Posts Tagged ‘Marcia Brady’

Maureen McCormick Comes Clean

October 22nd, 2008

Maureen McCormick is creating major buzz now that she’s admitted she traded sex for drugs in her new book Here’s The Story, which is out now.

Being eternally branded as Marcia Brady hasn’t been easy for Maureen, 52, but it does give her many moments to cherish. She appeared on the hit show The Brady Bunch from 1969-1974. After a successful stint on CMT’s Gone Country earlier this year, she recently appeared on CMT’s Outsiders Inn.

“People are really great,” she tells me during a party at Nashville nightclub Avenue. “I mean, kind of like I’m part of their family, which is really, really nice. They’ve grown up with me, so it’s a funny thing.”

Is it overwhelming?

“It used to be at one time, but it’s not anymore. I love it. I think it’s great and it’s part of the business. I love it. It’s what I love to do.”
 
After appearing on VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club in 2007, Maureen dropped 38 pounds. Was it more difficult to lose it in the first place, or keep it off?

“I just try to watch it,” she admits. “It’s really hard because I’m 5’3” and I’m short and I’m little. It’s really difficult. You have to really watch it and you have to really exercise. Especially when you’re 52 years old.”

She gets a tap on her shoulder from her cowboy-hat wearing hubby Michael Cummings. They’ve been married for a whopping 23 years! They’re parents to daughter Natalie, 19.

“We’re doing an interview really quick for OK! Magazine,” she tells him. “I’ll be right there.”

She continues, “Maintaining it is really hard. I love to eat, I love food and I’m short – I’m little – so like five pounds makes a huge difference. That’s the hardest part – definitely.”

Maureen works out with a trainer by kickboxing, swimming, and jogging. While she watches what she eats, there are still some things she can’t resist.

“My biggest fault is that I love sweets. I love chocolate and sugar. I have to really watch that. That’s my biggest downfall. I love Baskin Robbins chocolate mint ice cream and See’s candy. Love that.”

In her day, the L.A. native was considered a Hollywood beauty icon … who is her Hollywood beauty icon now?

“Meryl Streep,” she tells me. “I think she’s one of the most beautiful. Sally Field. She’s natural and she’s real. That’s what I love about Sally Field. I love Helen Mirren. I think she’s fantastic, gorgeous and sexy and wonderful.”

Her daughter might choose Sarah Jessica Parker as a beauty icon.

“That’s my girl’s favorite,” Maureen tells me.

Maureen’s book, Here’s The Story, is out now.

McCormick Talks Cocaine, Abortions & Syphilis

October 16th, 2008

In an interview set to air Friday on The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet, former Brady Bunch star Maureen McCormick pulls some pretty heavy duty skeletons out of her closet when she talks about her new tell-all memoir, Here’s the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice.

Turns out Maureen not only had a nasty addiction to cocaine but a family history of the sexually transmitted disease syphilis.

"My grandmother died in a mental institution, she had contracted syphilis from her husband…he committed suicide a week after. My mother contracted the disease from my grandmother," Maureen tells hosts Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy. "Writing the book was really cathartic. I feel like I don’t have to hide anymore."

CLICK HERE to see OK!’s Exclusive Photoshoot with Maureen!

Maureen admits to loving cocaine the first time she tried it — so much so that "I became totally addicted for five years. It was awful. They would call me "The Hoover" because of how much cocaine I would do," she says.

At one point, Maureen says her addiction was so all-consuming that she became unaware of what she was doing, including getting pregnant.

"I was 18, 19 and 20 when I had each abortion," she recalls. It shows how careless I was. It shows what drugs did to me and how far I went. I was not aware of the things going on in my life. Playing Marcia, I always had to be perfect… but I had so much going on underneath. I always felt I had to be perfect for the public. Now I know I don’t — I can just be me."

Maureen says she hit rock bottom shortly after auditioning for Steven Spielberg for his then-film, Raiders of the Lost Ark. "It was one of the worst auditions of my life," she says. "I was asked to meet Steven Spielberg. I was high and I had missed my meeting with him. I was totally spaced out… been up for days. He offered me an orange…he probably thought I was sick."

For the entire interview, check out Friday’s Morning Show with Mike & Juliet — CLICK HERE or check local listings for time and station.

Maureen McCormick: A Very Un-Brady Life

October 14th, 2008

In the latest example of a former child star straying down the party path, Maureen McCormick admits in a new memoir that she was far from Marcia Brady, the innocent good girl she played on TV’s The Brady Bunch.

