WebProNews

Tag: mariel hemingway

  • Depression, Suicide at Core of Mariel Hemingway’s Young-Adult Book

    Mariel Hemingway is the granddaughter of famous novelist Ernest Hemingway. While Ernest Hemingway is known for his wonderful writing, he is also known for how he left this world: he put a double-barreled shotgun to his own head.

    In fact, Mariel Hemingway has seen troubled lives throughout her family. Her own sister, Margaux, also took her own life. Mental illness, depression and other factors have colored the Hemingway legacy for generations.

    Now Mariel Hemingway is talking about it. She has penned two books on the subjects of depression, mental illness, and suicide. One is a young-adult version called Invisible Girl.

    Her publisher says:

    Born just a few months after her grandfather, Ernest Hemingway, shot himself, it was Mariel’s mission as a girl to escape the desperate cycles of severe mental health issues that had plagued generations of her family. Surrounded by a family tortured by alcoholism (both parents), depression (her sister Margaux), suicide (her grandfather and four other members of her family), schizophrenia (her sister Muffet), and cancer (mother), it was all the young Mariel could do to keep her head… Young readers who are sharing a similar painful childhood will see their lives and questions reflected on the pages of her diary—and they may even be inspired to start their own diary to channel their pain. Her voice will speak directly to teens across the world and tell them there is light at the end of the tunnel.

    Mariel Hemingway says that she feels a unique opportunity to talk about these issues of depression and suicide.

    “I am a Hemingway, and to me, that means that I have a ticket to understanding a world of darkness, of courage, of sadness, of excitement, and — at times — of complete lunacy. And yet, other people with other names feel these things too. It may just be that they don’t have an American myth to which they can connect themselves.”

    When asked why she did a young-adult version of this book about depression and suicide, Mariel Hemingway said:

    “Because that’s (the age) when I was the most scared. Also when I was the most confused. A lot of kids don’t know that there’s somebody out there that gets it. You don’t know it’s not normal. I thought that when parents fought and there was broken glass and blood on the wall, that you cleaned it up because this was your job.”

  • Mariel Hemingway Talks Family Suicide Legacy

    Mariel Hemingway starred in Woody Allen’s Manhattan in 1979. But it is her famous surname that always precedes her.

    Mariel Hemingway was born into the family of legendary author Ernest Hemingway, author of such classics as:
    The Sun Also Rises (1926)
    A Farewell to Arms (1929)
    For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)
    The Old Man and the Sea (1951)

    Mariel’s grandfather Ernest Hemingway is also famous for committing suicide with a shotgun in 1961. Mariel Hemingway also lost her supermodel sister Margaux to suicide in 1996. In all seven of her family members have taken their own lives.

    Now Mariel Hemingway is speaking out about this family curse in a book called Out Came the Sun.

    Her publisher describes the book:

    “She opens her eyes. The room is dark. She hears yelling, smashed plates, and wishes it was all a terrible dream. But it isn’t. This is what it was like growing up as a Hemingway. In this deeply moving, searingly honest new memoir, actress and mental health icon Mariel Hemingway shares in candid detail the story of her troubled childhood in a famous family haunted by depression, alcoholism, illness, and suicide.

    “Born just a few months after her grandfather, Ernest Hemingway, shot himself, it was Mariel’s mission as a girl to escape the desperate cycles of severe mental health issues that had plagued generations of her family. Surrounded by a family tortured by alcoholism (both parents), depression (her sister Margaux), suicide (her grandfather and four other members of her family), schizophrenia (her sister Muffet), and cancer (mother), it was all the young Mariel could do to keep her head.”

    Perhaps the “keep her head” comment was not thought out well. Ernest Hemingway blew his brains out.

    Nonetheless, Mariel Hemingway tackles the topics of depression and suicide, as well as other family demons head-on. She writes.

    “I am a Hemingway, and to me, that means that I have a ticket to understanding a world of darkness, of courage, of sadness, of excitement, and — at times — of complete lunacy. And yet, other people with other names feel these things too. It may just be that they don’t have an American myth to which they can connect themselves.”

  • Mariel Hemingway Claims Woody Allen Made Romantic Overtures to Her When She Was a Teen

    Mariel Hemingway is claiming that director Woody Allen made overtures to her when she was 18, inviting her to take a romantic getaway to Paris.

    In a memoir penned by Mariel Hemingway, the actress said the inappropriate attention came just after she played Woody Allen’s teenage girlfriend in the 1979 movie Manhattan.

    Mariel Hemingway explained in her upcoming memoir, Out Came the Sun that following the completion of the shoot, Woody Allen, who was in his mid-40s at the time, flew out to her parents’ home in Idaho and invited her to take a trip with him to Pars, which the actress claims made her very nervous.

