Unauthorized Biography

Charm City gets plenty of face time in Kitty Kelley's "Oprah," the unauthorized biography of Oprah Winfrey. In fact, "Baltimore" is the seventh word in Kelley's book, appearing well before "Hollywood," "talk show," "book club" or even "successful" (but after "Chicago," Winfrey's base of operations for the past 26 years). Released in bookstores today, "Oprah" follows Winfrey from her hardscrabble beginnings in Mississippi (while quoting relatives who insist her youth wasn't nearly as impoverished as she's made it sound)

Charm City gets plenty of face time in Kitty Kelley's "Oprah," the unauthorized biography of Oprah Winfrey. In fact, "Baltimore" is the seventh word in Kelley's book, appearing well before "Hollywood," "talk show," "book club" or even "successful" (but after "Chicago," Winfrey's base of operations for the past 26 years). Released in bookstores today, "Oprah" follows Winfrey from her hardscrabble beginnings in Mississippi (while quoting relatives who insist her youth wasn't nearly as impoverished as she's made it sound)

THE RUSH LIMBAUGH STORY: TALENT ON LOAN FROM GODPaul D. ColfordSt. Martin's230 pages. $19.95 Rush Limbaugh would be the last person you'd think of as a pot-smoker and a non-voter (at least for the first 12 years he was eligible).And, as boisterous as he is on his nationally syndicated radio show, it's hard to imagine that he doesn't have much of a personal life.Yet that's the picture in "The Rush Limbaugh Story," an unauthorized biography written by Newsday radio columnist Paul D. Colford.

So they're finally making a movie about former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and what better place to shoot it than ... Montreal? Yes, Rudy! - based on an unauthorized biography - is set to begin filming Nov. 7 in Canada, angering industry officials who say the film belongs in Giuliani's hometown. James Woods stars as the Brooklyn-born former mayor, and Penelope Ann Miller plays ex-wife Donna Hanover in the film, which intersperses flashbacks from Giuliani's childhood and political career with his performance Sept.

The Italian designer Gianni Versace -- a bearded, vivacious Calabrian who lives and works by the credo MORE IS MORE -- was sitting in his baroque atelier on the Via Gesu in Milan almost two years ago, talking about how he bought a palatial home on Ocean Drive in that mecca of Florida hip, South Beach.I will never forget that conversation."I was on the way to Cuba," he said, "and I stopped just for 10 hours in Miami. I said to the driver, don't bring me to anything boring, just bring me to where the action is, where the young people go. He dropped me at News Cafe.

LOS ANGELES -- A federal judge has dismissed an unusua libel suit by a high-powered Beverly Hills entertainment lawyer who claimed that celebrity author Kitty Kelley defamed him when she thanked him for acting as a source for her unauthorized biography of Nancy Reagan.In Ms. Kelley's controversial 1991 book on the former first lady, she listed attorney Mickey Rudin as one of 612 sources -- the people she said had made "the most important contribution to this book."Mr. Rudin has steadfastly maintained that he never talked to Ms. Kelley or provided any assistance to the writer, with whom he had previously tangled when she wrote her stinging volume "My Way" on his long-time client Frank Sinatra.

Had ABC not switched "Home Improvement" and "Roseanne," we might have witnessed a truly bizarre piece of competitive scheduling tonight: ABC's real "Roseanne" opposite Fox's ersatz Roseanne: An Unauthorized Biography."

So they're finally making a movie about former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and what better place to shoot it than ... Montreal? Yes, Rudy! - based on an unauthorized biography - is set to begin filming Nov. 7 in Canada, angering industry officials who say the film belongs in Giuliani's hometown. James Woods stars as the Brooklyn-born former mayor, and Penelope Ann Miller plays ex-wife Donna Hanover in the film, which intersperses flashbacks from Giuliani's childhood and political career with his performance Sept.

NEW YORK -- Madonna routinely ate out of garbage cans while she clawed for a show-business break in her early New York days.Madonna was unhappily seeing a shrink just weeks after her 1985 marriage to wild-man actor Sean Penn.Madonna went on an out-of-control drunk earlier this year after a fortune teller told her she would never have children.Madonna was once dumped by an artist boyfriend who complained she wasn't sexually "inventive" enough.Madonna used to dream of being a nun, but she always insisted on wearing pants to church anyway.

