Inspiraional speaker Tanya Young Williams, ex-wife of one-time basketball hotshot Jayson Williams — who reportedly attempted suicide, was a bad boy, fatally “accidentally” shot his limo driver Costas Christofi in 2002, currently residing in prison — is out with the self-help workbook, “I’m Tired! Carry Your Own S#!T!” Subhead: “Oops, I mean bags.” Subsubhead: “A 7 Day Journey to Peace, Passion & Purpose.”
About its inelegant title: “I went back and forth with that. If it loses some audience, I thought, ‘Well, this is for real.’ With him I was in a negative situation. Physically, emotionally tired. So I needed to help myself and others by lightening our load on a fast track. A detailed tool for how I crawled out of anxiety.
“I wrote what I felt. I started two years ago with pen and pencil when I filed for divorce. It’s no memoir. I offer exercises I’d done for years to combat trials and stress.
“I’d made compromises, given up my own goals and dreams, forgotten my own gifts or talents, lost the ability to laugh. I carried the baggage of a bad marriage. I had to ease that. Think of my own life and relationships. Can’t forever stay stuck. Your husband blazing his own trail doesn’t mean you stop your world because he’s more important.
“First days are tough. You’re stuck, unhappy, no joy. But then it’s, ‘What would life be if I didn’t have this relationship?’ Admit you’re in a bad place. Evaluate the stress. Do you really need to keep it? I had a sample group go through my exercises.”
The book’s out the 18th. The small publisher’s Spiritology. Her advice to the soon-to-be Mr. & Mrs. Prince William is “Communicate. Be best friends. Enjoy the journey.”
Jayson will be incarcerated another year. She knows him half her life. They dated in college. I’ve already reported she’s said he’s done pills and alcohol and needs help. Now a single parent raising two daughters, supporting herself, she’s still “battling to have the kids’ tuition paid. Once every few months he’ll send them a brief letter. I must fight for everything. Certainly anything financially.”
MORE on marriage, which is now as obsolete as hemlines lower than a bi kini bottom: Divorced Jennifer Aniston, whose best friend Courteney Cox is newly looking toward divorce, issues this quote: “People get lazy in marriage. You have to work at it. Women have all the burden. Men are lazy. As a result, romance dies.”
COMES now more books. Jane Sey mour‘s hustling “Among Angels.” Also inspirational. About angels living amongst us and how she and her late father discussed heaven . . . Kevin Spacey, doing no book, told me: “I’d love to have been a writer, although I don’t know if I have the skill.” But his life’s a book. After his film “Casino Jack” comes out, he takes a “10-month trip to China and third world countries doing workshops for young people on theater.” . . . Everyone’s got a book. Julie Andrews has four more coming due with daughter Emma . . . And Dr. Robert Grant‘s pushing out his page turner or face turner “Cosmetic Surgery.”
ASKED how come he’s suddenly so hot and starring in everything, Stanley Tucci replied: “Maybe God thought it was time.” . . . Robert Duvall on his passion for tango: “It’s social dancing. Not sexy. Mothers do it with a kid. It’s sensuous.” OK . . . To prevent 20 rabbits from becoming snake food, animal lover Paris Hilton adopted them, and they’re living in her backyard . . . B. Clinton at Grappolo’s discussing Obama with WCBS’s Mark Stevens in Chappaqua: “He’s good at macroeconomics, not microeconomics.”
MICHAEL Douglas to star in “Liber ace.” Remember him? Piano playing, candelabra, freaky clothes, big jewelry, gay lifestyle, jazzy Vegas home? Matt Damon co-stars. Steven Soderbergh, who’s also remaking “The Man From UNCLE” with G. Clooney, directs . . . Liquor bottles state: “Alcohol can be dangerous to pregnant women.” Hey, if not for alcohol, there mightn’t be pregnant women . . . All kinds of royalty infecting our city. Mohammed VI into his new palace in Marrakech for tomorrow’s film festival opening then probably here for Primola’s pasta. And Saudi’s Prince Alwaleed, richer than Bloomberg, hit the Oak Room.
YOKO‘s stepson Julian collecting a large Lennon memorabilia file. Bid ding on eBay, he always hides his identity or, he says, the prices go up . . . Kelly Osborne losing more weight. Sharing her mom’s trainer. Also looking smooth via Spanx . . . Lady Gaga, about whom civilization may have heard, often talks of herself in third person. Like she’s the Queen. Or Catherine cum Kate, who’s looking to be Queen. Or Camilla, who’s got a really thin shot of being Queen.
A little-known Steve Buscemi-ism. Voicing Templeton the rat in “Char lotte’s Web,” he did research and now says: “They can survive. They go longer without water than camels.” So if rodents come up in dinner conversation, you now know what to say . . . And a little-known Shakespearean-ism. With Pacino‘s “The Merchant of Venice” so hot now, anyone know that former champ Jake LaMotta once recited the Bard in a nightclub? And got booed. As remembered by his former lawyer Chris Seeger, he replied: “Listen, I didn’t write this crap.”
AT Barneys a tourist asked, “Where’s Serendipity?” The man questioned, Stephen Bruce, replied: “On 60th between Second and Third. I’m its owner.” Replied the tourist, “Yeah, right.”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.