Do Tell: The 20 Juiciest TV Star Memoirs

Rob Lowe
'Stories I Only Tell My Friends' (2011)
'Love Life' (2014)

Lowe is a great storyteller, which makes both his memoirs entertaining reads, and not just lists of titillating tidbits he?s willing to share. Though we will condense them down to these juicy disclosures: he turned down the McDreamy role in 'Grey?s Anatomy' because Les Moonves wanted him to star in 'Dr. Vegas'; Jewel once wiped her mouth off after kissing him for a scene in another failed drama, 'The Lyons? Den'; he once found out an actress he was dating was also sleeping with Warren Beatty? and Beatty?s the one who told him; he lost his virginity at age 14, to his little brother Chad?s 16-year-old babysitter; and he?s got some Charlie Sheen stories of his own. The two were childhood friends, and in 'Stories,' Lowe says Sheen was an AV club member who wouldn?t go near the ocean, wore preppy Polo shirts, wanted to be a pro baseball player, and was a ?conspiracy-theory freak? who sometimes wore a bulletproof vest to school under his clothes.

Roseanne
'Roseanne: My Life as a Woman' (1989)
'My Lives' (1994)
'Roseannearchy: Dispatches From the Nut Farm' (2012)

All three of her memoirs offer choice nuggets of Roseanne-ado, though 'My Lives' is a must-read for fans of her titular sitcom, as the book covers her on-screen and off-screen life during the most tumultuous years of the series. That means drug use, fights and making up with eventual husband Tom Arnold, being estranged from her family after she accuses her father of incest, going AWOL from the show for one week while execs conspired with her then-husband, Bill Pentland, a producer on the show, to continue the series without her (co-stars, John Goodman ? he of the ?triple-x size heart? ? and Laurie Metcalf refused), and turning her platonic relationship with Arnold into something more with this romantic gesture: she picked him up, told him, ?You and me are gonna go f--k,? then drove to Encino and rented a $27-a-night hotel room.

Ron Perlman
'Easy Street (the Hard Way): A Memoir' (2014)

Not even his wife or his mother knew about the secret the 'Sons of Anarchy' and 'Hellboy' star revealed in his memoir: In 1981, battling clinical depression and disappointed that his first movie ? Quest for Fire ? didn?t bring about the Hollywood superstardom that had been predicted for him, the actor tried to commit suicide with pills and alcohol. The Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee (for 'Beauty and the Beast') bounced back to hit that TV and movie success he pursued, of course, though he also writes about the unhappy ending, on-screen and off, of his time on 'Sons.' When his character descended towards his eventual doom, Perlman says it carried over to his once-close relationships with the cast. ?Clay Morrow was being set up to be a pariah, an outcast, a persona non grata, and it was beginning to look like there was nothing but inevitability that his very existence was nothing short of intolerable. Funny how a manufactured reality can start to blur its way into reality itself? By the end of the show I wasn?t very close to anybody.?

Jay Mohr
'Gasping for Airtime: Two Years in the Trenches of Saturday Night Live' (2004)

It?s the goal of most comedians to land a regular gig on 'Saturday Night Live,' but Mohr writes about the dream job becoming the biggest nightmare of his life, thanks to panic attacks, little airtime, some difficult relationships with co-workers, and the innate insanity of the pace of life at 'SNL'. He also shares details on the people he loved ? like Phil Hartman, Michael McKean, and Chris Farley ? and those he didn?t, like Farley pal David Spade, who ?was only on the show so he could sleep with models.? Refreshingly, Mohr also confesses that the biggest jerk move anyone made during his 'SNL' days was when he copied the act of comedian Rick Shapiro and submitted it as his own sketch idea. Lorne Michaels confronted Mohr about it? and, amazingly, didn?t fire him when he denied what he?d done (in the face of video evidence), or when Shapiro filed a lawsuit (and won a settlement).

Cybill Shepherd
'Cybill Disobedience' (2000)

The 'Moonlighting' star did not have an issue with kissing and telling in her autobiography. Among those she, ahem, kissed: Elvis Presley, director Peter Bogdanovich, her 'The Long, Hot Summer' co-star Don Johnson, and Charles Grodin (her co-star in 'The Heartbreak Kid'). She turned down both Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson, and, in a last-minute decision in the middle of a hot make-out session, she and 'Moonlighting' co-star Bruce Willis decided not to sleep together, lest it ruin their work relationship and make things awkward on set. Given the tension-filled hotbed of behind-the-scenes drama the show became anyway, maybe they should have gone for it. (Shepherd offers a free PDF of Cybill Disobedience on her website).

