“Know before whom thou stands. Understand your friends for who they are, not who you wish them to be. Accept them for their flaws as well as their attributes. Turn to them for their strengths, what good stuff they can bring to your life, and forget about the rest. To ask for more only sets you up for failure.”
Fran Drescher has a…unique voice in the industry. I used to watch The Nanny sometimes and laugh at the antics of that bizarre household. When my friend loaned me this book, I was all on it.
It’s immediately clear the book holds a conversational tone and writing style that displays Fran’s humor. She comes across as a down to earth girl who made it big but struggled to get there. She wasn't gifted with the rare insta-success but had to work for years to grow. Her husband, Peter, is also in the same business and they had been together the entire book from high school on. The book opens with their childhood in a small town with her parents and how close they all were. I was surprised to learn how the parents from ‘The Nanny’ were copies of her actual parents, even down to the names.
Sometimes some of the stories would lose me, like a vacation or so, but she did have the worst luck and funny stuff about her party with the big producers. I was surprised to learn of her rape, which her husband was forced to watch, which was touched upon very briefly because of talking about Howard Stern and all her appearances on his radio show. She told an awkward but enlightening backstory about a threesome that was proposed but she didn’t go through with, and also about her awkward kiss scenes with Robin Williams. She was apparently great friends with Dan Akroyd and her wife, which came across as sweet and down to earth.
I think the part most people were surprised about was her saying Princess Diana was a bitch and prima donna, but she told it like it was with her experiences.
Overall it’s a fun book. I was put off sometimes with the conversational tone that could seem cloying if it went on too long, but there were good one liners and some truly amusing stuff. The beauty stuff and her struggle and goal to lose and maintain weight was also interesting. The Nanny is of course the huge focus of the end of the book, and it was around season three when the stories stopped and the book was finished.
If you’re a big fan of Fran and the Nanny, it’s a good read that deserves your attention.
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