Kathleen Turner’s Autobiography SEND YOURSELF ROSES

Below are excerpts from Kathleen Turner's upcoming autobiography Send Yourself Roses, as reported in several online venues.

On William Hurt, her co-star in Lawrence Kasdan's atmospheric 1981 neo-noir (in color) Body Heat (right):

"In those days, he was pretty wild. He drank a great deal and took a lot of recreational drugs — he loved those magic mushrooms. He loved women, too; I don't know how many he went through during filming. Bill always wanted to stay in character . . . [He] thought I wasn't taking my acting seriously enough."

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Regarding Nicolas Cage on the set of Francis Ford Coppola's 1986 hit Peggy Sue Got Married, for which Turner received a best actress Oscar nomination:

"Everything Francis wanted him to do, he went against to show that he wasn't under his uncle's wing. Which was ridiculous. Oh, that stupid voice of his and the fake teeth! Honestly, I cringe to think about it. He caused so many problems. He was arrested twice for drunk driving and, I think, once for stealing a dog. He'd come across a Chihuahua he liked and stuck it in his jacket."

(Cage has denied both the drunk-driving arrests and the dog theft.)

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On working with Burt Reynolds in the 1988 box-office disaster Switching Channels (right), a remake of both The Front Page and His Girl Friday:

"[It was] my unhappiest experience as an actress . . . For whatever reason, the first thing Burt said to me was: 'I've never taken second billing to a woman.' Oh, every day there were nasty little digs. For instance, because of my pregnancy, the production team had given me a golf cart so I didn't have to walk around too much — and Burt even made fun of that. He was just nasty.

"He later accused me of trying to get him sacked . . . and publicly declared that the sound of my name made him want to vomit."

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Addendum (April 4, 2008): Nicolas Cage sued Kathleen Turner, UK publisher Headline, and Associated Newspapers, which printed a section of the book in the Daily Mail, for "defamation, libel and slander." Turner has reportedly issued a public apology, in addition to donating money to a charitable organization.