He was into Scientology. He's never been true to his school. He used to spend hours preparing his face for a shave. He has control issues, is remarkably focused and has rarely made a misstep in his ascent to America's comedy pantheon. And, says one author, Jerry Seinfeld made every effort to persuade people not to cooperate with the unauthorized biography that contains such facts. Seinfeld: The Making of an American Icon (HarperCollins) by Jerry Oppenheimer, chronicles the childhood, early career and phenomenal rise of the man who created, in the guise of "a show about nothing," the gotta-watch-it sitcom that TV Guide called "the No. 1 comedy of all time."

He was into Scientology. He's never been true to his school. He used to spend hours preparing his face for a shave. He has control issues, is remarkably focused and has rarely made a misstep in his ascent to America's comedy pantheon. And, says one author, Jerry Seinfeld made every effort to persuade people not to cooperate with the unauthorized biography that contains such facts. Seinfeld: The Making of an American Icon (HarperCollins) by Jerry Oppenheimer, chronicles the childhood, early career and phenomenal rise of the man who created, in the guise of "a show about nothing," the gotta-watch-it sitcom that TV Guide called "the No. 1 comedy of all time."

Had ABC not switched "Home Improvement" and "Roseanne," we might have witnessed a truly bizarre piece of competitive scheduling tonight: ABC's real "Roseanne" opposite Fox's ersatz Roseanne: An Unauthorized Biography."

The Italian designer Gianni Versace -- a bearded, vivacious Calabrian who lives and works by the credo MORE IS MORE -- was sitting in his baroque atelier on the Via Gesu in Milan almost two years ago, talking about how he bought a palatial home on Ocean Drive in that mecca of Florida hip, South Beach.I will never forget that conversation."I was on the way to Cuba," he said, "and I stopped just for 10 hours in Miami. I said to the driver, don't bring me to anything boring, just bring me to where the action is, where the young people go. He dropped me at News Cafe.

THE RUSH LIMBAUGH STORY: TALENT ON LOAN FROM GODPaul D. ColfordSt. Martin's230 pages. $19.95 Rush Limbaugh would be the last person you'd think of as a pot-smoker and a non-voter (at least for the first 12 years he was eligible).And, as boisterous as he is on his nationally syndicated radio show, it's hard to imagine that he doesn't have much of a personal life.Yet that's the picture in "The Rush Limbaugh Story," an unauthorized biography written by Newsday radio columnist Paul D. Colford.

LOS ANGELES -- A federal judge has dismissed an unusua libel suit by a high-powered Beverly Hills entertainment lawyer who claimed that celebrity author Kitty Kelley defamed him when she thanked him for acting as a source for her unauthorized biography of Nancy Reagan.In Ms. Kelley's controversial 1991 book on the former first lady, she listed attorney Mickey Rudin as one of 612 sources -- the people she said had made "the most important contribution to this book."Mr. Rudin has steadfastly maintained that he never talked to Ms. Kelley or provided any assistance to the writer, with whom he had previously tangled when she wrote her stinging volume "My Way" on his long-time client Frank Sinatra.

FEAR AND LOATHING: THE STRANGE AND TERRIBLE SAGA OF HUNTER S. THOMPSON.Paul Perry.Thunder's Mouth Press.264 pages. $22.95. Writing a biography about Hunter S. Thompson seems like an exercise in redundancy, considering that everything written by the inventor of "gonzo journalism" has been part of a fragmented autobiography.But that hasn't prevented several books on the inspiration for the Doonesbury comic strip character, Duke, from crowding their way onto bookstore shelves.The latest to come along is "Fear and Loathing: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson," an unauthorized biography by Paul Perry, formerly an editor with Running magazine.

FEAR AND LOATHING: THE STRANGE AND TERRIBLE SAGA OF HUNTER S. THOMPSON.Paul Perry.Thunder's Mouth Press.264 pages. $22.95. Writing a biography about Hunter S. Thompson seems like an exercise in redundancy, considering that everything written by the inventor of "gonzo journalism" has been part of a fragmented autobiography.But that hasn't prevented several books on the inspiration for the Doonesbury comic strip character, Duke, from crowding their way onto bookstore shelves.The latest to come along is "Fear and Loathing: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson," an unauthorized biography by Paul Perry, formerly an editor with Running magazine.

NEW YORK -- Madonna routinely ate out of garbage cans while she clawed for a show-business break in her early New York days.Madonna was unhappily seeing a shrink just weeks after her 1985 marriage to wild-man actor Sean Penn.Madonna went on an out-of-control drunk earlier this year after a fortune teller told her she would never have children.Madonna was once dumped by an artist boyfriend who complained she wasn't sexually "inventive" enough.Madonna used to dream of being a nun, but she always insisted on wearing pants to church anyway.