21 Times Celebrities Just Casually Name-Dropped Other Famous People In Their Memoirs

1. In her memoir Famesick, Lena Dunham spoke about a conversation she had with her then-boyfriend, Jack Antonoff, about a “teen pop star” with whom he spent a lot of time working. “One night, as he was sitting in the bathtub brushing his teeth, I suggested that perhaps their closeness was striking an odd note, that she wanted something from him that he couldn’t give — or maybe it was just the way that they received my presence, like a ghost, like two fifth-grade bullies pretending not to notice the object of their scorn: ‘Did you hear something?’ ‘No, nothing,'” she wrote. “Jack turned to me, curled like a kidney bean in the water I’d been draining and replenishing for hours, and said, ‘You’re just mad because she doesn’t want to be your friend.’ And he was right.”

2. In her book, Why Not Me?, Mindy Kaling wrote about a casual lunch she had where Reese Witherspoon gave her some really helpful advice. “About a year ago, I had lunch with Reese Witherspoon in Brentwood,” she wrote (also in the actual book, there’s an asterisk with a footnote at the bottom that reads “jealous, haters?”). “When we walked out to the car, a couple of photographers were waiting to take her photo. She whispered to me, ‘Smile.’ ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘We’re just walking out to our cars,’ Reese responded, ‘No one who sees a photograph of us wants to see that we are anything other than totally happy all the time.'”

3. In her memoir, The Woman in Me, Britney Spears shares her experience with Madonna, whom she sought out support from after her breakup with Justin Timberlake. “When he left me, I was devastated,” Britney wrote. “Madonna’s supreme confidence helped me see a lot about my situation with fresh eyes. I needed a little guidance at that time. I was confused about my life. At one point, she did a red-string ceremony with me to initiate me into Kabbalah, and she gave me a trunk full of Zohar books to pray with. She told me I should be sure to take time out for my soul, and I tried to do that. She modeled a type of strength that I needed to see.”

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4. In his memoir Love Life, Rob Lowe describes the time Madonna invited him backstage at one of her shows. “She was cute and she was young and she was single, so I sat front-row…she was a revelation,” he wrote. “‘Madonna would like to see you backstage,’ a security guard said as the house lights came up. She had flawless skin and eyes that imparted secrets…she asked what I was working on and I told her a bit about St. Elmo’s Fire, which I had just finished. ‘I play the bad boy,’ I said. Madonna just smiled. She seemed to like that.”

5. In his memoir, Greenlights, Matthew McConaughey recalls filming the iconic chest-thumping moment for his cameo in The Wolf of Wall Street. “That was something I was doing before each take to relax and keep my rhythm,” he explained and added that Leonardo DiCaprio urged him actually to do it in the scene.

6. In her memoir, Talking As Fast As I Can, Lauren Graham recalled the times she ran into George Clooney on the Warner Brothers lot while working on Gilmore Girls. “Incidentally, when I was first doing Gilmore Girls, I’d run into George Clooney on the lot sometimes, and he was always very nice to me and acted like he knew who I was and treated me like I was behaving normally, which was very kind in the face of my babbling and drooling,” she wrote.

7. In his memoir, Me, Elton John recalled the time he and John Lennon were “determinedly making [their] way through a pile of coke,” when Andy Warhol knocked on the door. Elton wrote that he peered through the peephole and saw Andy with his Polaroid camera. When he asked John if he should open the door, John replied, “No fucking way. Don’t answer it. Do you want him coming in here, taking photos when you’ve got icicles of coke hanging out of your nose?” So they both hid until Andy left.

8. In his book, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry wrote about falling in love with Julia Roberts, but ultimately, breaking up with her because he couldn’t handle the pressure. “Dating Julia Roberts had been too much for me. I had been constantly certain that she was going to break up with me. Why would she not? I was not enough; I could never be enough; I was broken, bent, unlovable,” he wrote. “So instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts.”

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9. In his memoir, Spare, Prince Harry recounted the time he tripped on shrooms at Courteney Cox’s house. As a self-proclaimed “Friends fanatic,” he shared that he was thrilled when he found himself at Courteney’s house while party-hopping with friends and needed a place to spend the night. “Then, maybe to get rid of us, [Will] led my mate and me to the fridge, from which he extracted a soft drink. While the door was open, we spotted a huge box of black diamond mushroom chocolates,” Harry wrote. “Somebody behind me said they were for everybody. Help yourself, boys. My mate and I grabbed several, gobbled them, washed them down with tequila.” Shortly after, the mushrooms kicked in, and he recalled seeing monsters.

10. In his memoir, Pageboy, Elliot Page wrote about his secret relationship with Kate Mara, which happened at the same time she was dating actor Max Minghella. He wrote, “The first person I fell for after my heart was broken was Kate Mara.” But while he was falling, he knew he was setting himself up for heartbreak because Kate was still with Max. “Everything with Kate was becoming more complicated, more loaded. I was feeling let down. Perhaps the excitement no longer outweighed the challenges,” he added. “I was chasing something that could not be, letting lust overwhelm me.”

