of rent control. You'd think someone would have gotten the clue that the Grandmother was dead and now some 20 somethings were inhabiting her apartment, but hey, it's Hollywood.

I've had to wear a colostomy bag for five years since surgery for cancer. Perry is wrong that the bags aren't made well and explode.

If he ended up covered in shit it was because he didn't attach the ring and barrier correctly or maybe he didn't even fasten the bag on properly.

What a crazy thing to write!

R193 I hope you are doing ok

Monica seemed like the type of woman who would be willing to bankrupt herself with a million ivf treatments rather than accept the child of a slutty trailer girl.

I mean there's a certain personality type that is willing to adopt in this day and age and Monica was not it. Too much of a control freak perfectionist. Especially considering Anna Faris characters history.

I meant to sign that r195

Yeah Monica wouldn't adopt.

Have you seen his father? He’s not sober.

I had a crush on David Schwimmer the first two years of the show. Ross was a sweet, sensitive guy. But the character turned into such a monumental prick as the show went on.

Yea Ross was such an asshole, always chasing women because they were "hot" and treating them like shit. Plus he was homophobic. Leblanc actually changed his character from a jerk into someone endearing and quirky.

It doesn't seem to be a majority opinion among fans of Friends, but I never thought it was better than in the first season. All their signature traits (the ditzy one, the just-plain-dumb one, the neurotic nerd, the manic OCD one, etc.) got more exaggerated for laughs over time, and the performances became "bigger," more cartoonish, to match. On the shallower level, I thought they all looked their best in the first season too.

But in the bigger picture of sitcom history, it was always better than average. The many short-lived sitcoms NBC put on after it demonstrated that even achieving "average" isn't as easy as a good sitcom makes it look.

Even back in the mid-90s, Monica's apartment would've cost a small fortune.

I don't know why they even bothered to set Friends in NYC, all of those characters were total LA types.

Who would keep a duck and a chick in their apartment? They would poop all over the place.

That's interesting R192. Was there a storyline to explain how (mostly unemployed) Joey and (bored office worker) Chandler could afford their spacious apartment across the hall?

[quote]That's interesting [R192]. Was there a storyline to explain how (mostly unemployed) Joey and (bored office worker) Chandler could afford their spacious apartment across the hall?

No, nor why the apartments were COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STYLES.

R192, Monica was a relative, so she could take over the lease.

That was how lots of people had cheapest rent controlled or rent stabilized apartments got our places.

Back in the 90s, one friend of mine has a three bedroom duplex for $1500. Another had a one bedroom for $650. Another had a one bedroom for under $500. I got an apartment from a friend who got it from his grandfather. Even with the additional rent charged for a new lease, I moved into a two bedroom for $900.

I did look at a loft alot like Monica's place only bigger for $1,100 back in 1992. I let that go, and still regret it till today because I walk by that place and can look up into the windows.

There were expensive apartments, but there were also deals back then.

This is one of the only beleivable things about the show.

Don't know/can't remember about Joey/Chandler's apt. As for the different styles, girls lived in the main apt and are more likely to paint/decorate whereas het guys usually could really give a shit. Also, not all apts in a lot of NYC buildings are exact blueprints of each other; in fact, they are more likely to be different depending on how they are situation in the building. it's not like the more modern apt buildings..

^^situated in the building.

Since Matthew claims he has had such bad experiences with gold diggers and now only wants to date women "with their own wealth," does that mean that the 19 year old he was after at R182 had "her own wealth"? Or is Perry more full of shit than his colostomy bag.

All he asks is for a beautiful teenage woman with her own wealth to marry him, bear his children, change the children's diapers and also change his colostomy bags before cooking delicious meals and cleaning the house between blowing him on her knees. Give the man a break.

Yeavi think they explained the apartment thing well enough, Monica was paying the rent-controlled amount her Grandmother had. Chandler earned good money at his job and often paid Joey's share.

r204 Rachel totally came across like a typical 90's Valley JAP.

r202 The first season was also pre Aniston's anorexification.

r193 I totally agree. I had to wear ostomy bags for about a year. OMG, the ring and barrier brings back unpleasant memories. But I dealt with it. There were several different brands of varying quality. but none of the bags "exploded". He must have fucked up dealing with it while fucked up. I know someone in his 70's who had reversal surgery after 8 years and I wish the same for you. My cancer spread to a kidney, but it was caught early and removed, and a few weeks ago had a section of the spine removed, but there are no other signs of cancer. The pain is intense, but don't want to end up addicted to opiates like MP. BTW, the "50 pills a day" he claims is also not credible. Wishing you the best outcome and hope you are doing well.

