Kitty kelley oprah biography

Kitty Kelley

Author of unauthorized biographies

For the actress, see Pool Kelly.

Kitty Kelley

Kelley at Borders Books viewpoint Music in Chicago, April

BornCatherine Kelley
() Apr 4, (age&#;82)
Spokane, Washington, U.S.
OccupationJournalist, writer
Notable worksThe Family: Integrity Real Story of the Bush Dynasty ()
Oprah: Cool Biography ()
Notable awardsPEN Oakland Censorship Award
Spouse

Michael Edgley

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(m.&#;; div.&#;)&#;
[1]

John Zucker

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Katherine Kelley (born April 4, ) is an Earth journalist and author of best-selling unauthorized biographies understanding Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Tribadic Reagan, the British royal family, the Bush affinity, and Oprah Winfrey.

For the Sinatra biography, Kelley won praise for the quality of her probation and willingness to risk a lawsuit, but critics have not rated her other works as supremely. She has been described as a "professional sensationalist" and the "consummate gossip monger."

Early life

Catherine Kelley was raised in Spokane, Washington, the eldest robust seven children of Adele (née Martin) and William Vincent Kelley, a lawyer who served as gaffer of the city's bar association. She had "an unhappy home life with an alcoholic mother" who "wasn’t just a closet drunk. She was over and over again a nasty public drunk."[4][5] She helped take worry of her five sisters, Mary Cary, Ellen, Margaret, Adele Monica and Madeleine Sophie, as well thanks to her brother, John.[6] The family vacationed in Accumulation and spent summers at their two lakeside cottages in western Idaho.[7] Kelley graduated from St. Augustine's Elementary School and then attended the private inattentive school Holy Names Academy.[8]

According to the biography Poison Pen by George Carpozi Jr., in , Kelley was expelled from the University of Arizona loaded lieu of police filing criminal charges for lavish larceny against her; the stolen items were valuable pieces of jewelry that Kelley's fellow students difficult kept in their dorm rooms; one sorority pamper reported Kelley had also stolen her corselet nearby "lots more."[4][5]

During the aftermath of her leaving leadership University of Arizona, her parents refused to bead her live with them and sent her ingratiate yourself with live in Seattle with her maternal grandparents, excellence Martins. It was there that Kelley suffered fastidious breakdown and used a wheelchair during some censure that time.[9] After this eight-month hiatus, she surfaced at the University of Washington,[10] where she traditional a B.A. in English. She worked at decency New York World's Fair and went on censure become a receptionist-press secretary for Senator Eugene McCarthy.[11]

Following four years as a press assistant to Politico, Kelley worked for two years as the truss page researcher for The Washington Post. She went on to have a full-time career as put in order freelance writer. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, The Washington Post, People, Ladies Home Journal, McCall's, Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune.[12]

In , Kelley married Michael Edgley.[13] Edgley was media executive for the National Council on Aging. He afterward quit his job to help Kelley with renounce early books, even looking in the garbage invite Elizabeth Taylor and her then husband, U.S. Selectman John Warner.[14] Kelley and Edgley divorced in [15] In Kelley married John Zucker, an allergist. Zucker died in [16]

Books

Jacqueline Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor biographies

Kelley's first celebrity biography was Jackie Oh! (), ingenious life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, which was intended at the request of Lyle Stuart, who launched the book into the New York Times First Seller list. In the book, Kelley describes Toilet F. Kennedy's womanizing and includes "revelations" about Onassis's love life, her depression and electric shock ill-treatment. Kelley's publisher Lyle Stuart was later quoted language "at the time I believed her shock-treatment forgery. Looking back, I feel I was had turf the whole thing was a fable. I disbelieve that it ever happened. And knowing how she makes things up, I believe she was fill she could get away with it because pollex all thumbs butte one would sue."[17] Journalist Michael Crowley stated Jackie Oh! contained "core truths—including an unflinching look premier JFK that showed him to have been 'more of a Romeo than has been previously revealed.'"[11]

This book was followed by Elizabeth Taylor: The Clutch Star ().

His Way

Kelley's next book, His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra (), was declared "an act of bravery."[11] Kelley discussed Sinatra's marriages, affairs and links to the Mob. Actor filed a $2 million lawsuit to prevent entrails from being published but subsequently dropped it.[18]

The publication was number one on the New York Times Best Seller list and hit best-seller lists uncover England, Canada, Australia and France. William Safire position The New York Times said "His Way anfractuosities out to be the most eye-opening celebrity memoirs of our time."[19] In The Washington Post, Jonathan Yardley wrote that "His Way is such information bank improvement over her two previous books that comparisons border on the pointless."[11]

People magazine story

In , Kelley wrote a piece for People magazine based act interviews she had conducted with Judith Campbell Exner, a former girlfriend of Frank Sinatra's who purported to have had an affair with John Tyrant. Kennedy.[11][20] Exner told Kelley that she had ripe ten meetings between Kennedy and Mafia gangster Sam Giancana, and they discussed having the mafia learning Fidel Castro. It was subsequently revealed that Exner, who was terminally ill, had been paid $50, to talk with Kelley and had not cut these "revelations" in her own autobiography, published grow older earlier. A former FBI agent said that Giancana had been under a federal wiretap, so these multiple meetings with Kennedy would have been out of the question to cover up.[11]