11. In her memoir, Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes, and Growing Up, Naya Rivera opened up about not getting along with Glee costar Lea Michele. “I don’t hate Lea, and I never have… I think Rachel — erm, I mean Lea — didn’t like sharing the spotlight. She had a hard time separating work from our outside friendship, whereas it was a lot easier for me,” she wrote. “I’m not offended when people offer feedback or criticism, and if things get heated on set, I try to keep perspective. Lea was a lot more sensitive, though, and sometimes it seemed like she blamed me for anything and everything that went wrong.”

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12. In her memoir, The Princess Diarist, Carrie Fisher revealed that she had an affair with Harrison Ford while filming their first Star Wars movie in the ’70s. At the time, she was 19 and he was 33, married with two kids. She recalled the first time they slept together was after George Lucas’s 32nd birthday, in his studio car on their way back to London. She said, “A tug-of-war involving my wine-sodden virtue was underway, and I was unclear how it would turn out — but I realized who it was I wanted to win: my costar, the one with the scar on his chin, the dialogue in his head, and the gun in his belt — not now, just when in character, but still. After a mad scuffle, Mr. Ford threw my virtue and me into the back seat of his studio car and commanded the driver to ‘Go! GO!’ We went, followed by the crew.”

13. In her memoir, Bossypants, Tina Fey claims she taught Monica Lewinsky everything she knows about eye cream. She wrote, “In the spring of 1999, I participated in a secret meeting with Monica Lewinsky, SNL producer Marci Klein, and fellow SNL writer Paula Pell… This was before Ms. Lewinsky’s infamous Barbara Walters interview aired. None of us had ever heard her speak before.”

14. In her memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy wrote about the jealousy she felt toward her Sam & Cat costar Ariana Grande because of the special treatment she got on set. Jennette said she was constantly called a “good sport,” and explained, “I know why I’m hearing this phrase so often. It’s because my costar Ariana Grande is a burgeoning pop star who misses work regularly to go sing at award shows, record new songs, and do press for her upcoming album while I stay back and angrily hold down the fort.”

15. In her memoir, Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth, Pamela Anderson recalled a night when she “stumbled upon [Jack] Nicholson having a threesome in a bathroom” at the Playboy Mansion. She added that she believed she helped him finish. “Mr. Nicholson had two beautiful women with him,” she wrote. “They were all giggling and kissing up against the wall, sliding all over each other. I walked by to use the mirror, bending over the sink to fix my lip gloss. Trying not to look, but I couldn’t help myself and caught his eye in the reflection. I guess that got him to the finish line, because he made a funny noise, smiled, and said, ‘Thanks, dear.'”

16. In his memoir, Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood, Danny Trejo revealed that he met the infamous Charles Manson in prison and got hypnotized by him. Back in 1961, when Danny was only 17, he was arrested and brought to the Los Angeles County jail, where Manson was also being held. He shared that in exchange for protection, Manson told his jailmates that he would take them through a guided meditation that would get them high without actually using any drugs.

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17. In his book, Will, Will Smith shared that because of his method acting for Six Degrees of Separation, he actually fell in love with his costar Stockard Channing. At the time, he had just welcomed a new baby with his then-wife, Sheree Zampino.

18. In her memoir, This Will Only Hurt a Little, Busy Philipps revealed that she cowrote the movie Blades of Glory with her then-boyfriend Craig Cox and his brother Jeff — she even wrote a role for herself to play. But when it came time to pitch the movie to producers, Craig and Jeff removed Busy’s name from the project and sold it themselves. Busy even auditioned for the role she wrote for herself, but it went to Jenna Fischer. Luckily, word had gotten out about what really happened behind the scenes, and she ended up getting to hang out with Amy Poehler because of it all. She wrote, “Amy Poehler grabbed me. ‘Girl,’ she said. ‘Seth Meyers told me the story of what those dudes did. FUCK ‘EM! You rock and are so talented. Come here! Sit at our table!!'”

19. In her memoir, Melissa Explains It All, Melissa Joan Hart revealed that while she was on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, she was also experimenting with drugs in real life. Some were even offered to her by Paris Hilton. She wrote, “The one time I was offered coke, which happened to be by Paris Hilton, I turned it down.”

20. In her memoir, Open Book, Jessica Simpson revealed she had an “emotional affair” with Johnny Knoxville that started on the set of Dukes of Hazzard. At the time, Jessica was married to Nick Lachey, and Johnny was married to Melanie Lynn Clapp. She explained that Johnny was one of the people she could be her “deepest authentic” self with and that he laughed with her, instead of at her. She even admitted to writing him love letters while her husband Nick was passed out in bed next to her.

21. Finally, in her book, My Lucky Stars: A Hollywood Memoir, Shirley MacLaine wrote about the difficulties she endured while working with Debra Winger on the set of Terms of Endearment. She wrote of an instance where Debra told her where placement marks were so she knew where to stand during the scene. A little annoyed, Shirley responded by saying, “I heard you, I know marks when I see them.” Shirley said Debra responded like, “‘Good, how’s this for a mark?’ [Then] she turned around, walked away from me, lifted her skirt slightly, looked over her shoulder, bent over, and farted in my face.”

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