Carrie Fisher’s “The Princess Diarist” is out, and everyone’s talking about her 1976 affair with Harrison Ford on set on “Star Wars.”
There’s lots more in Carrie’s book, though. I downloaded it today after waiting for a copy from the publisher. (If you wait for a book publicist to send you a book, you’d die a lonely death. And I even announced this book!)
Any, Carrie reveals a few things– she was almost in Terence Malick’s now classic Days of Heaven, in the Brooke Adams role. Seems originally John Travolta was set to star, and Carrie says she and Travolta “had great chemistry. Like two beakers containing flammable liquid, we bubbled along together comfortably.”
But then Travolta bowed out, and was replaced with Richard Gere. “I read with Richard Gere. Let’s just say our beakers didn’t bubble with compatibility. So now I was out and Brooke Adams was in.”
This was after “Star Wars,” and Princess Leia was already famous/ But before “Star Wars,” Fisher made her debut in Warren Beatty’s– er, Hal Ashby’s– “Shampoo” playing Lee Grant’s daughter. (They each sleep with Warren’s hairdresser character, George.)
Carrie writes:
The other big question you’re probably not asking yourself is, did I wear a bra under my tennis outfit (and if I didn’t, why didn’t I)? Simple. Warren, the star, cowriter, and producer of Shampoo, was asked by the costume department if he wanted me to wear a bra under my tennis clothes or not. Warren squinted in the general direction of my breasts.
“Is she wearing one now?” I stood there as if my breasts and I were somewhere else. “Yes,” responded Aggie, the costume designer. Warren pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Let’s see it without.” I followed Aggie to my hamster-cage trailer and removed my bra. Whereupon I was returned to Warren’s scrutiny forthwith. Once again he squinted at my chest impassively. “And this is without?” he asked. “Yes,” Aggie groaned. “Let’s go without,” he pronounced, directed, charged, commanded. My breasts and I followed Aggie back to my dressing zone and the subject was closed. My braless Shampoo breasts can be ogled on YouTube (or LubeTube), as can my no-underwear-in-space look in the first Star Wars and the metal bikini (or Jabba Killer) in the third (now confusingly known as Episodes IV and VI).
As with all of Carrie Fisher’s books, you can’t put “The Princess Diarist” down. A very funny and worthwhile Christmas or Chanukah present!
