Carrie Fischer grew up amidst Star Wars between her parents

Carrie Fischer, almost always referred to as Princess Leia of Star Wars, wrote several books before her tragic death at age 60 back in 2016. I may get to writing about Postcards from the Edge, The Princess Diarist, and Shockaholic sometime down the road, but here is what I learned about someone I’ve always been fascinated with from her 2008 memoir Wishful Drinking (which was incidentally turned into a Broadway show and is also streaming as a documentary on Max).

• Her parents were 1950s tabloid superstars Eddie Fischer and Debbie Reynolds, and Carrie grew up as a true product of Hollywood. “As a child, I thought that Father Knows Best was real and my life was fake.” It didn’t take long, though, before Fischer left Reynolds and married Elizabeth Taylor and then Connie Stevens. And then Miss Louisiana. And then Betty Lin. 
• Reynolds starred in Singin’ in the Rain at age 19 and Carrie starred in Star Wars at age 19.
• Her best-selling Postcards from the Edge was turned into a hit movie with Shirley MacLean and Meryl Streep basically playing Debbie and Carrie.
• Fischer once dated Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd. And when he was asked about that courtship, he responded that it happened “a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.” She thinks that comment is why he lost his bid for the presidency.
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  She tells the story of how her gay Republican friend Greg died while sleeping over at her house, in her bed, from an OxyContin overdose. She says she liked her friend because he had great stories, including ones about his former office mate George W. Bush, who he said had a talent for farting on command and would often come in right when Greg was about to have meetings to fart and run off. 
• It struck Fischer that she married Paul Simon, a short Jewish singer, just like how her mom married Eddie Fischer, a short Jewish singer. She had a passionate relationship with Simon until the big words they used with each other turned into mean words and they divorced.
• Carrie loved her mom, but she writes that Debbie could be eccentric, such as when she nagged and nagged about how her husband - Debbie’s husband, that is! - should have a baby with Carrie. Debbie also, one Christmas, bought her mother and Carrie vibrators.
• The second half of the book - which I’ll return to at a later date - promises to turn more to Sat Wars-related matters. Carrie wrote that her friends made fun of her for starring in a movie that sounded like it was about her parents. Star Wars.