Celebrity News

Carol’s love story of daughter

Instead of a chicken in every pot, it’s now a memoir in every bookstore. One day it’s Debbie Reynolds. One day it’s Marie Osmond. In the last 20 minutes it’s Al Roker, Clive Davis, Rue McClanahan, Valerie Bertinelli, JWoww, Cissy Houston, Michael Bolton.

Tuesday brings Carol Burnett’s love story about her daughter, “Carrie and Me.” Says Carol, a Kennedy Center honoree, Television Hall of Fame inductee, winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom:

“April 8th [Monday] I’ll be shot out of a cannon. I’ll shlep around New York and LA to sell it. Come May I’m on the road to theaters and clubs with Simon & Schuster sending books ahead to those cities.”

A few TV sets ago “The Carol Burnett Show” won 25 Emmys. Life now is “this one-woman show I do. I did three in January, four in May. They keep the gray matter from going.

“It’s a plain, unplanned, unrehearsed hourlong questions and answers called ‘Conversation With Carol.’ No Broadway thing. Just whatever questions come from the audience, which I then answer.”

How did the book come about?

“Came about when Carrie was diagnosed and hospitalized. A writer and performer, she’d e-mail me stories, like about her Graceland visit. When we lost her, I kept all that, so it formed a book’s beginning, part of the middle and an ending. I had all that in storage.

“The publisher said, ‘Fill it out. Talk of her life.’ I felt better as I did it. I felt Carrie sitting on my shoulder.

“She was into drugs as a teenager. Then rehab. Then she got sober. Ask, was there anything I could have done? The answer’s no. No matter what, we all have to find our own dreams . . . When she died, she had on the cross I’d given her.

“I have lots of her old stuff. Photographs. Her keychain with her name on it hangs in my closet.

“My first book years ago was a cut-and-paste job on an old upright typewriter. This one I did a little easier. Many things have changed. Like when I open my mouth, people recognize my voice. When I don’t, I can walk the streets freely.

“If I looked like Dolly Parton or Tom Selleck, they’d stop me. Now, they don’t.”

A Chris Brown burp: “I’m only 23, so planning nothing. No kids. No marriage. No next step.” . . . Another high-quality item’s from Amanda Seyfried, who plays porno’s “Linda Lovelace.” Called Deep Throat, for her role Amanda is Deeply Unclothed and says: “We need more nudity. In today’s sexual revolution, everyone’s naked. Sex in movies shouldn’t be a big deal.” Yeah. I’ll wait for a close-up of Melissa McCarthy.

THE Beckhams have three sons, one daughter. Victoria wants another girl. Husband David wants a little break . . . Dame Maggie Smith: “When it’s finally over, I’ll finally watch ‘Downton Abbey.’ ” . . . Steven Tyler wants to write songs with Taylor Swift. Hey, maybe they’ll slug the duo Taylor and Tyler . . . Madonna, who Xmas’d in Gstaad, now rents there . . . Katie Holmes getting a healthy meal at Just Salad.

I first met Lindsay Lohan, about whom mankind’s weary of hearing, in 2003. A minor, 17, allowed to work only 10 hours, filming on the streets of New York in tight red sequin mini, purple spike heels, she said: “I’d definitely not wear this sort of outfit in real life. But there’s been a difference for me since ‘Freaky Friday’ became a hit. I still don’t think everybody recognizes me on the street yet. I wish they would. It would be so cool.”

Ten years later, her wish has come true. Only now she’s hiding from the everybodys. And now she’s wearing those exact clothes. And now her face has changed. And now her career has changed.

What happened? Was it family? Society? Hollywood? What?

WHAT’s “Lucky Guy” big star Tom Hanks do with visitors backstage at the Broadhurst? Snaps their pictures with his camera phone . . . Famke Janssen: “I make clothes for my Boston terrier Licorice. This real boy kind of dog likes to get dirty. White won’t work for him.”

A RECENT survey determined why men get up in the middle of the night: 14 percent to go to the john, 12 percent to go to the fridge and 74 percent to go home.

MONDAY, 8 p.m., Johnny Cash’s daughter Roseanne performs to save South Street Seaport Museum schooner . . . This weekend Guernsey auctions “The Movie Star News Collection,” largest bunch ever of millions of photos and negatives . . . Tuesday Sarah Hyland of “Modern Family” unveils her beauty line at Dylan’s Candy Bar. Beauty line? The kid’s a hot 22.

April 26 Salman Rushdie and Deepa Mehta open their film “Midnight’s Children” at the Beekman . . . Shakespeare’s birthday’s the 26th. Still time to get him a gift. If not, the Public Theater’s doing “Sonnets for the City” in his honor . . . The 10th Elle Magazine’s Women in Music issue headlines Kelly Rowland and Martha Wainwright at Edison Ballroom.

Only in New York, kids, only in New York.