It is, r216. I knew someone who was at that level, she was at about 40-50 pills a day. Maybe more. Of course it doesn’t happen overnight, this was over the course of years. What happens is the body eventually compensates for the opioid so you have to up your dose to get the same effect. She self medicated because she was in an abusive situation with her husband, who beat her. It’s much harder to do today, with the pharmacy access to databases etc. She got a lot of her pills from a pill doctor who’s basically serving life in prison now after he was caught.

She still self medicates btw. I don’t know on what, but I talk to her every few months, and I can tell she’s high.

R216 how nice. Thanks for the good thoughts.

I have spoken with my surgeon about the reversal surgery and he said it is possible, but he also said that after five years (clean bill of health), the body would have to relearn how to adopt to doing things the original way.

There could be accidents and success is not guaranteed.....in my case. So I'm thinking I would rather deal with this and not take a chance on.....accidents......LOL.... It's funny what you can used to.

I understand he dictor shopped and stole from people's medicine cabinets but 55 pills/day 7 days a week? How could you get access to that kind of volume even with multiple docs? And of course the regulations have tightened

[quote] I understand he dictor shopped

???

It’s our first instinct to judge and condemn him for being an addict. In truth, his biology is what keeps him addicted to whatever drug he tries—alcohol, cigarettes, hard drugs. That’s why rehab after rehab is ineffective. Poor guy—It must be horrible having to navigate life, and such a public life, this way.

The same way others have r219, probably illegal pill factories.

He, Ross and Cox were the weakest three actors.

R84 No one's luckier than me!

Took Mackenzie Phillips a long time to lick her addiction. but she's doing great now and working as a drug counselor maybe that's what he should do.

R168 He'll be very lucky to make it to 60, even if he remains sober (which is a huge question mark).

Does he still smoke cigarettes?

R224, at least Vanna has to do something. Pat "I'm a Republican and Know More Than All of you Other Rubes because I'm a game show host) Sajak just stands there with his finger up his ass making small talk, and I mean very small talk.

R228 But you can't argue that she's one lucky bitch. For over 40 years, all she's had to do is turn letters. That's it. And she makes millions for it and gets to travel all over the world. That's the absolute best job in the world.

How this thread turned into a discussion of who is the lazier bitch, Vanna White or Pat Sajak, is pretty unexpected.

He certainly had supportive co-stars.

Schwimmer was very smart to have proposed they agree to salary hikes en masse because not only did it ensure they all made a fortune by the end but it also made sure they were insanely loyal to one another for the rest of their lives.

The weird thing about the show was although I would argue Aniston ultimately became the breakout star, it never seemed like any of them was dead weight. Phoebe seemed the most unlikely to hang out with the other five, nor was her character the most relatable, but i think it was pretty clear to almost everyone watching Lisa Kudrow was the most talented at comedic acting.

She almost played Roz on Frasier but they deemed her too ditzy.

Apparently Cox was furious when Aniston won the Emmy

Anyone remember the 1987 sitcom where 18-year old Perry was the lead character? It was called "Second Chance" and on the Fox network. A middle-aged man dies and is sentenced to go back in time and mentor his younger self. Perry's character would often break out into a dance.

R233, it was not that she was too ditzy, She was not playing Phoebe.

It is pretty clear how her style would not work on Frasier. If you look at ll her characters, the humor is in how they deflect confrontation, whereas Grammer and the whole cast of Fraiser were funny because they were aggressive. Even when Valerie Cherish gets confrontational, she is always easily diverted from that path.

James Burrows in an interview on YouTube said she was too ditzy.

Whenever I have heard Burrows speak about it, he says it is that Kudrow excells at characters who do not know they are funny and the characters on Frasier are consciously witty. So when Fraiser got hostile with Roz (Kudrow), it felt like he was kicking a defenseless puppy. They needed someone whos comebacks were more consciously slapping back in self-defense so that he would not seem like a bully.

