"The product of a 1970s mixed marriage, George Murdoch learned to fight early in life, fending off both race-baiting bullies and the demons of a dysfunctional home. Couch surfing all through high school and most of college, the quick-witted, sharp-tongued giant played football, ran drugs, and bounced at clubs to try to survive. After a false start with the WWE, he eventually became Snoop Dogg's bodyguard and traveled the world with the hip hop legend,...

Alan and Denise Jackson's life seemed like a fairy tale: high school sweethearts marry young and leave small-town Georgia to pursue big dreams in Music City. They pay their dues, work hard, weather deep disappointments. Then their dreams come true. In fairy tales, the Jacksons' material success?plus their "perfect" marriage, their three beautiful daughters, and their supportive families?would have signaled a happily-ever-after ending. But real life...

Here's Johnny is like sitting with Ed and Johnny over lunch:

The last time I saw Johnny, about a year before he died, we had chicken, a couple of glasses of red wine, and then we just sat there and reminisced, going back and forth the way we did on the show. We talked about our kids, and our careers and the state of America, just two lucky guys who loved each other and the good luck of our careers.

Ed McMahon is the only

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"With the perspective of time and success--Ron as a filmmaker, producer, and Hollywood A-lister, Clint as a busy character actor--the Howard brothers delve deep into an upbringing that seemed normal to them yet was anything but. Their Midwestern parents, Rance and Jean, moved to California to pursue their own showbiz dreams. But it was their young sons who found steady employment as actors. Rance put aside his ego and ambition to become Ron and Clint's...

Written at the height of her fame but not published until over a decade after her death, this autobiography of actress and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) poignantly recounts her childhood as an unwanted orphan, her early adolescence, her rise in the film industry from bit player to celebrity, and her marriage to Joe DiMaggio. In this intimate account of a very public life, she tells of her first (non-consensual) sexual experience, her romance...

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, first published in 1961, is biography of the first-lady, from her early childhood to her meeting and marriage with John F. Kennedy. The book ends with the family's move into the White House (and before the President's tragic assassination in November 1963). Author Mary Rensselaer Thayer worked closely with Mrs. Kennedy to produce the book, and it is reported that Jacqueline prepared much of the initial draft. Included are...

Actress Grace Kelly was swept away when the handsome Prince Rainier, a man she barely knew, asked for her hand in marriage. If she married Rainier, she would be more than just a movie star, she would be Her Serene Royal Highness Princess Grace. Once in the palace, however, Grace found herself trapped in a fairy tale of her own making. Grace and Rainier may have been royalty, but they were also husband and wife, and parents, and, as such, just as vulnerable...