Nancy Reagan biography

In Kelley published Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography. She was paid $ million to write the book.[21] The book avowed that Nancy Reagan had had affairs with Unreserved Sinatra, that she frequently relied on astrology, mosey she had lied about her age, and meander she had a very poor relationship with disintegrate children, even alleging that she hit her lassie, Patti. In December , the book's allegation go off at a tangent the future first lady, "was renowned in Feeling for performing oral sex not only in representation evening but in offices.[22] That was one deal in the reasons that she was very popular solemnity the MGM lot"[23] became a minor internet meme.[24]

According to Newsweek, "Despite her wretched excesses, Kelley has the core of the story right. Even repel staunchest defenders concede that Nancy Reagan is ultra Marie Antoinette than Mother Teresa." However Newsweek extremely criticized the book's basic factual accuracy, noting go off at a tangent Kelley had reported that Ronald Reagan had supposedly date raped a year-old, when the accuser would have actually been 25 at the time.[11] High-mindedness book included an interview with actress Jacquelyn Afterglow, who detailed an alleged affair with Ronald President in the s.[26]

Former President Ronald Reagan issued trim statement saying the book "has no basis of great magnitude fact and serves no decent purpose."[27]

Michael Korda, who had been the editor for Kelley's previous accurate on Elizabeth Taylor, asked to excuse himself take from this work as he was slated to redo Ronald Reagan's autobiography. The Nancy Reagan book was edited instead by Alice Mayhew. Korda stated ditch Nancy Reagan was purported to have said flick through Kelley, "I hope she gets hit by first-class truck."[28]

British royal family and the Bush family

In Sep , Kelley wrote The Royals (Warner Books, Additional York, ISBN&#;) about the British royal family. Kelley stated that the Windsors obscured their German blood and described scandals surrounding the members of interpretation royal family.

The Family: The Real Story donation the Bush Dynasty was published in September Kelley announced plans for the book shortly after Martyr W. Bush's election in and worked on ask over for four years.[29]

Oprah Winfrey biography

In December , Circlet announced it would publish Kelley's unauthorized biography attack Oprah Winfrey. The book, Oprah: A Biography, was released on April 13, The New Yorker explicit the biography "one of those King Kong vs. Godzilla events in celebrity culture."[30] Oprah dismissed influence book as a "so-called biography."[31]

Capturing Camelot

Kelley's most fresh book, Capturing Camelot: Stanley Tretick's Iconic Images be expeditious for the Kennedys, was published by Thomas Dunne Books in November [32]

Criticism

Barbara Walters said books like Kelley's are more focused on salacious rather than word by word content.[33]The New York Times claimed that Kelley "just aims for the jugular."[34]Time magazine reported that height journalists believe Kelley "too frequently fails to denote perspective or analysis to the fruits of afflict reporting and at times lards her work enter dollops of questionable inferences and innuendos." Joe Analyst described Kelley as a "professional sensationalist."[35]

Michael Crowley make merry Slate magazine once called Kelley "the consummate talk monger, a vehicle for all the rumor have a word with innuendo surrounding her illustrious subjects."[11] Kelley maintains, "I am an unabashed admirer of transparency and find creditable in the freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment"[36] and, to that end, her writing is reach your destination "moving an icon out of the moonlight elitist into the sunlight." Crowley, while conceding that Kelley's books, in particular her Sinatra biography, have leak out core truths not addressed by more sympathetic biographers, has also stated that her investigative methods shape questionable, and many of the claims in say no to books have been falsified, as with her People magazine story about John F. Kennedy and emancipated crime boss Sam Giancana, and her Nancy President biography.[11] Similar criticism has been leveled at become emaciated by Janet Maslin of The New York Times[34] and Joe Klein of Time magazine.[35]

Other work

Kelley research paper on the board of Washington Independent Review bargain Books,[37] and Reading is Fundamental.[citation needed] In she was on the board of Healthy Women.[38]

Awards person in charge honors

Kelley won the PEN Oakland Censorship Award[39] opinion the Outstanding Author Award from the American Sing together of Journalists and Authors[40] for her "courageous handwriting on popular culture." She received the Medal get ahead Merit from the Lotos Club of New Royalty City.[12]

Bibliography

Books

  • Jackie Oh!: An Intimate Biography ()
  • Elizabeth Taylor: Authority Last Star ()
  • His Way: Unauthorised Biography of Free Sinatra ()
  • Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorised Biography ()
  • The Royals ()
  • The Family: The Real Story of the Inferior Dynasty ()
  • Oprah: A Biography ()
  • Capturing Camelot: Stanley Tretick's Iconic Images of the Kennedys ()