Peri Gilpen's self-possessention made it clear that this Roz could give as good as she gets.

It was the best outcome for Lisa Kudrow, as I’m sure she’s incredibly rich now.

Kudrow found her balls on FRIENDS because she was very confrontational with all of the characters at some point especially Ross.

A quick Vanna story - because she is here in the thread …. I am a blond female and in the 80s I was auditioning a lot in LA. I had a commercial audition on one of the hottest days of the year. I looked great when I left the house - by the time I got to the audition my hair was flat, makeup melted and smudged and had perspiration rings on my top under my boobs. I looked like a sweaty mess. About two minutes after I signed in - the door from the scorching outside opened and Vanna White walked in - slim, cool as Audrey Hepburn or a vanilla ice cream cone. I don’t know how she looked so fantastic that day - I have had a grudging respect for her since then ……. BACK TO MATTHEW!!!!

Here's their Friends Emmy nominations:

Kudrow: 6

Aniston: 5

LeBlanc: 3

Perry: 1

Schwimmer: 1

Cox: bupkiss

[quote] Peri Gilpen's self-possessention

Oh, [italic]dear.[/italic]

In the memorable words of Monica Gellar, "That's not even a [italic]word![/italic]"

[quote]and Vanna White walked in - slim, cool as Audrey Hepburn or a vanilla ice cream cone. I don’t know how she looked so fantastic that day

My guess is it was the door-to-door service in an air-conditioned car or limousine. Much easier to keep cool that way!

[quote]Yeavi think they explained the apartment thing well enough, Monica was paying the rent-controlled amount her Grandmother had

I always wondered why Ross didn’t take over the lease when Monica and Chandler decided to leave for the suburbs. Maybe the mentioned that but I missed it.

r245 you think he would have (not "would of" you youngsters) at least seriously considered it; didn't everyone hate him in his other building?

I think he said something about it being too painful to be there without "Mon" R245

Apparently Cox wanted the struggle to conceive/adoption storyline as she was convinced it would land her an Emmy. She had studied the previous nominees and demanded they give Monica more drama to show her chops.

Kudrow is quite talented, but I thought they all acquitted themselves perfectly well, even Courtney Cox.

Actors who get to play "daffy" very idiosyncratic, or nutball characters always get all the acclaim. Look at Latka, or Jim on Taxi, everyone was so impressed, but really these types of roles are just a bit more showboaty, imo.

I think I might be the only person of my generation who has never seen a complete episode of Friends. I've only seen random clips of the show and I've never found it very funny.

Janice should have gotten a best guest actor Emmy.

Don't know what "generation" you belong to, R250, but I never watched an episode of Friends except inadvertently, by happening to be in the same room with it on someone's television, and I never sat through one entire. It was hokey and dumb, and completely fake in that it was supposed to have anything at all to do with NYC.

r219 - Rush Limbaugh had a housekeeper procuring his opioids. Other people, too probably who didn't want to run the risk of admitting it. She gave an interview to a tabloid after she cut a deal with authorities. It emerged at Johnny Depp's trial that his PA was tasked with finding drugs in Australia. I imagine the same with Perry. It's not a good look to admit you send employees off to potentially commit crimes on your behalf.

Incidentally, Perry's habit pales in comparison to Limbaugh's. I can't recall the amount, but when the story broke, a physician on some publication commented that he must have been taking opioids by the "truckload" (his word) to have developed deafness. The joke at the time was that the worst punishment for Rush was that he couldn't hear the sound of his own voice anymore.

Is it too late to change when you're in your fifties?

Lots of people get sober in their 50s. I'd venture to guess that they're addicted to only one substance and don't have using careers as long as Perry's. He's been at it since he was 10.

And he has seemingly unlimited funds.

Lisa Kudrow is one bad b****.

Courtney should have been nominated for an Emmy. She had moments of comic gold.

I'm still baffled as to how Jennifer won an Emmy. Even at her best, she was the weakest of the three.

I like Lisa, but let's not pretend that she model herself after Teri Garr in some way. She's not the genius people like to make her out to be.

