Book ~ "High on Arrival" (2009) Mackenzie Phillips

From Amazon ~ Not long before her fiftieth birthday, Mackenzie Phillips walked into Los Angeles International Airport. She was on her way to a reunion for One Day at a Time, the hugely popular 70s sitcom on which she once starred as the lovable rebel Julie Cooper. Within minutes of entering the security checkpoint, Mackenzie was in handcuffs, arrested for possession of cocaine and heroin.

Born into rock and roll royalty, flying in Learjets to the Virgin Islands at five, making pot brownies with her father's friends at eleven, Mackenzie grew up in an all-access kingdom of hippie freedom and heroin cool. It was a kingdom over which her father, the legendary John Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas, presided, often in absentia, as a spellbinding, visionary phantom.

When Mackenzie was a teenager, Hollywood and the world took notice of the charming, talented, precocious child actor after her star-making turn in American Graffiti. As a young woman she joinedthe nonstop party in the hedonistic pleasure dome her father created for himself and his fellow revelers, and a rapt TV audience watched as Julie Cooper wasted away before their eyes. By the time Mackenzie discovered how deep and dark her father's trip was going, it was too late. And as an adult, she has paid dearly for a lifetime of excess, working tirelessly to reconcile a wonderful, terrible past in which she succumbed to the power of addiction and the pull of her magnetic father.

As her astounding, outrageous, and often tender life story unfolds, the actor-musician-mother shares her lifelong battle with personal demons and near-fatal addictions. She overcomes seemingly impossible obstacles again and again and journeys toward redemption and peace. By exposing the shadows and secrets of the past to the light of day, the star who turned up High on Arrival has finally come back down to earth -- to stay.

I can't say that I've been a fan of Mackenzie's ... but I like reading bios. I read Valerie Bertinelli's book in August and John Phillips' book a couple years ago. Plus One Day at a Time was one of my favourite shows when I was in my teens.

Mackenzie's had a wacky childhood ... but I couldn't feel any sympathy for her at all as I was reading this book.

She still definitely needs help. She has been exposed to and addicted to drugs for most of her life (and she tells you all the details about it) and has gone through rehab a couple times to clean out. The last line in her book says that she is once again clean and now "free".

She has many many issues with her dad. He was a horrible father yet she is still obsessed with him (even though he's been dead for many years). Once she deals with that, I think she will have a better chance at being be "free".

According to her, she had a ten year sexual relationship with her dad. Eww!

At first she calls it rape. If that's the case, she was "raped" quite a few times before she acknowledges it became consensual. The first time she was "raped", she gained consciousness during the act and blacked out at the beginning and end of it. The next time she was "raped", she woke up in her father's bed with her pants around her ankles ... that happened more than once. Why did she let herself get into that situation in the first place?!

In her healing, I can understand why she would write this book. But why publish it and hurt so many in her family? Plus her dad isn't around anymore to defend himself.

If you're into bios, I'd recommend it. Mackenzie came into contact with so many well-known people and it's fun to get the scoop on them.