Maureen McCormick may have played the squeaky-clean Marcia Brady on “The Brady Bunch,” but in real life, the teenage actress’ antics would be too racy even for “Gossip Girl.” In her new memoir, “Here’s the Story,” the former wild child recalls days of trading sex for drugs and partying at the Playboy Mansion.
“There I was, hiding the reality of my life behind the unreal perfection of Marcia Brady,” writes Maureen, now 52. “No one suspected the fear that gnawed at me, even as I lent my voice to the chorus of Bradys singing, ‘It’s a Sunshine Day.’”
The former “Celebrity Fit Club” winner says that during her hard-partying days, she went on cocaine binges and even offered up sexual favors in exchange for drugs — leading to an unwanted pregnancy.
But these days, the rehabbed Maureen is herself a happily married suburban mom. Guess life eventually imitated art — kind of.
KENNY’S HEARTBREAK
Kenny Chesney is milking — er, opening up about — his split with Renee Zellweger after their four-month 2005 marriage. Getting past it, he confesses to Newsweek, “was horrible. It took a while. Years.”
The country singer confesses that at least one song on his new album, written the year after the annulment, deals with the emotional aftermath.
“I was probably as emotionally and mentally exhausted as I’d ever been,” says Kenny. “And that was due to a lot of things — having the foot on the gas pedal constantly, and my breakup with Renee Zellweger.” (OK, we know they got married after dating only a short time, but seriously, they’re not even on a first-name basis?)
So, he says, he sequestered himself in the Virgin Islands (isn’t your heart breaking for him?) and came up with the track “Nowhere to Go Nowhere to Be.”
Kenny says it was “good therapy” to open up via his music — but is quick to note that “I don’t want to say this whole record is about her.” He’s dating someone else and says he’s “not at all” heartbroken about his former wife.
Translation: He’s only bringing Renee up now to get some publicity for his new record.
SORRY FOR SURI?
We don’t necessarily believe everything we read in Star, and we don’t necessarily believe everything we read on Page Six. But when the two carry the same story, we start to suspect there’s something to it. Case in point: The gossip column is now echoing the tabloid’s concerns about Suri Cruise having no friends.
As Scoop! has told you, the 2-year-old is said by Star to spend almost all her time with parents and nannies, and hardly ever in the company of other toddlers.
“Whenever she sees kids, she gets excited and runs up to them and hugs them as if she never gets to see kids her own age,” a local observer seconds to Page Six. “There’s not a lot of socialization there.”
Let’s see, would you rather hop around Europe, NYC and L.A. shopping for designer clothes, or hang out with a bunch of runny-nosed kids who eat paste? We think Suri’s actually got it pretty good.
LAUREN DONE?
Is Lauren Conrad running from “The Hills”? The reality star confesses that she’s just about done with the MTV series that made her a household name for no good reason.
“It’s coming to a point where I love this show so much, but I’m ready to kind of walk away,” the aspiring fashion designer confesses to “Extra.” “I’ve been doing it for five years now. Five years on TV is a really, really long time.”
And here we thought that without cameras trained on her, Lauren would simply cease to exist.
Kitty Raymond is an entertainment writer and astrologer. She welcomes feedback at [email protected].