R258 Terri Garr played her mother on the show for a few episodes because it was just that obvious I do dare say. Those are the episodes I seek out. Oh. and the one with Jennifer Coolidge because I dig her.

I love Teri Garr as Phoebe's mom. she should have been a semi regular like Elliott Gould and Christina Pickles were.

R229 = Markle

[quote]by the time I got to the audition my hair was flat, makeup melted and smudged and had perspiration rings on my top under my boobs. I looked like a sweaty mess.

Ew. TMI.

[quote]r173 He actually said he’s had bad experiences with gold diggers and wants a woman with her own wealth

Good luck with that. What would a wealthy woman want with his messy ass??

[quote]r189 I found that most unbelievable thing about the Phoebe character was that she would be hanging out with that group in the first place. I just can't see her wanting to hang out with them or them even accepting her.

Kudrow said that was an issue when they were shooting the pilot, that the producers were asking “Why is SHE there?” And she said Phoebe was there because the friends liked her, and if they and Monica liked her and thought she belonged then the audience would just accept it.

Which most people did. But you have a valid point!

[quote]r250 I think I might be the only person of my generation who has never seen a complete episode of Friends. I've only seen random clips of the show and I've never found it very funny.

I’ve never seen it either. It seems VERY lightweight.

I love Kudrow in THE COMEBACK but I just can’t see FRIENDS having anything for me.

r251 The actress that played Janice was also first a guest star on Seinfeld as a short-lived g'friend of George's named Cynthia.

Also Courtney Cox played Jerry's girlfriend for one episode of Seinfeld. There was actually quite a lot of crossover in storylines and actors/actresses between the two shows.

Why the fuck isn't he dead yet?

Aniston won the lead Emmy for the episode Rachel gives birth

Phoebe was irritating as fuck.

Matt LeBlanc has aged into a handsome, portly French uncle. He’s still very attractive in his way.

[quote] The dad did a commercial with Betty Whiye!

[quote] Surprised he didn't mention tennis. He was a nationally ranked tennis player in Canada in his youth.

And he played one on TV!

I want to hear more about the teeth. so he has a mouth full of implants? that must have been so painful

Me,too, r273. How could ALL of his teeth come out on a piece of peanut butter toast? Molars, too? That sounds unbelievable. His teeth must have been loose and in severe, painful decay. (though pain was quelled by the opioids) Surely they wouldn't have been presentable to a camera.

So it seems Aniston and Kudrow got the most nominations for Emmy, with LeBlanc in third place. Perry got 1 lead nom and Schwimmer 1 Supporting (for season 1).

The fake teeth probably account for how his speech sounds different these days.

[quote]The fact he likely has full dentures explains his slurry speech on recent interviews

They are all implants, that's why they can't really adjust to fix the slurring. He pointed out he was in agony from the dental surgery for 17 days or so with only Tylenol.

Cox not being nominated was ridiculous, she more than held her own.

R278 Her dance with Ross was classic!

She was a good dancer so it's funny that she didn't want to be chosen to dance with Bruce Springsteen in his music video.

Apparently Cox wanted Monica to be killed off in the final season during childbirth so she could finally snag an Emmy

lol

R280, CC was hired for that video clip. He didn't just pick a random person out of the crowd. And she was acting

Just wondering if all Monica's fat suits put her out of contention for Emmy nominations...

Her face prosthesis was so over the top.

However, one of my favorite episodes is when she and Ross do "the dance." I know it's not smart humor, but it makes me laugh.

CC was pretty funny in those dance clips. Then Matthew Perry had to open his mouth and say something stupid to the laugh track.

Matt himself is the big terrible thing.

I don't think having implants affects your speech to that extent.

[QUOTE]Matt himself is the big terrible thing.

Sadly, this the biggest takeaway:

There are so many struggling with sobriety, and Perry plants himself *front and center * which may cause others to give up hope and say/ask front and center, "If multi-millionaire *Matthew Perry* can't buy his own sobriety, why should I try? There's a certain meanness to his madness, right? He's one of those "I'll take you down with me, jackals!"

I can’t imagine why he thinks he’s helping people.