Mackenzie Phillips
'High on Arrival: A Memoir' (2009)

It wasn?t a surprise that the actress we knew best as troubled Julie on 'One Day at a Time' had battled drug problems long before she was cast in the role that made her a teen star. But her memoir shared something far more crushing: Phillips wrote that her father, The Mamas and the Papas singer John Phillips, had not only introduced her to drugs, but raped her when she was 18-years-old, and carried on a then-consensual affair that lasted a decade? until she was afraid the baby she was carrying was her father?s, and not her husband?s.

Andy Cohen
'The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year '(2014)

Inspired by his love of 'The Andy Warhol Diaries,' 'Real Housewives' papa and 'Watch What Happens Live!' host Cohen shares a year?s worth of excerpts from his impressive social calendar, i.e. a year?s worth of name-dropping of the famous types with whom he hangs. There?s SJP, the Consuelos (Mark, and Kelly Ripa), Anderson Cooper, Jimmy Fallon?s family, and the Jerry Seinfelds, plus Cohen?s experiences with Tinder, the supermodel who wanted him to fire one of the Housewives (oh, okay, it was Naomi Campbell, who revealed she?s no fan of Kenya Moore), and Madonna coming to his annual Christmas party at his apartment (and insulting his sound system). The book also includes details of Cohen?s biggest love story (adopting rescue dog Wacha), the time he proposed a three-way with Jenny McCarthy and Donnie Wahlberg, and 'WWHL' guests like Mariah Carey, who demanded Cohen give her his seat, and Lady Gaga, who peed in a clubhouse trash can because she didn?t want to walk to the bathroom (the 'WWHL' crew kept the urine and bottled it).

Barry Williams
'Growing Up Brady: I Was a Teenage Greg '(1992)
Maureen McCormick
'Here’s the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice' (2008)

Williams writes about such adventures like trying to get a little somethin’ somethin’ going with Florence Henderson, a.k.a. Mrs. Brady, a.k.a. his on-screen mom, during his 'Brady Bunch' days (the then 15-year-old managed to get a platonic dinner date with his then 36-year-old TV mom). But, oh, Marcia, Marcia, Marcia… she was up to all kinds of very un-Brady-like behavior post-'Bunch,' including a drug addiction so strong it led her to trade sex for drugs and mess up a meeting with Steven Spielberg about a role in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark.' She also dishes about her love life, which included crushing on on-screen brother Williams, as well as dating Michael Jackson and Steve Martin, a potential romance she ruined, McCormick writes, when she showed up for her first and only date with the funny man totally high.

Anne Heche
'Call Me Crazy' (2001)

Heche has said she wrote her memoir to share the truth about her life, after that infamous Fresno/Celestia incident following her 2000 break-up with Ellen DeGeneres ?. you know, the one where she, wearing shorts and a bra, abandoned her car in the California town and wandered into a stranger?s house and tried to convince the children there to take a spaceship to heaven with her? The backstory: Heche wrote about being sexually abused as a child by her father, from the time she was an infant until the age of 12. Her mother, angry at her father, a closeted gay man who died of AIDS, refused to acknowledge the abuse, and that sparked an alternate personality named ?Celestia,? who believed she could fly and that she was the reincarnation of God.

Brandi Glanville
'Drinking and Tweeting: And Other Brandi Blunders' (2013)
'Drinking and Dating: P.S. Social Media Is Ruining Romance' (2014)

The uncensored 'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' star is no less candid in her books than she is on the Bravo series or on Twitter, which means plenty of 'literary' shade thrown at both her cheating ex-husband, Eddie Cibrian, and his new wife, LeAnn Rimes. Like, how she got Cibrian to pay for a vaginal rejuvenation surgery, so she could sport an ?Eddie-free vagina,? and how Rimes stole all her friends by taking them on a fancy trip to Cabo San Lucas. Her second book basically boils down to a catalog of blind items on the famous men she says she?s slept with, including an action hero movie star, a rapper/aspiring politician, an NBA star she says she had sex with on top of a Porsche, and a thief who she dropped because he wanted to take her to a party at the house of a celebrity ? Brendan Fraser ? whose Hollywood status was apparently not impressive enough for her. Don?t feel guilty if you?re already Googling for hints? we?ve all done it.

