Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography

Lowe, actor and 1980s teen idol, delivers a keen and insightful look at how the movie industry packages a celebrity, the phenomenon of "objectification," and being "The Next Big Thing." His astute look into a Midwest childhood, as well as counterculture Malibu as a young adult, raises lifelong issues of isolation and detachment for him as he adapted the persona of "a people pleaser with very few personal boundaries." Lowe vividly records the making of Coppola's The Outsiders, witnessing the emergence of Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, and Patrick Swayze alongside his own career launch. He offers insightful anecdotes about people he knew throughout his career, such as Jodie Foster, Andy Warhol, Roman Polanski, Jane Fonda, Michael Dukakis, and Princess Stephanie of Monaco. In an era that he describes as self-indulgent, he discusses his alcoholism, his video escapade, and his life as defined by the term "Brat Pack." In the end of this honest memoir, Lowe tells of his reformed life, in which he got married, had a family, and landed a career-defining role in The West Wing. (May)