The Greatest Celebrity Tell-Alls

Nowadays, celebrities’ private lives are splashed across the tabloids. But not long ago, people learned about their favorite actresses by reading—wait for it—books! The Wall Street Journal takes us on a tour of the five best actress autobiographies, each chronicles of love, hardship, and, more often than not, lots of drinking. It turns out many starlets were driven into depression by bridesmaid syndrome, which Evelyn Keyes describes in a book about the role of her lifetime, Scarlett O’Hara’s Younger Sister. Mary Astor suffered from alcoholism out of the spotlight until she found her way to the Catholic Church. But the best lesson, perhaps, comes from Bette Davis, who writes in The Lonely Life: you “can’t have it all.”