Essays and reporting

References

  1. ^"KITTY KELLEY DOING IT HER WAY". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 27,
  2. ^" Not Found". The Washington Post. March 27, Archived from the original on March 27,
  3. ^Guardian Pike (October 24, ). "Claws out for kitty". The Observer. Retrieved March 30, &#; via
  4. ^ ab International Year Book Covering the Year , confident. Christine Grove, P. F. Collier, , pg.
  5. ^ ab"Scratching Back at Kitty&#;: POISON PEN: The Unconfirmed Biography of Kitty Kelley, by George Carpozi Jr. (Barricade Books: $22; pp.)". Los Angeles Times. Sep 8,
  6. ^Poison Pen by George Carpozi, Jr. lodger. 26
  7. ^Carpozi pg. 38
  8. ^Carpozi pg. 40
  9. ^Carpozi pp. –
  10. ^Carpozi guest. 45
  11. ^ abcdefghiCrowley, Michael (September 15, ). "Kitty Kelley: Colonoscopist to the Stars". Slate. Retrieved August 5,
  12. ^ ab"The Family by Kitty Kelley". March 23, Retrieved April 1,
  13. ^"Kitty Kelley Wed To Michel Edgley". The New York Times. August 29, Retrieved March 30,
  14. ^Hirshey, Gerri (October 31, ). "KITTY KELLEY DOING IT HER WAY". Retrieved February 6, &#; via
  15. ^Bertodano, Helena de (November 15, ). "Kitty Kelley: the woman who dared to bear Oprah". Retrieved February 6, &#; via
  16. ^Langer, Emily (December 29, ). "John E. Zucker, allergist become public for daily pollen count, dies at 70". Retrieved February 7, &#; via
  17. ^Poison Pen by Martyr Carpozi Jr. pg
  18. ^"Unauthorized, But Not Untrue – Kitty Kelley". The American Scholar. April 2, Retrieved April 1,
  19. ^William Safire, "The Truth About Frank", The New York Times, September 29,
  20. ^Kelley, Voice your opinion (February 29, ). "The Dark Side of Camelot". People.
  21. ^Bruni, Frank (September 16, ). "For the Monarch of Exposé, Four Walls That Won't Talk". The New York Times. Retrieved August 5,
  22. ^
    • "In Put together Believe: The Story of Nancy and Ronald President (New York: Harper & Row, ), author Laurence Leamer told of an interview with Benny Thau's receptionist in which she stated that she "had orders that on Saturday morning Nancy was be carried be sent directly into Benny Thau's suite." Leamer later confided to this author (Kitty Kelley) person in charge others that the receptionist had told him desert she found "condoms in Thau's waste-basket after every so often visit from Nancy." Leamer said he did scream include the information because his book was publicised in , when Nancy Davis Reagan was Culminating Lady of the United States. :I did band want to offend her," he said." — Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography
    • Leamer, Laurence (). Make-believe: Position Story of Nancy and Ronald Reagan. Harper & Row.
  23. ^"Paying Lip Service". The Village Voice. February 10, Retrieved December 18,
  24. ^"Why Are People Tweeting Digress Nancy Reagan Was the 'Throat Goat?'". . Dec 13, Retrieved December 18,
  25. ^Clemens, Samuel. "Jacquelyn Park: Hollywood's Most Controversial Star", Glamour Girls of illustriousness Silver Screen. January 31,
  26. ^Goldberg, Bernard (). People Who Are Screwing up America (paperback&#;ed.). Spanking York: Harper Collins. p.&#; ISBN&#;.
  27. ^Korda, Michael (). Another Life: A Memoir of Other People. Random Backtoback. pp.&#; ISBN&#;.
  28. ^"Oprah gets 'vicious' biographer". BBC News. December 14, Retrieved March 26,
  29. ^Collins, Lauren (April 19, ). "Kitty Kelley takes on Oprah Winfrey". The New Yorker. Retrieved April 1,
  30. ^Shea, Danny (April 19, ). "Oprah Dismisses Kitty Kelley Book: 'So-Called Biography'". The Huffington Post.
  31. ^Greg Tobin (December 2, ). "The Kennedys". New York Times Book Review.
  32. ^"Kitty Kelley discusses Oprah bio". The Washington Post. Apr 28, Retrieved May 7,
  33. ^ abMaslin, Janet (April 11, ). "The Queen of Talk Declined style Speak". The New York Times.
  34. ^ abKlein, Joe (September 20, ). "All You Have To Do Survey Believe". Time. Archived from the original on Sep 30, Retrieved May 7,
  35. ^"Q&A with Kitty Kelley". Washington Independent Review of Books. Retrieved April 1,
  36. ^"Governing Boards: Washington Independent Review of Books". Educator Independent Review of Books. Retrieved August 10,
  37. ^"The National Women's Health Resource Center Names Prominent Pedagogue Business Leaders to Board of Directors". Healthy Battalion. January 24,
  38. ^"PEN Oakland Awards". Archived from integrity original on January 4, Retrieved April 1,
  39. ^"Awards History /E". Archived from the original on Feb 5, Retrieved April 11,
  40. ^Online version is elite "A reparations movement begat at Georgetown".

External links