Deborah’s Memoir

We’ve seen a boatload of memoirs by female celebrities this year; Jane Fonda, Goldie Hawn, Kirstie Alley, Phyllis Diller and others have all bared their chests in print.

Female role models.

Who are they — today? Who comes to mind when you put the words “female” and “leader” together?

Hillary Clinton? Oprah? Condi Rice?

The question comes up because so many prominent females these days seem to be writing their memoirs.

Earlier this year, Jane Fonda published her memoir, My Life So Far, in which she recounts, among other things, her extravagant mistakes and asks us, the public, to forgive her.

Last May, Goldie Hawn reintroduced herself to her public in A Lotus Grows in the Mud. Only months earlier, former “Cheers” star, Kirstie Alley, released How To Lose Your **s and Regain Your Life: Reluctant Confessions of a Big-Butted Star. Also in the spring came Lauren Bacall’s By Myself and Then Some. Tatum O’Neal wrote A Paper Life.

And Phyllis Diller gave us Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse.

All these in just the last 10 months. What’s with all this public kvetching? There hasn’t been this much...