My Lucky Stars

This text is the memoirs of Shirley MacLaine. Through four decades and more than 40 films, MacLaine has starred in such movies as "The Apartment", "The Turning Point" and "Terms of Endearment". In this book, she looks back over her 40 years as an actress to reveal how Hollywood and its artistic community - the actors, directors, and producers who became her mentors, lovers, antagonists, and friends - has shaped her life, her craft, and the woman she's become. MacLaine was a small-town girl with old-fashioned values, a Broadway dancer who'd grown up in the disciplined world of ballet. Then Alfred Hitchcock decided to cast the unknown actress in his movie "The Trouble with Harry". The 19-year-old went from workouts and eight shows a week to the pampered yet bewildering life of a starlet in a town where fantasy and reality is often blurred. MacLaine made a madcap movie with her childhood idols Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis - and witnessed the drama of their breakup. She joined Frank Sinatra's clan and learned to roll with the punches during unpredictable shoots. And in the middle of "Two for the Seesaw" and "My Geisha", she found herself in love with her complex leading men.
Here she writes of these people and pays tribute to many other stars she cherishes, among them Elizabeth Taylor, Anthony Hopkins, Julia Roberts, Jack Nicholson, and Barbra Streisand. An insight into how MacLaine builds her characters is offered - detail by detail - from the outside in. She shares highlights of her professional relationship with Bob Fosse, the story of the friction on the set of "Terms of Endearment", the truth about making movies on location, and what its like to take the stage with Sinatra. MacLaine's other autobiographical works include "You Can Get There From Here" and "Dance While You Can".