daydreambeliever
11-05-2006, 04:11 AM
Diane Cilento’s Nine Lives
The publication of famous actress, Diane Cilento's autobiography, My Nine Lives, caused great controversy. This is because she accuses Sean Connery of beating her. He has denied this, although he admitted to believing in hitting women if they provoked him, in an interview cited in the book.
In this no-holds-barred tale of her life, Cilento includes other traumatic events as well, such as her nervous breakdown and her terrible suffering with tuberculosis. Her life certainly hasn’t been as glamorous as one would think, but this book is also very amusing as well, and gives many accounts of famous people, such as Laurence Olivier.
The actress begins her tale with stories of her life in tropical Brisbane and Maroochydore, a beach-side town north of the city. She had several siblings and her mother and father, busy and famous doctors spent a lot of time on their careers, although they were also very loving and caring. It was a happy childhood except for a nasty experience with a 'flasher' which she describes in detail.
Cilento was an artistic, somewhat naughty girl who hated school and felt that she didn’t belong. She was expelled from a few schools – her description of her troubles with the American accent of her schoolteacher is one of the funniest sections of the book - but finally found her future career when she decided to learn acting in New York. She then started her illustrious career in London, after continuing her acting studies.
Her profession went from strength to strength but her first husband, a very handsome Italian aristocrat wanted her to live with his family in Italy, and in those days if you married an Italian man apparently you usually married his mother as well! Cilento was extremely ill with TB in Italy and decided to leave. Sean Connery was kind and helpful to the young mother (she had a daughter with her first husband) and helped her go back to England.
The marriage to Connery was happy until becoming James Bond spoiled him, according to Cilento. She hated all the attention and egotism that this brought and Connery also wanted her to be a stay-at-home housewife. Cilento wanted to work, but was becoming a bit tired of the traveling and gossip involved with being an actress. For example, she was accused of an affair with Paul Newman on one set when he’d really been quite ill!
Her marriage broke down, not only because she wanted to work, but their interests were very different. She was also much more spiritual than Connery and started doing courses, which seem fairly 'New Age'. He couldn’t stand this, and accused her of being a hippy and having hippy friends.
I found this part of the book very dull and hard to follow so I skimmed it. It improves when the famous actress decides to build an acting and spiritual centre in Far North Queensland called Karnak. She describes the troubles she had building it and the reaction she had from the conservative people nearby. She finally finds happiness in the humid and unbelievably hot rainforest area, with her last husband, the famous writer, Tony Schafer, who wrote the script of the movie, SleuthThis was more interesting to me because of my being a Queenslander, so I'm not sure how others would like this section of the book.
This autobiography was, overall, a very enjoyable and easy book to read. I recommend it.
Lisa-Anne Sanderson
The publication of famous actress, Diane Cilento's autobiography, My Nine Lives, caused great controversy. This is because she accuses Sean Connery of beating her. He has denied this, although he admitted to believing in hitting women if they provoked him, in an interview cited in the book.
In this no-holds-barred tale of her life, Cilento includes other traumatic events as well, such as her nervous breakdown and her terrible suffering with tuberculosis. Her life certainly hasn’t been as glamorous as one would think, but this book is also very amusing as well, and gives many accounts of famous people, such as Laurence Olivier.
The actress begins her tale with stories of her life in tropical Brisbane and Maroochydore, a beach-side town north of the city. She had several siblings and her mother and father, busy and famous doctors spent a lot of time on their careers, although they were also very loving and caring. It was a happy childhood except for a nasty experience with a 'flasher' which she describes in detail.
Cilento was an artistic, somewhat naughty girl who hated school and felt that she didn’t belong. She was expelled from a few schools – her description of her troubles with the American accent of her schoolteacher is one of the funniest sections of the book - but finally found her future career when she decided to learn acting in New York. She then started her illustrious career in London, after continuing her acting studies.
Her profession went from strength to strength but her first husband, a very handsome Italian aristocrat wanted her to live with his family in Italy, and in those days if you married an Italian man apparently you usually married his mother as well! Cilento was extremely ill with TB in Italy and decided to leave. Sean Connery was kind and helpful to the young mother (she had a daughter with her first husband) and helped her go back to England.
The marriage to Connery was happy until becoming James Bond spoiled him, according to Cilento. She hated all the attention and egotism that this brought and Connery also wanted her to be a stay-at-home housewife. Cilento wanted to work, but was becoming a bit tired of the traveling and gossip involved with being an actress. For example, she was accused of an affair with Paul Newman on one set when he’d really been quite ill!
Her marriage broke down, not only because she wanted to work, but their interests were very different. She was also much more spiritual than Connery and started doing courses, which seem fairly 'New Age'. He couldn’t stand this, and accused her of being a hippy and having hippy friends.
I found this part of the book very dull and hard to follow so I skimmed it. It improves when the famous actress decides to build an acting and spiritual centre in Far North Queensland called Karnak. She describes the troubles she had building it and the reaction she had from the conservative people nearby. She finally finds happiness in the humid and unbelievably hot rainforest area, with her last husband, the famous writer, Tony Schafer, who wrote the script of the movie, SleuthThis was more interesting to me because of my being a Queenslander, so I'm not sure how others would like this section of the book.
This autobiography was, overall, a very enjoyable and easy book to read. I recommend it.
Lisa-Anne Sanderson