The overall message is: “One of the luckiest people on the planet couldn’t beat addiction. What hope do you poor slobs have?”

he's writing it all down in case he dies. very nice. is he donating the proceeds to any charity?

R287 I think there are many factors affecting his speech, the implants being just one.

[quote]Took Mackenzie Phillips a long time to lick her addiction.

She was quicker at licking her dad's dick.

Another slam - "Mr. M. Perry seems to be the very opposite of the character Chandler Bing, which may be proof of his actor's capabilities but which takes nothing away from the fact that his repetitive whining (the unaccompanied youth x 1.000) and boasting very quickly got on my nerves. I wish to enjoy many more reruns of FRIENDS on my TV, so I closed this book rather soonly, fervently hoping that I can completely forget the chapters I already read ... maybe a few stiff drinks may help ? ;-) "

[quote]soonly

Someone who, obviously, reads many books.

not just soonly.....but rather soonly.....

Jennifer's dad had passed.

And yet Keanu Reeves still walks among us!

Any more Matty revelations?

[R298] He's a truly horrible human being. He has a scary level of disdain for any medical professional and slams basically every doctor and dentist who has helped him along the way. He claims to have lost all of his teeth eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He's still using some medication (I forget) to help him stay off oxy (not sure I'd consider that "clean"). He has been an addict/alcoholic since his early teens but has been "clean" for 18 months, so he writes a book on kicking the habit. Sure, Jan. I bet he's using again once he's back out of the spotlight.

He's beyond entitled (I thought Will Smith's book was bad!) and slams several celebs by name- Aaron Sorkin, Selma Hayek, Amanda Peet (he wouldn't consider it a slam because he just implies she slept her way to success, but I'm sure she's thrilled), Keanu (twice), Robert Duvall (a "hack", Perry says). He shades even those people who have been friends or helped him as either losers or lesser talents (Craig Bierko, Matt LeBlanc) or he objectifies them and tells decades old personal stories that should have stayed personal (basically every woman, esp. Aniston, Julia Roberts, Valerie Bertinelli, Gwyneth). For every woman in the book that he names, he either points out how hot and famous she is or her Hollywood lineage. Every other woman in the book isn't really named, including Lizzy Caplan. After dating/torturing Lizzy Caplan for 6 years, ultimately breaking up with her, she tells him she is engaged to someone else and he is STILL pissed about this. Not sure how long he expected her to hang on after they broke up.

He is a man trapped in what "should have been"- relationships he thinks would have completely saved him from addiction had they worked out or projects that would have turned him into Tom Hanks (he mentions him by name several times in the book) if they'd worked out differently. He ignores the fact that Hanks is not an addict fuckup and asshole.

I read a ton of celeb memoirs, even the grossly entitled/obnoxious ones like Will Smith and Alyssa Milano. No one holds a candle to Perry- the book must be read to be believed, as painful as it is.

^ That actually is a good job of salesmanship. However misjudged the book is, and however it might test anyone's positive feelings about Perry (I've found him both a charming comedic actor and a surprisingly strong dramatic one at different times), It sounds anything but dull.

What does he say about Gwyneth?

He reminds me of a bitter lush 40s actor. Say, William Frawley. Grumpy, sexist, bitter.

Ugh. He really shouldn’t have written this. He still had a lot of sympathy and was coasting on the charm of his youth.

Now people will really hate him.

And he isn’t helping anyone. If anything, he’s living proof it’s nearly impossible to get clean.

I believe that the poster formerly known as YourMillennialFriend claims that most DataLoungers are still living in 1987 but I'd put it about a decade later than that: whenever Friends or Titanic get brought up, DLers fall over themselves with boasts of NEVER having seen either and being the ONLY person they know never to have seen these things. The desperation to be perceived a certain way is, frankly, embarrassing.

^ neither defending nor criticizing

Scusa.

Yes, R304 but in the late 90s I was in my late 20s. Spending my time: working 2 shitty retail jobs, chasing sex, dancing in clubs, hitting the thrift stores for cool shit, enjoying party drugs, hanging out at the gay bars- there were a lot of gay bars.

I DID see Titanic. But Friends? Sitting down to watch a tv show? How fucking boring. Maybe when visiting my older sister, we might catch an episode.

