Celebrity Dumb Quotes II: Dumb and Dumber

[prisma]

What is he trying to accomplish with this book? Does he need the money?

[Deleted]

Oct 27, 2022 22:03:51 GMT -4 prisma said:

What is he trying to accomplish with this book? Does he need the money?

I don't think so.
It sounded more like it's a part of his recovery process. He is very involved in AA and sounds like he sponsors others. I do think he wrote it partly for himself and partly for others because he felt it's something he has to offer to others who are battling addictions.
According to the article (though I take it with a grain of salt because I'm cynical like that) he wrote it on his own without a ghostwriter, per the typical celebrity book.

[hellsbells]

The excerpts I've read have been very self important. The Valerie Bertinelli thing. Ick. I hope he cleared that with her before publishing. Yikes.

[ahah]

Oct 27, 2022 11:48:21 GMT -4 Ginger said:

Everybody loves Keanu now, but hating on him was pretty popular in the 90s. (I'm a recent convert to liking Keanu.) Maybe Matthew is stuck in the past and didn't realize that Keanu-as-punchline is no longer something people are into or would even realize is a joke?

Matthew has been trying to destroy himself for decades, and it must be because he hates himself. There's really no other explanation. So his apology is kind of sad. He's on a book tour discussing his addictions and ostensibly he's sober right now, but he's obviously not through struggling.

This is a great point. Perhaps including those parts show what an honest book it is? Those were his thoughts in the 90s when others were having them too. Rather than leaving it out or changing it, he admitted to it figuring it was just storytelling.

Oct 27, 2022 22:29:28 GMT -4 @stargirl said:

Oct 27, 2022 22:03:51 GMT -4 prisma said:

What is he trying to accomplish with this book? Does he need the money?

I don't think so.
It sounded more like it's a part of his recovery process. He is very involved in AA and sounds like he sponsors others. I do think he wrote it partly for himself and partly for others because he felt it's something he has to offer to others who are battling addictions.
According to the article (though I take it with a grain of salt because I'm cynical like that) he wrote it on his own without a ghostwriter, per the typical celebrity book.

I had a similar thought. Didn't Rob Lowe write his book in part to help his accountability in recovery?

[scarlet]

May 18, 2021 10:34:59 GMT -4 ahah said:

This is a great point. Perhaps including those parts show what an honest book it is? Those were his thoughts in the 90s when others were having them too. Rather than leaving it out or changing it, he admitted to it figuring it was just storytelling.

If that was true, he could've added how unkind it sounded. Rather, seems like he thought he was being clever. Dick move, any way you cut it.

[laurenj]

Oct 27, 2022 19:28:09 GMT -4 seat6 said:

I honestly didn’t understand the point he was trying to make. Why does Keanu walk amongst us? I don’t know, maybe because he never did enough drugs to explode his colon and require 14 surgeries?

I’ve seen a meme going around asking why people expect Appalachian hillbillies to be able to get clean when $9 M hasn’t done Matthew Perry much good.

(The point is that if someone with as many resources and as much support as Matthew Perry can’t get off opioids how are people who’ve been kicked out of their homes and are living check to check supposed to access rehab. I live in Appalachia so people are just trying to draw attention to the crisis here AND dump on J.D. Vance).

I watched the Diane Sawyer interview and that was a point that really stood out to me. Diane (whose interview style really grates on me, just saying) kept hammering on the point that Matthew was never alone while he was going through these serious health crises. Which, if she was simply trying to make Matthew feel supported, fine, but if his larger aim is to help people, I seriously doubt that's going to help the person who's all alone in their addiction.

He has all the money in the world and all the resources, plus an enormous network of family, friends, acquaintances, etc. For that person who has lost everyone or never had anyone and who definitely doesn't have bottomless wealth, I can see this book acting more as proof that sobriety can't be reached if this guy couldn't do it with all he has at his disposal.

Re: Keanu being a popular punchline back in the day, I don't specifically recall those days, but it's very common for people to be the butt of all the jokes and then evolve into a beloved figure. Dolly Parton is another example, it's hard to remember now, but there was definitely a time when she was a big-boobed punchline who didn't get a whole lot of respect for her music. She rode it out by being in on the joke, but it couldn't have been easy.

But it's definitely interesting that Matthew Perry hasn't noticed the sea change on Keanu and thought those remarks would be...whatever he thought they would be.

[Auroranorth]

They say that addicts stop maturing at the age when they started using, so maybe he's still a teenager in that regard who hasn't grown up enough to not diss someone who hasn't done anything wrong.

[Ginger]

I wanted Diane Sawyer to ask Matthew Perry why he slurs his words so badly NOW. Did I miss that part? I know he's talked about having had dental surgery a few days before the Friends Reunion, which explained why his speech was funny and why he appeared to be wearing bright white dentures (because he was). Did it cause permanent speech difficulty? Because he still didn't sound right during the interview.

[laurenj]

Nov 1, 2022 11:02:04 GMT -4 Ginger said:

I wanted Diane Sawyer to ask Matthew Perry why he slurs his words so badly NOW. Did I miss that part? I know he's talked about having had dental surgery a few days before the Friends Reunion, which explained why his speech was funny and why he appeared to be wearing bright white dentures (because he was). Did it cause permanent speech difficulty? Because he still didn't sound right during the interview.

His voice seems permanently slurred. I caught a few episodes of The Odd Couple and while the writing would have hit his sweet spot acting-wise, the slurred speech really changed the way it came across and that was back in 2015-2017.

Considering all of the extremely serious health issues he's had, I assume a stroke of some sort occurred and it's had a permanent effect on his speech.

[ahah]

Nov 1, 2022 11:02:04 GMT -4 Ginger said:

I wanted Diane Sawyer to ask Matthew Perry why he slurs his words so badly NOW. Did I miss that part? I know he's talked about having had dental surgery a few days before the Friends Reunion, which explained why his speech was funny and why he appeared to be wearing bright white dentures (because he was). Did it cause permanent speech difficulty? Because he still didn't sound right during the interview.

They touched on it very slightly and quickly in the interview. He referenced having permanent mouth and throat injuries and said you could hear it in his voice, but didn't really get into the details.

Since the interview is being discussed here, can I mention another part of it that really bugged me? He seems really proud of all of the women he worked with who he had crushes on. He talked abut being infatuated with Valerie Bertenelli. He talked about being attracted to Courtney Cox and Jennifer Anniston (and then threw in Lisa Kudrow to not leave her out). He commented on Salma Hayek as well. Having two actors who work together and fall in love is certainly not an unusual thing - but none of these women seem to have returned the interest in him. I thought it got to be really creepy the way he talked about crushing on so many women he worked with - especially how he would just stare at Jennifer Anniston and appreciated that she let him.