 

Click here to see OK!’s photo shoot with Maureen!

 

The memoir, Here’s the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice, chronicles how Maureen traded sex for cocaine, partied at the Playboy Mansion and Sammy Davis Jr.’s house, dated her TV brother Barry Williams, Michael Jackson and Steve Martin and basically lived a life completely opposite to that of Marcia Brady.

"As a teenager, I had no idea that few people are everything they present to the outside world," she writes in the book, in stores today. "Yet there I was, hiding the reality of my life behind the unreal perfection of Marcia Brady. 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.’ "

 

Maureen says she was addicted to drugs, which led to her trading favors for drugs and resulted in unwanted pregnancies. She says the drug abuse limited her career, even missing an interview with Steven Spielberg because she was high.

 

Although she’s clean now and living in a suburb in California, Maureen writes that she has no regrets about being on The Brady Bunch.

"I’ll always be struck by how much a part of people’s lives Marcia is and always will be," she writes.

 

Click here to see OK!’s photo shoot with Maureen!

Stars Line Up at CMT Awards

April 23rd, 2008

Nicole Kidman towers over hubby Keith Urban as they swan into the CMT Awards, which take place at Belmont University in Nashville. Her baby bump is minimal, and she waves as fans shriek. Carrie Underwood makes her way in at 6:41, but hostess-with-the-mostess Miley Cyrus causes the biggest stir when she walks the purple carpet in a print dress at 6:24.

Aside from Paula Abdul, whose teeth are chattering, celebs donning minimal gowns refrain from making their shivers known on this unseasonably cold evening. “Your hands are warm,” the American Idol judge tells me after a handshake.

Whoa! Naomi Judd actually stands in line to talk to me when I am in the midst of speaking with AI’s Bucky Covington. Insanity! I do adore the Judds – and Naomi is brilliant. I smile on the inside when I see Alan Jackson and his wife about to do the same. I mean, it’s Alan Jackson! (“Way down yonder on the Chattahoochee…”)

OMG, Crystal Gayle is here, too. I loved her when I was a little, little, little kid. She had that amazing floor-length-long hair, and still does. “I love OK!” she says. Who is her favorite young artist? “I think LeAnn Rimes is a great vocalist,” she tells me.

Sara Evans struts up with fiancé Jay Baker. She’s a favorite, too. (Remember Born To Fly? Good stuff!) Little Big Town’s Kimberly Roads confesses she’s a lil’ nervous about performing. Jewel adores her “sweet, feminine” dress.

 

Now Brad Paisley and his wife, and then Faith Hill and Tim McGraw slide through. Here’s LeAnn with hubby Dean Sheremet in tow.

Taylor Swift greets me with “Hey! How are you?” and reveals the inspiration for her song Teardrops on My Guitar. “It’s about a guy named Drew who I went to school with. I wrote it in ninth grade. It was a guy I really liked and he had no idea. But I think he knows now.” Well, probably.

Miranda Lambert tells me boyfriend Blake Shelton helped her pick out her dress, but he didn’t take great care in finding his duds. “Want me to be honest with you?” he says. “I’ve had these jeans on now – I wore them in Toronto, Canada on Friday, I wore them in Michigan on Saturday, I wore them to Bass Pro Shops on Sunday, and I decided I’m on such a roll that they were ready for this CMT Awards show. These are my good old Wrangler blue jeans. They fit better the longer you wear them.”

Meanwhile, Kristian Kane fractured his ankle in three places while filming a movie in Lake Tahoe. “It was hard getting these jeans over this boot, but I sacrificed comfort for style,” he tells me.

AI’s Diana DeGarmo waves hello, and the boys and girl of Lady Antebellum give me a wave and “hey, how you doing?” Maureen “Marcia Brady” McCormick also says “hi.”

Wow, country music has a lot of cute guys. I count Chuck Wicks, Jason Aldean, Jake Owen and Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley – Josh’s brother — among them. (There are more, too, but off the top of my head.)

Laura Bell Bundy, who starred in Broadway’s Legally Blonde, has gone country with her album Longing For A Place Already Gone. “I call it y’all-ternative,” she laughs. “I’m very influenced by Loretta Lynn’s albums from long ago and her recent album she did with Jack White. She’s a beautiful songwriter, she’s very honest and real. It’s actually her birthday today.”

I bet she’s excited to meet [her sister] Crystal Gayle, too.

 

Check out the OK! on stands this week for more coverage of the CMT Awards. “Katie Fights Back: Don’t Mess With My Family” is the cover line.

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