Motherhood and Hollywood: How to Get a Job Like Mine

by Patricia Heaton

Book Overview

"The really important things in life are your family and friends. And what will people say about you at your funeral--that you won an Emmy once, or that you were a good person, kind and generous?... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375508716
• ISBN13: 9780375508714
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Villard Books
• Length: 207 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.7" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

I love this book

I love this book. Ive read it before and i cant wait to read it again. I met her for her cookbook release a couple months ago and she is so sweet.

A fun and positive read!

What a wonderful book Ms. Heaton has put together. I have just re-read it and I enjoyed it even more the 2nd time. Gee- no trash, no dark passages about her life. It was fun, positive and strong. I don't have a lot of respect for Hollywood "people" but she has shown us that a normal person can make it in Hollywood. What makes it even more refreshing is that she has values and is not concerned about sharing them. It also made me yearn for those childhood days when we could just play all day and not worry about everyone being a potential weirdo. Something our kids will never get to experience. Thank you for a great book Patricia!

Funny and honest

As a mother of two boys, I can say I LOVED this book. I thought it was refreshingly honest; touching at times, and at other times, laugh-out-loud funny (I had tears running down my face when she was describing the effects of four pregnancies and c-sections on her abdomen, because mine had a similar effect.). I could definitely relate to this book. As someone who loves "Everybody Loves Raymond," I can say that, frankly, I watch it mostly for Patricia Heaton; as wonderful as the entire cast is, I think she is the funniest. So, I was glad to see that Patricia Heaton is as funny and honest in real life as her character.Unlike some other readers, I didn't detect any whining in her book. I thought she showed immensed gratitude to everyone: her family growing up, her friends, her co-workers (just read the acknowledgments), and her husband and sons. I love the fact that she doesn't take herself too seriously just because she has money and fame, and she is well aware that it could all go away tomorrow. She points our repeatedly that the most important thing in life is your family--everything else is fleeting. She also points out repeatedly that she is luckier than most because she now has money--she can afford help with her kids and private schools. But she always makes sure to acknowledge the people who have helped her.Yes, she talks often of the strains of raising four kids, the inevitable conflicts with your spouse, and wishing for some time alone, but I don't know a mother who doesn't feel that way. Just because family is the most important thing, doesn't mean it's not sometimes funny and sometimes a burden. She describes her conflicts with her husband--each thinks the other does nothing and they do it all, they disagree on how to raise the kids, they each have habits that drive the other to distraction--I feel like I could have written it. And yet, she also points out that they are in it for the long haul and are madly in love with each other. I loved the fact that when she finally got time alone, she missed her sons and her husband tremendously.It's a quick read, so I highly recommend this book.

Normal in Hollywood?

Patricia Heaton and I were born 8 days apart, in different Ohio cities. We both grew up in loving families, and attended parochial schools. That's where the similarities seem to end. Patricia has four young sons, I have one neurotic dog. She is a famous TV star, and I'm, well, not. But the overwhelming feeling I had after reading this book was, "I would love to have lunch with her sometime." Take for example a marital conversation Patricia recounts. She read in a book that, "instead of fighting . . .couples should say the word 'tone' when they feel they are being unfairly accosted verbally." Patricia and her husband, "tried that once without much success. It began with me nicely asking him to take out the garbage and him saying 'Tone.' So I toned his tone. He toned my toning of his tone. Our marriage counselor told us we were both tone deaf. My husband thought Tone Def would be a cool name for a rap group or a record label."Not only did I laugh out loud, I turned to my husband and informed him that someone has been listening in on our conversations. You will undoubtedly have a similar deja vu experience as you read this book if you are married or have children, if you were once a child, if you ever worked at a survival job, or if you are now a fabulously successful TV star.Buy Patricia Heaton's book, pour a tall glass of your favorite beverage, curl up on the sofa and treat yourself to a funny, insightful, real and touching read. You won't regret it.

Now Everybody can Love Patty

The Emmy-Award-winning actress who portrays the beleaguered Debra Barone on _Everybody Loves Raymond_ has written her autobiography to prove to us that, unlike her TV counterpart, Patricia Heaton has real friends and relatives who *do* love and support her. The title of the book is a bit misleading, though. While she talks about being a wife and mother and raising her four boys, and she describes her road toward becoming a successful actress, often the monologue returns to memories of her childhood. Growing up Catholic in a western suburb of Cleveland, she went on to major in drama at Ohio State and then (of course) went off to The Big Apple to make it big. There she subletted apartment after apartment and worked as a waitress, modelled shoes and wrote copy while trying to get auditions. We follow her path (almost predictably) to Los Angeles and her eventual arrival on the _Raymond_ series. She writes the way she talks, and some of the childhood stories are laugh-out-loud funny. One of the most amusing scenes comes when the Heaton family hosts "a Negro couple" for dinner on the very same night in 1966 that the Beatles appear on _The Ed Sullivan Show_. Those of us who grew up in the 1960s -- when entire neighborhoods were our playgrounds -- have similar moments tucked away in our heads. If we could join in her conversation here, we'd soon be swapping stories and having a merry old time ourselves.Ms. Heaton tells a few tales on herself: she wet the bed until the age of ten, lost her mother to a brain aneurism when she was twelve, had plastic surgery several times. And there's a lot she keeps to herself, too. A first marriage is mentioned in passing, a few drug references are thrown in here and there. And she tells no tales on her series co-stars, except when she talks about the cast's trip to NYC on September 10, 2001, in order to promote the new season. The actress already had a commendable perspective on the entertainment business and her own success by that time. What she lived through that week helped to reinforce it as well as her commitment to her family.This book is a quick read that's not a "tell-all" but is definitely a "told enough."

Finally - something REAL out of Hollywood!

Whether you live in Hollywood or Iowa, whether you are a mother yourself or simply live vicariously (as do I) through 19 nieces & nephews as well as dozens of children belonging to friends, no matter what profession you find yourself in, you are GUARANTEED to identify with the words of Patricia Heaton! She speaks as one who as lived "in the trenches". Plain-spoken, self-deprecating, and just as witty when writing her own words as acting those onstage from a script, this book is simply fun. It gives you that warm, familiar feeling that makes you finish the last page and immediately want more. I already admired her, but my respect for her willingness to share all the gritty, true, not-so-pretty details that are everyday life make me respect her immeasurably. This one has definite laugh-out-loud, earn-stares-from-others-on-the-bus passages. In another time, I believe Patricia Heaton would have been the one to gladly announce that the emperor not only has no clothes, but is an idiot! Bravo!!