I'm Over All That

And Other Confessions

Shirley MacLaine

• Publisher: Atria Books
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9781451607307
• eBook ISBN:
  9781451607314
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

“IN THIS THIRD ACT OF MY LIFE, MUCH HAS BECOME CLEARER. SO MUCH IS OVER, AND I AM OVER SO MUCH . . .”

At a certain time in life, we all come to realize what is truly important to us and what just doesn’t matter. For Shirley MacLaine, that time is now. In this wise, witty, and fearless collection of small observations and big-picture questions, she shares with readers all those things that she is over dealing with in life, in love, at home, and in the larger world . . . as well as the things she will never get over, no matter how long she lives.

Among the things that Shirley is over: people who repeat themselves (“when you didn’t care what they said the first time”); conservatives and liberals; ill-mannered young people; the poison of celebrity (“Why do so many people want to be famous when they see how it can destroy your life?”); being polite to boring people (“If they won’t stop talking, I go into a trance and meditate”); getting older in Hollywood (“How peaceful it is not to have to look particularly pretty anymore or to wear a size 6”).

In the opposite camp, there are some things Shirley will never get over: good lighting (“Marlene Dietrich taught me how to light myself”); gorgeous costars (“The vanity of male actors is an impossible wall to scale”); performing live (“Yes, it is better than sex”); and above all, brave people with curious minds (“Fear is the most powerful weapon of mass destruction”).

Along the way, she recalls stories of some of the true greats she has known—Alfred Hitchcock, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, the two Jacks (Lemmon and Nicholson)—and ruminates on the state of Hollywood past and present. She recollects her relationships and romances with politicians (including two prime ministers), scientists, journalists, and costars.

An unabashed seeker of truth and unrepentant free spirit, Shirley looks squarely at a world that can irritate, confuse, and provoke her, but that can also delight her with its beauty, humor, and future promise. Reading I’m Over All That will make you feel you have been reunited with an old friend who tells it like it is but never takes herself too seriously.

Shirley MacLaine may be over all that, but this irresistible book ensures that we will never get over her.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Flap
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Content
• Chapter 1: Overture
• Chapter 2: I’m Not Over My Need to Know
• Chapter 3: I’m Over Being Concerned About What I Shouldn’t Do
• Chapter 4: I’ll Never Get Over Trying to Understand Men and Women (Especially on a Movie Set)
• Chapter 5: I’m Not Over My Wall of Life. I’m Under It.
• Chapter 6: I Am Over Fear Taught in the Name of Religion
• Chapter 7: I’m Over People Who Repeat Themselves (When I Didn’t Want to Hear What They Said in the First Place)
• Chapter 8: I’ll Never Get Over Trying to Understand the Russian Soul
• Chapter 9: I Am (Almost) Over Watching the News
• Chapter 10: I Am Over Politics. It’s Jazz. And I’m Over All That Jazz.
• Chapter 11: I Am Over Young People Who Are Rude
• Chapter 12: I Will Never Get Over Africa
• Chapter 13: I’m Over Feeling I Need My Family Around Me at Thanksgiving and Christmas
• Chapter 14: I’m Not Over Making Money
• Chapter 15: I’m Over People Who Don’t Know That We Are All Performing All the Time
• Chapter 16: I’m Not Over Vanity, But I’m Trying
• Chapter 17: I Will Never Get Over Good Lighting
• Chapter 18: I’m Over Antibiotics Unless I’m Dying
• Chapter 19: As a Sometime Asthmatic, I Am Over Deep Breathing
• Chapter 20: I Am Over Being Polite to Boring People
• Chapter 21: I’m Over Trusting the FDA
• Chapter 22: Ageing in Hollywood?! Get Over It
• Chapter 23: I’m Over Being Under a Big Corporate Conglomerate’s Control
• Chapter 24: I Am Over Driving at Night Unless It’s a Really Short Trip
• Chapter 25: Get Over Thinking You’re Just One Person
• Chapter 26: I Am Over the Gallows of Fame
• Chapter 27: I Am Not Over Good Journalists
• Chapter 28: I’m Not Over Exercise
• Chapter 29: Never Get Over Trust
• Chapter 30: I’m Trying to Get Over Anger
• Chapter 31: I Will Never Get Over the Thrill of Live Performing
• Chapter 32: I Am Trying to Get Over the Feeling That the World Is Falling Apart
• Chapter 33: I’m Not Over Having My Hair Colored
• Chapter 34: Sex and I Got Over Each Other
• Chapter 35: I’m Over Being Polite to People with Closed Minds
• Chapter 36: I’m Over Conservatives and Liberals
• Chapter 37: I Am Over Getting Over Family
• Chapter 38: I Am Over Going to Funerals
• Chapter 39: I Can’t Remember if I’m Over Memory Loss
• Chapter 40: Never Get Over a Dog— Get Another One
• Chapter 41: I Wonder If I Will Be Over the Drama of 2012
• Chapter 42: I Am Not Over Good Vibrations
• Chapter 43: I Am Not Over Caring About Time
• Chapter 44: Will We Ever Get Over the Akashic Records?
• Chapter 45: I Can’t Get Over My Frustration at Not Being Able to Open Anything I Buy
• Chapter 46: I Don’t Want to Get Over the World Leaders I Have Met
• Chapter 47: Leaders I Will Never Get Over (Personally)
• Chapter 48: Does Anyone Get Over Sex and Power?
• Chapter 49: I Am Not Over the Founding Fathers
• Chapter 50: It’s Not Over Yet . . .
• Back Flap
• Back cover