    “Our relationship was platonic, but I started to see that he had a kind of crush on me, though I dismissed it as the kind of thing that seemed to happen any time middle-aged men got around young women,” writes Mariel Hemingway.

    She warned her parents “that I didn’t know what the arrangement was going to be, that I wasn’t sure if I was even going to have my own room. Woody hadn’t said that. He hadn’t even hinted it. But I wanted them to put their foot down. They didn’t. They kept lightly encouraging me.”

    Hemingway says she woke up in the middle of the night “with the certain knowledge that I was an idiot. No one was going to get their own room. His plan, such as it was, involved being with me.”

    Mariel Hemingway said she confronted Woody Allen in the guest room of her parents’ home.

    “I’m not going to get my own room, am I?” As Allen fumbled for his glasses, Hemingway informed him: “I can’t go to Paris with you.”

    According to Hemingway, he called for his private jet the next morning and left Idaho.

    Woody Allen has long been accused of inappropriate behavior with young women. The director has always denied allegations by his ex-girlfriend Mia Farrow that he sexually assaulted his adopted daughter, Dylan, when she was 7, and no charges were ever brought.

    Woody Allen began dating Soon-Yi Previn, Farrow’s other adopted daughter, when she was a young woman, and they are now married.

    Despite the strange encounter with Woody Allen in the 1970s, Mariel Hemingway was on hand to help honor Allen last year for a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes, which Allen eventually boycotted.

  • Stacey Dash Joins FOX News as a Contributor

    Actress Stacey Dash will be joining FOX News Channel as a contributor, according to a press release issued by the network on Wednesday.

    “Stacey is an engaging conversationalist whose distinctive viewpoints amongst her Hollywood peers have spawned national debates,” said Executive Vice President of Programming Bill Shine. “We’re pleased to have her join FOX News.”

    A native of the Bronx, New York, 47-year-old Dash began her acting career over 20 years ago with guest appearances on The Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and St. Elsewhere.

    Dash made her feature film debut in 1987’s Enemy Territory. She followed that up with Moving opposite Richard Pryor in 1988, Mo’ Money with Damon Wayans in 1992, and Renaissance Man with Mark Wahlberg in 1994.

    Her breakout role came in 1995 when she appeared in Clueless alongside Alicia Silverstone, Brittany Murphy, and Paul Rudd.

    More recently, Dash starred in Lap Dance, with an ensemble cast that included Carmen Electra, Mariel Hemingway, and Nia Peeples.

    In October 2012 Dash drew criticism for tweeting her endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

    The backlash took the form of what some considered racially-based hate tweets along the lines of “You’re an unemployed black woman endorsing @MittRomney. You’re voting against yourself thrice. You poor beautiful idiot.”

    Dash stood her ground, replying “My humble opinion… EVERYONE is entitled to one.”

    “I tweeted my opinion and when I woke up the next morning, my life had changed,” Dash said recently, looking back on the incident. “And since then, anything I say has been newsworthy.”

    Dash, who portrays herself as a paradoxical mix of down-to-earth conservative and modern-day feminist but also admits to harboring dreams of one day running for political office, still seems a little dazzled by the turn her career has taken.

    “Twenty years after Clueless I’m starting all over. All because of a tweet!”

    Dash is cashing in on the opportunity that single tweet presented, and continues to express her opinions prolifically on Twitter:

    Dash frequently retweets her critics:

    “Everyone else can just attack ’em … That way I don’t have to say anything.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Mariel Hemingway Talks Mental Health and Suicide

    Mariel Hemingway talked about both mental health and suicide–her family’s troubled heritage–during an interview on Key West this weekend. She spoke from a desk that once belonged to her famous grandfather, Ernest Hemingway. In Key West headlining the Key West Film Festival, Hemingway screened a documentary about her own life. Called Running from Crazy, it highlights the issues that have plagued her family for generations.

    Running from Crazy is directed by Barbara Kopple. It explores Mariel Hemingway’s attempts at outrunning her family’s troubles.

    “Whenever it’s shown, there’s always one person in the audience, or maybe two or three, who so resonate with the story as their own,” Hemingway says. “And that’s what this film is about — to bring this out of the darkness, to shed light where people don’t want to look in the dark corners of everybody’s lives, and make it not so scary.”

    She hopes to see the film used for educational purposes in high schools, colleges and rehab facilities to help bring people out of the dark. She believes if it can spark conversations, it can spark healing, too.

    Mariel Hemingway suffers from depression. Sister Margaux Hemingway took her own life, as did her famous grandfather, Ernest Hemingway. She is no stranger to the demons that those with mental health fight.

