I Blame Dennis Hopper: And Other Stories from a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies

Gushy excitement alternates with sentimentality, self-celebration, and stand-up comedy rhythms in this movie-wrapped memoir by actress and occasional web series producer/director Douglas, who proudly and emotionally recounts her life as the granddaughter of acclaimed actor Melvyn Douglas. The title is derived from the powerful influence of director Dennis Hopper's 1969 film Easy Rider on the author's father, who blew away his bourgeois adequacy, abandoned responsibility, and started one of those legendary 1960s communes, causing in his young daughter a poverty-stricken sense of self. The narrative is chronologically jumbled. Stories range from her early adolescent reminiscences of drive-in movies to much later behind-the-scenes experiences with film personalities. These encounters range from some with grand on-screen images to those with real-life, mostly senior movie stars, directors, publicists, and other industry characters, several with close connections and many name-dropped from a distance. Entertaining flashes of insight and infatuation reveal Douglas's former paramour Martin Scorsese and actors including Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Richard Dreyfuss, Ethan Hawke, and Roddy McDowall.