The following excerpt is from an explosive and inspiring new memoir, The Bastard of Beverly Hills,… Read More »Cancel Culture Target #1: Will The Real Donald Sterling Please Stand Up?
Still in the dark about my adoption, I remained somewhat lost at sea during this time of my life. But as out of place as I was on that boat, and as perilous as the circumstances may have been, I felt safe amongst the members of that tribe. Many of them have now departed on a different celestial voyage.
Several celebrity stories didn’t make it into The Bastard of Beverly Hills. Too many to count! But since they didn’t propel the narrative, they were left on the cutting room floor. However, here are a few anecdotes from some of those stories for fans of the book, or just the curious, starting with one about “Uncle Milty” Milton Berle.
In The Bastard of Beverly Hills, I tell a crazy story about the time my mother was married to restaurateur Tony Roma, and though it’s true to the best of my recollection, people shouldn’t get the wrong impression about him.
Actor Michael Landon, best known for his portrayal of Charles Ingalls on television’s Little House on the Prairie was my parent’s closest friend and confidant for nearly three decades. Their friendship was full of highs and lows, marked by a great tragedy, and it’s a fabled story that has never been told. I’ve tried my darndest to bring their incredible relationship back to life in the pages of a colorful new memoir, The Bastard of Beverly Hills, available May 23rd from JIA Publishing. It’s a raw and unapologetic, coming-of-age book that intimately explores a range of sensitive topics from adoption to addiction, faith and cancel culture, and one that I hope readers will be able to both relate to and learn from.
What made my journey through the aftermath of Albert’s tragedy even more surreal was the fact that the character Albert Ingalls on the hit television show Little House on the Prairie was named after my brother.
I’m German and Askenazi by birth, but as a baby, I was adopted by a Sephardic family hailing from the Isle of Rhodes. They were, and remain, hot-blooded, eccentric, and whimsical, and growing up among them was mostly wonderful.
When Beverly Hills was still nothing but a bean field, only one farmhouse stood on the horizon. This is the true story of one family who lived in that famous house and the scandals and secrets that it kept locked up and hidden until now.