I am not desperate to be perceived a certain way. I was that way and so were the many people I socialized in person with.

r306, if you really didn't care about how you were perceived, you wouldn't have said anything at all rather than overshare all the details of your life in your 20s.

Off-topic, but I had no idea Lizzy Caplan was married. Went looking for a picture, and good for her. She clearly traded up from Perry.

R308 Well. It looks like the break up really worked out well for her.

Here he is on Bill Maher recently.

R310 Kinda sick that they're both yukkin' it up over Perry stealing prescription drugs from innocent people's homes.

From what I read he did seem gratuitously nasty about Keanu Reeves. Why would anybody want Keanu dead? What the hell?

But I do wonder about some of the "slams." Is every criticism of every Hollywood celebrity a slam, or what exactly is the horrible thing he said about Aaron Sorkin or Jenifer Aniston, or is saying some woman was fuckable a complete dismissal of everything else about her?

And the Emmy for living a different kind of shallow life, unsullied by the horrors of regular TV viewing, goes to r306. Congrats.

Wasn't the horrible thing about Aniston that she wouldn't date him?

Until I read this book, I didn't know that Matthew Perry invented sarcasm!

So what’s your favorite season of Friends, R7?

He looked ancient on Real Time with Bill Maher. Sad. Talked about moving on with his career and the best is yet to come but he really wasn’t much of an actor to begin with.

I'm midway reading his book and it's a hate read. He really is name dropping, price dropping, whiney, and ungrateful. To quote AbFab. "Oh for God's sake. Just die!"

[quote]Talked about moving on with his career and the best is yet to come

If he was talking about the best drugs, that is probably true. Otherwise, no.

A user and a loser.

He got no neck......his chin goes straight to his chest......scary.

I find it hard to believe that he remembers all that. esp all the details...when you're an addict, the details get fuzzy.

R315 reminded me of this.

I am about halfway through this slog. I commented upthread that I rewatched a couple of clips of Perry on Friends when he was back on the news and found him competent and charming as an actor. I take it back. His talent is supreme and unrecognized, in that he was able to transform into an even remotely likable person on screen.

My WTF moments so far that have not been commented on - he thinks he is an unrecognized screenwriting genius. He deigns to concede the Friends pilot was better than anything he ever wrote, but notes he was always contributing jokes and helping his other cast mates with their line readings.

He is convinced he made a pact with God to make him famous, but to then let God do what He would with the rest of Perry’s life, and that the addiction was part of this “Faustian bargain.” Clearly this religious scholar had never studied the concept of free will.

Bottom line: nothing, absolutely nothing is his fault, and he is a victim of everything and everyone.

I’m only finishing it to see how low he goes at this point.

Perhaps beyond the Jonah Hill levels of arrogance and assholery he really has some good qualities. But none of them come across in his memoir. This is not a book written by someone who is following the 12 steps-whatever you may think of their efficacy.

Valerie Bertinelli went easy on him when he disclosed that she made out with him not ten feet away from her drunken and passed out husband when they were on a short-lived live sitcom over 30 years ago.

Good job on not hiring that ghost writer, Matt.

Maybe he made a pact with Satan instead of God. That devil is tricky.

This is what happens when you don't have any close friends who can read your manuscript and tell you not to publish.

Sumpin ain't right when an 18 year can't get it up from alcoholism.

I finished this last night. I almost gave up when he said he was the first celebrity ever to go through rehab and have it be known about. No, absolutely you were not, but that’s one demonstration of his absolute self absorption.

Luckily I didn’t give up then, because I shortly after stumbled across the unintentional hilarity of him vowing he would gladly trade places with his former friend with no money, living in a rent controlled apartment and battling diabetes if it meant he wasn’t an addict, and then casually drops a few paragraphs later that he just bought his first Banksy at a NY auction.

Sadly, my take away is he has learned nothing. He speaks with utter contempt about the women who have dated him, so hopefully all future women stay away and he does not procreated which he claims to still want after being supposedly sober for 5 minutes (he relapsed as recently as the COVID lock down).

[quote]I almost gave up when he said he was the first celebrity ever to go through rehab and have it be known about.

He is full of self-aggrandizing delusions. My favorite was when he was SNL:

PERRY: "Let's do a skit about the type of comedy I invented!"

