I devoured the memoir of Canadian-American actor Matthew Perry, who was catapulted to Hollywood stardom thanks to the super sarcastic character of Chandler Bing – or Chanandler Bong, depending on his TV Guide subscription – from the sitcom Friends.
This role made him ultra-rich, certainly, but not happier. In his excellent book, which is called Friends, my loves and this terrible thing, Matthew Perry recounts with great self-mockery, sensitivity and detail the ravages of his alcoholism and drug addiction, which led him to all the rehabilitation centers in the United States and Europe. I’m just exaggerating.
The comedian, who grew up in Ottawa and Montreal, went to rehab 65 times and squandered nearly $10 million on those cures that never worked. Until he came close to death in the summer of 2018 and his intestines literally exploded.
Now sober at 53, Matthew Perry alternated between strong alcohol, opioids, anxiolytics, amphetamines and cocaine. He even reveals a trick to follow the state of his consumption over the 10 seasons of Friendsbroadcast between 1994 and 2004 on NBC.
If he was gaining weight, he was drinking. If he was stunted, he was at his skinniest in the third season of Friends, is that he was swallowing pills. And when he sported a goatee beard (the famous “goatee”), his worst phase was that he absorbed a mountain of drugs.
At the bottom of the barrel, Matthew Perry ingested up to 55 tablets a day of opioids, mainly Vicodin, which was prescribed to him for the first time, in 1997, after a personal watercraft accident in Las Vegas. It worked, at a minimum, with a daily dose of 6 mg of Ativan – an anxiolytic – in the body. How he never farted at the fret is a miracle.
The only season of Friends where he was sober was the ninth, his best, he writes in a frank, caustic and simple style. At the time, his weight fluctuated between 128 pounds and 225 pounds, as millions of viewers watched as they drank their drip coffee with him at the fictional Central Perk.
Gossip tray. As a teenager, Matthew Perry invented the jerky phrasing – which would become the trademark of Chandler’s character – with his two best friends, while living in Ottawa with his mother Suzanne Perry, who was Pierre Elliott’s publicist. Trudeau.
IMAGE FROM THE FRIENDS SERIES
Matthew Perry and Julia Roberts in a scene from Friends
In elementary school, to take revenge for his mother’s prolonged absences from the Canadian Prime Minister, Perry says he stole a volley from Justin Trudeau, enrolled in the same school as him.
On 250 pages, Matthew Perry unpacks everything, without filter. He talks about his failed love affairs and his inability to establish healthy couple relationships. It was he who broke up with Julia Roberts in 1996, he still bites his fingers. He also dated Cameron Diaz, Neve Campbell, Yasmine Bleeth (Chandler’s crush in Friends) and he still doesn’t understand why he didn’t marry the love of his life, actress Lizzy Caplan (Fleishman Is in Trouble), which he never names in the book.
Unlike his fellow stars, Matthew Perry doesn’t shy away from the ever-taboo subject of money.
He reveals all his fees, including the famous million per episode that he earned in the last years of Friends. It was Jennifer Aniston who wanted to drop Friends first and her comrades followed her.
PHOTO FRANK MASI, PROVIDED BY WARNER BROS
Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry in a scene from The Whole Ten Yards
Matthew Perry devotes a few lines to the shooting, in Montreal, of the popular comedy The Whole Nine Yards. In the summer of 1999, Bruce Willis organized gigantic parties on the top floor of the Intercontinental Hotel, rue Saint-Antoine Ouest. And the Globe restaurant (closed since 2014), boulevard Saint-Laurent, was their favorite place to flirt.
Thirst-quenching summer TV
Amazon Prime Video dropped the first three episodes of the charming series’ second season on Friday The summer when I became pretty (The Summer I Turned Pretty).
Verdict: it’s darker than the first chapter, yes, but it slips on like a fresh lemonade by the salt pool.
PHOTO FROM IMDB
Lola Tung holds the role of Belly, in the series The summer when I became pretty.
In fact, it’s like watching a Taylor Swift or Olivia Rodrigo album on TV. There are teenage heartaches, sunny bubbles of happiness, car rides that turn into karaoke and tragic departures.
The second season picks up about a year after 17-year-old Belly’s turbulent summer, caught up in a love triangle with brothers Jeremiah and Conrad Fisher.
Let’s say that harmony no longer reigns between the three protagonists and the story goes back several times in the past to explain to us how everything changed.
Conrad studies at Brown University, while Belly neglects her classes, her friends (including Taylor), and her volleyball team. With another less magical summer approaching, the future of Cousins Beach summerhouse on the US east coast is uncertain. A sign was even planted in front of the magnificent residence. Leave here the room Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift, thank you.
Like Belly, her brother Steven and their mother Laurel, I’m leaving you for a summer dip, back very soon, maybe with a local tan!