Memoir recounts 1990 incident with Julia Roberts
Michael Douglas, 82, has released a memoir titled One Helluva Ride, in which he gives a candid account of his cocaine and alcohol abuse and the regrettable moments it produced. He writes that at the height of his addiction in the early 1990s a typical night involved about five drinks and a gram of cocaine. During that period, he says, he had a wildly embarrassing incident with Julia Roberts that stayed with him for years.[S1]
Douglas served as producer on the 1990 Joel Schumacher thriller Flatliners, which featured Roberts together with Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon and Oliver Platt. Douglas recounts that while the film was being made, he went to a Golden Globes celebration on the strength of his Wall Street nomination, and Roberts was present too, having appeared in Mystic Pizza. At that time, Douglas writes, Roberts was seeing Sutherland and took him along to an after-party. Douglas also says he had his son Cameron with him, then about 13.[S1]
According to Douglas, Roberts stood at the bar with her arm around his son, nuzzling the boy, who struck him as dazed in that moment, though Douglas concedes he was quite drunk himself. He then challenged her, ordering her to remove her hands from his son and telling her to take her Golden Globe and put it somewhere the sun never reaches. The following morning, Douglas writes, his producing partner Rick Bieber phoned to say they had to talk, because he had overstepped with Hollywood's most sought-after young actress.[S1]
Douglas later made amends to Roberts, first by having roses delivered and then by apologising to both her and Sutherland face to face at the Flatliners production office. He notes that they were gracious enough to forgive him so the film could be completed, that his friendship with Kiefer endured, while things with Julia did not. The Independent has approached Roberts's representatives for comment. In other parts of the book, Douglas discloses an affair with Kathleen Turner during the 1984 Mexico shoot of Romancing the Stone.[S1]
Douglas says marriage is in good shape after 2013 split
Michael Douglas has described his marriage to the Welsh actor Catherine Zeta-Jones as being in good shape, looking back on roughly three decades together in a Sunday Times interview. He remembered their first meeting at the 1998 Deauville film festival, when he was 53 and she 28, and telling her he would father her children. The couple briefly parted in 2013, yet Douglas, known for 1980s hits including Wall Street and Fatal Attraction, said he always believed they would reunite. Marriage takes real effort, the 82-year-old told the paper, saying they are good and in good shape, and that is all he can say.[S2]
When Douglas, then in his fifties, first encountered the younger Zeta-Jones, he already carried a certain reputation, while she was only beginning to establish herself in Hollywood through The Mask of Zorro. After roughly nine months of dating, much of it at a distance, Zeta-Jones is said to have told him she would not keep seeing him if he was also seeing other women, so he asked her to hold on while he made five quick calls. The much-publicised relationship that ensued naturally drew public fascination and media attention. In 2013 the couple separated briefly, but within a year they were together again, unlike many other film-star pairings.[S2]
His upcoming memoir, One Helluva Ride, arrives in UK bookshops this week and shares behind-the-scenes material about his life, covering his upbringing, his Hollywood profession and his romances. Asked how his wife reacted to the book, however, he conceded that she has not read it. Douglas rejected the idea that he won his wife back, saying it was mutual, that they had their difficulties but he loves her deeply, and that it has been 25 years.[S2]