MCDONALD: "You mean sarcasm?"

Love Norm. Or to borrow from Perry, Norm is dead but Matthew Perry still walks among us?!

....

Where Matty met Val.

I'm grateful for fellow DLers who have read the book and reported the significant stuff. I'm curious, but not enough to read through all of that egotism. I wonder how his cast mates really feel about him.

Did GAYle interview him on her Morning programme?

It’s #1 on Amazon with over 5,000 ratings and a 4.4 average. 63% are 5 stars; 21% are 4 stars. That’s pretty impressive. Only 3% gave it 2 stars and another 3% 1 star.

[quote]It’s #1 on Amazon with over 5,000 ratings and a 4.4 average. 63% are 5 stars;

Many people who give books or products five-stars on Amazon are paid to do so either via money, a free copy of the book/product or some other pay for play transaction.

I rarely trust any five-star reviews.

The reviews I trust are the four-star ones which are genuine -- written by people who have read the book or used the product. They like the book/product but recognize its not perfect and say so via their review.

I like reading the bad reviews.

I bought this to send to my niece, who is in rehab for alcohol addiction. I’m so glad I read it before sending it to her! I thought his purpose in writing this book was to “help people”. I’m not sure there is anything in this book that would help an addict. Although he injects some humor & does share intimate details of his addictions, there is so much bragging about how rich & famous he was, & how all the money he had made it easy to fly back & forth to Switzerland just to get more pills, etc., it was a complete turnoff, not to mention the gratuitous foul language throughout the book. I cannot stand people like that. It would have been a much better book if he had just been a bit more humble. He obviously still has a lot of problems since he seems to place so much value on his & his family’s “good looks” & how much money he made & spent on drugs & rehabs. Really? This is supposed to help someone with addiction problems? I kept reading to see where in the book that “help” was going to surface, but it never did. I’m happy that he was able to finally overcome his addictions- I wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemy, but I’m really glad I read it before sending it to my niece. Now it is going in the trash.

I would trade places with most any rich, famous person.

But not Matthew Perry.

He looks like he has lived a horrible, awful life. And he has.

And he will die horribly and awfully, because he can't stop it.

I would never want his life.

And I'd dread his inevitable and horrible death.

I'd totally be an addict if I had access to his money and connections.

So it's probably for the best that I'm a broke and asocial loser.

Aww R342 you're loved here

I wonder if they would ever do a movie version of his life.

R62 I usually like it when people think I'm hot. I usually like those people.

I wonder if this will have any knock on effect with the popularity of Friends. The other cast members have done a good job of keeping any cast issues under wraps, except for a few guest stars who exposed them as cliquey. But Perry could be doing real damage to the legacy and $$$ by revealing himself to be a whining, braggy loser.

They all got paid tons to do the reunion so I don't think they are hurting.

...,

wow 8 and a half hours.

The closest thing to an epiphany is when he reluctantly agrees with his sponser's opinion that he loves the attention from the addiction related drama. That only happened recently.

It is shocking how badly he reads his own book. Usually it is a pleasure to hear an author read his own work. But Perry sounds like a bored librarian who picked up the wrong book for toddler story hour.

well, all the booze and drugs has done a number on his brain, his brain is probably like swiss cheese at this point.

He doesn't make himself look good here. He whines, he points constant fingers at those who he perceives as wronging him. He self praises and in the next breath he beats himself up. He feels like he has been abandoned his whole life and let us know it every other paragraph practically. He whines, he sleeps around he does drugs he drinks he go to the hospital over and over again goes to rehab over and over again, he talks about his anxiety, his penis not working when he was an alcoholic teenager. He doesn't like dentists. He writes an incisive chapter on the workings of Aaron Sorkin. He apologizes for The Odd Couple not working out because he was high during the filming of it. He Rambles and Rambles like I'm doing right here. I'm still listening to it so it is oddly fascinating and I recommend it highly even though it's somewhat torturous. He gives self a lot of credit about how he shaped how we talked as a nation his character of Chandler Bing. He s*** on himself over and over again because of his busted colon. He laments the necessary use of the colostomy bag and decries whoever invented it because it keeps busting. He uses Women and booze and drugs to soothe his pain but discovers that there is a loving God who he gives ample credit to, His father doesn't really wear Old Spice. Listen for yourself, he is quite the Rambling Man.