    At a book signing on Key West–sitting at her late grandfather, Ernest Hemingway’s, desk, she recognized his creativity despite his illness. The Nobel Prize Winner was only 61 years old when he committed suicide back in 1961.

    “There’s such a history with my grandfather and Key West, so sharing the film here, in a place where he’s so beloved, is wonderful,” Mariel Hemingway said.

    Hopefully Running from Crazy will fulfill Mariel Hemingway’s need to help others who battle some of the demons she has fought. If her wish to help even a handful of people who suffer from mental illness or thoughts of suicide is granted, then she will have accomplished a huge goal. If in the meantime Running from Crazy wins an award or two–then that’s a definite bonus, too.

    Image via Wikimedia

  • Mariel Hemingway “Running from Crazy”

    Mariel Hemingway “Running from Crazy”

    Mariel Hemingway was born into stardom. Her grandfather was the famous Ernest Hemingway, known for his literary brilliance, and she was nominated for an Oscar at only 16-years-old for her role in Woody Allan’s, “Manhattan”. However, her smile was not always one of happiness, but a cover-up for the pain and depression.

    Hemingway opens up about her battles in a documentary titled, “Running from Crazy”, and the suicides that have haunted her family. In a recent interview with Mo Rocca, she lists the lengthy list of family members that chose to take their own lives. “Ernest’s father [Clarence] committed suicide; my grandfather, Ernest, committed suicide. My great-grandfather on my grandmother’s side. My great-uncle Leicester. My great-aunt Ursula. And my uncle [Gregory]. And then there is my sister,” she said.

    She also described her home life and what it was like to live as a Hemingway. Her parents relationship was all but normal and the constant fighting had a tremendous impact on her. “I spent a lot of time outside hiking because my house wasn’t sane,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I was crazy, but I felt like I lived in crazy. You know, in the land of crazy.”

    When she did remain home for the altercations, she described it as “nastiness”. “You know, they’d have one glass of wine and things were kind of happy. They were actually having a regular conversation. But after a couple glasses of wine, the alcohol kicked in. Nastiness would happen.”

    The documentary also discusses her sisters Margaux and Muffet. Margaux overdosed at the age of 41 and Muffet is receiving psychiatric care after experiencing multiple psychotic breaks. Hemingway says she always thought her turn would come.

    “You know what? I can honestly tell you for the first time in my life, the last four years, I do not think that some secret, dark night’s gonna come and, like, pounce on me, which I used to. For many, many years I thought, it’s my turn,” she said.

    Hemingway admits that after all her struggles she is finally happy and has found who she is. “There’s that quote that it’s never too late to have a happy childhood,” Mariel said. “It’s really true. If you want to, you can recreate a life that is right for you. And that’s what I’ve done.”

    “Running from Crazy” opens in select theaters on November 1.

    (image)

    Image via Twitter

  • Mariel Hemingway Talks About Family’s Grim Tradition

    Mariel Hemingway likely could have relied on her very famous last name for some limelight, at least when she was younger; as the granddaughter of writer Ernest, she was part of a family which was well respected and well known.

    But the 51-year old actress paved her own path to success, and earned herself an Oscar nom at the tender age of 16. Her role in Woody Allen’s “Manhattan” was, she admits, more sophisticated than she’d bargained for.

    “She was sophisticated beyond my years,” she said of the character. “I was so unclear about what I was playing.”

    Hemingway found her way around the character, however, and earned critical acclaim for the performance. Unfortunately, her scene-stealing–though completely unconscious–caused a rift between her and sister Margaux, who was also an actress.

    “She felt resentment towards me for coming in and sort of taking the limelight, which I didn’t intentionally do,” she said.

    Hemingway’s family life is something she talks about in depth in a new documentary, “Running From Crazy”. In it, she describes taking long walks as a girl to escape the tension in her home, which was compounded by her parents’ drinking.

    “I spent a lot of time outside hiking because my house wasn’t sane,” she said. “I didn’t feel like I was crazy, but I felt like I lived in crazy. You know, in the land of crazy. You know, they’d have one glass of wine and things were kind of happy. They were actually having a regular conversation. But after a couple glasses of wine, the alcohol kicked in. Nastiness would happen.”

    She also talks about the long and troubling history her family has with suicide.

    “Ernest’s father [Clarence] committed suicide; my grandfather, Ernest, committed suicide. My great-grandfather on my grandmother’s side. My great-uncle Leicester. My great-aunt Ursula. And my uncle [Gregory]. And then there is my sister.”

    Margaux took her own life in 1996. Mariel says that now, after a lifetime of grief, she’s finally in a place where she can just be happy.

    “My ability to grasp the joy of life is so strong right now,” she said.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons