A New Book in Praise of Cinema's Hellraisers

I loved the drinking and the waking up in the morning and finding I was in Mexico. It was part and parcel of being an idiot. -Peter O'Toole

Todays "idiots," so to speak, lack a certain finesse. There are lots a tabloids that capture their every move, but they don't really create the stories we'd want to read about later. Some of the old-school rabble rousers, however... Reuters reports that Robert Sellers is releasing a book on May 29 called Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole, and Oliver Reed.

In the description on Amazon, it says: "It's a story of drunken binges of near biblical proportions, parties and orgies, broken marriages, drugs, riots, and wanton sexual conquests." Of course, I want to read it. It's funny how some talent and far-reaching charisma can make risque stories all the more intriguing. Perhaps that's the gauge of true talent -- will we still like them after they mess up? Again? And again?

Then again, the stories are also a little bit more interesting than racial slurs to cops or ladies showing their glory boxes to the world at large -- although the old tales are not all charming. But still, I can't resist a book full of My Favorite Year.