The paperback now has an animated MP?

.....

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Man, Carrie Fisher did addiction so much better than Matt. Her books about it were far funnier, too.

Did much better? She's dead!

[R358] - Carrie died at 60. "Matty" is 53.

I wonder if him having a best seller will finally give him some peace of mind. He hasn't had a hit in a long time.

Doubt it R360. He starred on one of the most famous and lucrative sitcoms of all time, but he thinks he should have had Tom Hanks’ career. Fame is truly a drug.

And fame goes away so fast, sometimes. Just look at Meg Ryan.

[R360]. Definitely not. He'll be back to using within months, if he's not already. He is a malcontent who lives in the past and blames others for everything.

He's also obsessed with fame and his acting career is over. He's back in the spotlight now with the book, but that will fade and the backlash from his sexism and trash talk will linger in Hollywood, virtually ensuring that he's jobless. The money from Friends won't be enough to keep him happy so he'll go back to drugs or alcohol or both. By his own admission, he uses when anything in his life "changes."

I can't imagine anyone reading this book and actually thinking this is someone who will recover or get better.

[quote]From what I read he did seem gratuitously nasty about Keanu Reeves. Why would anybody want Keanu dead? What the hell?

There were rumors that Keanu was responsible for River Phoenix's death immediately after it happened, and Perry seems to have not realized that those rumors were debunked decades ago. I'm guessing that he heard the rumors about Keanu, then the movie Keanu was working on at the time of River's death ("Speed") became an enormous hit, and his resentment, anger and jealousy turned into a lifelong belief that Keanu should be dead.

I wonder how much you get paid to be a sober living companion. What do they do exactly? Shouldn't he have somebody in control of his finances so he doesn't get tempted to money on things that could kill him? They froze Wendy Williams accounts. Maybe he should have his accounts Frozen as well.

Well, R365, basically I make sure he doesn't juggle 16 steak knives while hopping around on his solar-powered pogo stick.

Which is harder than you might think.

[quote]Perry seems to have not realized that those rumors were debunked decades ago

Whatever the case was with River Phoenix, Perry cannot believe Keanu Reeves played any role in Heath Ledger's death. The way he puts Reeves in opposition to prematurely dead "original thinkers" (Phoenix, Ledger), who were considered among the best actors of their generation, makes me think it is about something else.

The knock on Reeves, fairly or not, was always that he was a "pretty but dumb" actor who went far on minimal talent. This view was expressed often in Perry's heyday in the '90s, when Reeves was everywhere in movies: action blockbusters (Speed, The Matrix), acclaimed oddball indies (My Own Private Idaho), big films by veteran auteurs who could get anyone they wanted (the Coppola Dracula), even a Shakespeare adaptation (Much Ado About Nothing).

So I think it was a tasteless dark-humored joke that people who (in Perry's view) had a lot to give to their craft died too young, and someone who had much less to give has survived.

He seems like a very sad person.

He looks hopeful here.

He’s getting attention, R369. Of course he’s happy …. for right now.

Happiness is fleeting.

I believe the e-book has been edited since it was published. I checked it out of the library and read it this week and there was no mention of Keanu Reeves whatsoever.

Same here, r372. Funny how that happens.

I forgot what his explanation was for saying that about Keanu when he got called out on it, anyone remember?

HOW IS HE STILL ALIVE

He is a living and walking miracle.

Found it. He basically said he just picked a random name and in retrospect, he should've just used his own name. Sure, Matthew. Sure.

A retrospect death warrant?

He tried to grab my ass without paying, when we made that movie together!

[quote]But that doesn't excuse [R58] breaking the trust of the "Anonymous" part of "Alcoholics Anonymous." Even someone as unpleasant as Perry deserves the respect anyone associated with AA should be able to expect.

Perry dashed his own anonymity thousands of times on every known media platform for years. He had none. Now that he's dead it kind of makes it moot.

An anonymous internet poster admitting "I saw Matt at meetings" breaks no one's anonymity, especially since the person doesn't break their own anonymity, or Matt's since he did that himself, plus he's dead.