Best Celebrity Memoirs of 2022

The other Big, Controversial Memoir of the year has already commanded its share of headlines, thanks to Matthew Perry’s revelation that he spent upwards of $7 million on rehab, was doing 1800 mg of hydrocodone a day at one point, in addition to a disparaging comment he writes about Keanu Reeves: “River [Phoenix] was a beautiful man, inside and out — too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down. Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” (Perry apologized for the comment, saying he chose a “random name”—though Reeves’ name appears again in his book in a revisiting of the same observation.)

The thing is, Perry comes off as kind of a dick throughout his book, which is equally bold and off-putting. (Regarding some pain after dental surgery, Perry writes: “I would like to take this opportunity to say a few words to the dental surgeon who was in charge of all this: Fuck off, you big piece of nothing fuck. Fuck asshole loser fucking fuck face. Now I feel better.”) He spares no one, including himself, saying that he’s convinced the disease of addiction will kill him. Perhaps there’s nothing more chilling on the matter than the book’s opening lines: “Hi my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”

Fun fact: Perry’s mother, Suzanne Marie Morrison (née Langford), was the press secretary to former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. At one point in his youth, Perry beat up the PM’s son and future PM himself, Justin Trudeau.