Melissa Gilbert
'Prairie Tale: A Memoir' (2009)

It?s another angsty former child star tale of growing up in Hollywood, and like the best of these types of memoirs, Gilbert isn?t stingy with the particulars. For instance, while you may remember that she once dated Rob Lowe, Gilbert reveals in the book that the two were on the verge of getting married, at one point planning a wedding that would have involved doves and a rented soundstage. She also shares details on miscarrying Lowe?s baby; how later, her first husband, Bo Brinkman, had a one-night stand with Shannen Doherty (Gilbert?s 'Little House on the Prairie' co-star) and had sex with a prostitute in her house (she walked in on them); and how pal Johnny Depp once asked, during the afterparty for the premiere of the movie 'Great Balls of Fire,' if he could touch her new mommy breasts.

Barbara Walters
'Audition: A Memoir' (2008)

The broadcasting legend has said she wouldn?t have written her memoir if her father and sister were still alive, and here?s why: she reveals her father, New York City nightclub owner Lou Walters, once tried to commit suicide, something she begged famed gossip columnist Walter Winchell to cover up. Walters also touches on her dad?s near arrest on tax charges (and how controversial family friend Roy Cohn got the charges dropped), and says she?s ashamed that she was, at one time, embarrassed about her developmentally disabled older sister Jacqueline. As for turning the spotlight on her own personal deets, she talks about her romance with Virginia Senator John Warner (before and after his stint as Elizabeth Taylor?s penultimate husband), and ?fesses up to affairs with married Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke and married caterer Claude Phillippe.

Kelsey Grammer
'So Far' (1995)

You know those people who talk about themselves in the third person? Kelsey Grammer writes about himself in the third person, and yes, it is just as pompous as it sounds. And even though he elicits much sympathy for enduring a plethora of personal tragedies ? his father abandoned him and was later murdered, his only sister was raped and murdered, two of his half-brothers died in a scuba-diving accident ? he also shares some cold attitudes about the tragedies of other people in his life. His friend and agent, who was dying of AIDS, called Grammer wailing one night, wondering what he was going to do. The actor told him, ?Well, Jeffrey, you?re going to live or you?re going to die. I don?t know what else to tell you. I?m sad for you, and frightened, but I can?t change what?s happened. I love you, but I don?t know how to help you.? Like we said, cold.

Mario Lopez
'Just Between Us' (2014)

The 'Saved by the Bell' alum and 'Extra' co-host proves he isn?t afraid to turn the gossip spotlight on himself with this juicy tome, in which he reveals that he 1) lost his virginity at age 12; 2) nearly became a father at age 15; 3) was almost too drunk when he was ?called to duty? during a one-night stand with a ?mega pop star? (who, according to US Weekly, was Britney Spears); 4) his first kiss was with 'Kids, Incorporated' co-star Fergie: 5) he did date 'Bell' co-star Tiffani Thiessen (and gave her his real-life letterman jacket); and 6) he knew he wasn?t in love with first wife Ali Landry before they walked down the aisle. Landry had confronted him about pictures of him with another woman that had been taken during his bachelor party vacation (a vacation he had lied to her about), and they famously broke up just two weeks after their wedding.

Terry Crews
'Manhood: How to Be a Better Man ? Or Just Live With One' (2014)

The 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' scene stealer/'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' host/Old Spice ad star/hardest working man in Hollywood writes about his pro football career, leaving the NFL behind to pursue a Hollywood art career that turned into on-camera work instead, and about his childhood growing up with an abusive, alcoholic father. But the biggest shocker in his autobio: Crews? admission that he was once addicted to pornography, which he confessed to his wife ? and mother of his five children ? Rebecca when they were getting ready to do publicity for their 2010 BET reality series 'The Family Crews.' The secret nearly ruined the Crews? marriage, but he writes that counseling and his wife?s willingness to forgive made their relationship stronger than ever.