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Show Producer goes for humor instead of Hollywood dirt Rob Owen PITTSBURGH He prime-tim- 'Beautiful Boy' David Sheff's "Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey is harrow- e V " '" I". ubu, Sit J ' 'J Went from Brooklyn to Hollywood with the Sura Woman. U &nm Dog, and Utt Hjnr How I Lt Gary Pavid Goldberg viewers laugh. Goldberg spends a fair amount of time dissecting his relationship with Fox, which fell apart- for a time when the e on pair didn't see the direction of ABCs "Spin City" (Goldberg left the sitcom sit. Good dog!" after a couple of seasons). But he barely mentions the Goldberg's beloved Ubu first came to viewer attention on production company he built after the success of "Family "Family Ties," the NBC sitcom Ties." He alludes to troublethat introduced the world to Michael J. Fox. Ubu continued some actors and executives he worked with, but Goldberg to appear through the years doesn't name them. following series that were disThat lack of appointing ("Sugar Hill"), good tell-atone may disappoint ("Day by Day"), popular ("Spin some industry onlookers, but City") and Goldberg's sincerity, ("Brooklyn Bridge"). Fans of the short-live- d sense of humor and "Brooklyn Bridge," Goldberg's his relationship with the book's ode to a 1950s childhood in the title character make "Sit, Ubu, New York City borough, will Sit" a breezy, lighthearted did deft the sitcom author's version the appreciate touch with recollections of his of Hollywood memoirs. childhood and family. "Sit, Ubu, Sit" jumps around in time from the "Family Ties" era, to tramping around the world with his future wife, Diana, in 1972 to that Brooklyn childhood in 1954 which could prove difficult to follow in lesser hands, but Goldberg crafts a story that hangs together well. Unlike so many life stories written by those who work in the entertainment industry, Goldberg's stands out because he's more interested in writing about his whole life, not just his career. Thursday, March 20 He may have stumbled into 7:30 p.m. the TV business, but he's not a Hollywood guy. The book is as much a story of love and devotion to Div ana, to his daughters, to Ubu, to his childhood friends as it is the adventures of a guy who made millions of American TV $10 ($7 with BYU or - eye-to-ey- ll fantastic-but-little-see- By LAURA WADLEY Through his Son's Addiction" was one of the most producers of the 1980s, but don't look for Hollywood dirt in Gary David Goldberg's memoir, subtitled "How I Went from Brooklyn to Hollywood with the Same Woman, the Same Dog and a Lot Less Hair." Goldberg doesnt really tell tales out of school But the book is worth reading for the gentle, humorous storytelling of its author, who comes across as a mensch of a guy in a cutthroat business. . The book's title comes from the producer's vanity card that turned up on TV screens nationwide at the end of TV programs Goldberg produced. Viewers saw the picture of a black Labrador retriever with a Frisbee in his mouth and heard Goldberg say, "Sit, Ubu, I BOOK BUZZ n feel-goo- ing in the seaut i t'ul original sense of the word steel spikes that tear through the ground, or in this case, through the lives of the Sheff family, heart, mind and spirit. Nic Sheff is truly a beautiful boy: funny, smart, a great son, a loving brother. When he is 12 years old, he and a friend break into the liquor cabinet at a family cabin and drink a cocktail of everything in there mixed together. Next comes marijuana and Ecstasy, magic mushrooms and finally, worst of alL crystal meth. In the course of Sheff s narrative we meet many of the suffering. Nic himself, who endlessly promises to quit, but can't; his desperate parents, brother and sister, other family and friends, his sponsors, and members of his off again A.A. and support groups. (One mother whose daughter was in Harvard, is now grateful she is in jail, so she knows where she is.) Nic's father blames himself because he and Nic's mother divorced when Nic was young, and, having used drugs recreationally in college, thinks it best to share that information with Nic to warn -- him against following suit. Days, weeks, months go by when Nic's parents don't know where he is, whether he is dead or alive. A compassionate telephone operator helps them track Nic by his cell phone use to Billings, Mont., but when someone finally answers the phone, it isn't Nic he has given his cell phone to a stranger at the bus station In the end, there is no end. The recovering Nic suddenly becomes, again, a thief and a liar, a junkie, starts over again, goes back. Nic's case stands painfully for the loss of so many young people to the national epidemic of amine abuse. In the opening pages of this book, the reader grows to love Nic Sheff, but Nic disappears, the only personality left to him, the single one all drug abusers share furtive, vacant, amoral, self destructive, heedless of the devastation around him. Since both adolescence and meth-amph- et earlier titles will be helpful in her new book, because it is easy to confuse so many characters in this community, which behaves more like a commune no one's business seems to be separate from anyone else's. In this story, Inspector Gam-ach- e is called to the village when a woman dies seeming- of fright during the performance of a seance at the Old ly - - Hadley House. Gamache works through this puzzle in his usual civil cerebral way, at the same time he is dealing with attacks from his superiors. Who gave the woman with a bad heart a potent dose of ephedra before her death? There is an unexare resistant to much pectedly large pool of suspects drug-us- e rational thought, it is imposto draw from in a small town, sible to say whether "Beautiful but in a Poirot-lik- e assemblage and reenactment of the seance Boy" will serve as a cautionat the end, Gamache reveals ary tale to those whose often-fatdisease begins and never the killer. ends with "it won't hurt to just Penny's mysteries are more try it." Everyone should read endearing for their charthis book. acters and setting than for plot. Inspector Gamache is a treasure, and the villagers are 'The Crudest Month' engaging and memorable, if Louise Penny's "The Cruel-es- t somewhat interchangeable. A Month" takes devotees of good "cosy" for a cold spring her Chief Inspector Armand evening. Gamache series back to Three I Laura Wadley is a librarian Pines, the beautiful Canadian with the Provo City Library. village with way too many murders per capita. her at lauraw&provo. lib.ut.us. Familiarity with Penny's al T mid-198- BYU Jazz Choral Chamber Orchestra Showcase Showcase with with ' Jazz Voices Ensemble BYU Singers & Concert Choir Friday, March 21 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 22 7:30 p.m. &Jazz at Covey Center for the Arts student ID) per show .... 4 t 423ijTrSt' 80 1 .852.7007 or www.coveycenter.org |