USA/FILE: Rob Lowe reveals intimate, funny and personal details of his life in a new memoir

Record ID: 721778

  • Title: USA/FILE: Rob Lowe reveals intimate, funny and personal details of his life in a new memoir
  • Date: 4th May 2011
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MAY 3, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS COVER SHOTS OF BOOK (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROB LOWE, ACTOR, SAYING: "For my boys as a sort of manual to understand their dad and that's really why I did it."
  • Embargoed: 19th May 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA5SFZYSLCFIQ4FCQPASREDNPRP
  • Story Text: Actor Rob Lowe is sharing personal and sometimes gritty stories of his Hollywood career in a new book "Stories I Only Tell My Friends."
    After roughly 25 years in showbiz and collecting numerous celebrity friends Lowe said he is using the book as a guide for his two sons, calling the book "sort of manual to understand their dad."
    His children were most fascinated with his, then unknown, plane ride with the 9/11 hijackers. Eleven days before the attacks Lowe was on American Airlines flight 77 from Los Angeles, California to Washington, DC. He later learned that he was surrounded by the terrorists on what was revealed by the FBI as a dry-run.
    "That is something I've never shared with anybody cause it's just so yucky. And now obliviously with Bin Laden being dead their very interested again - they're watching the news and wanting to know more about what that was like for me and what I saw on the plane," Lowe told Reuters.
    Lowe's acting career was launched in 1983 when director Francis Ford Coppola casted him in the film "The Outsiders." In the book Lowe says that at school he was considered an acting nerd, but Hollywood saw him as a heartthrob.
    Five years later Lowe was an alcoholic and his career was in jeopardy. A sex tape featuring him with an underaged girl was leaked to the press damaging his public image. Soon after Lowe made the decision to get sober.
    "This week will be 21 years of sobriety for me. And it's an amazing gift and I'm really lucky and I don't have it if I don't go through that, so itup being one of the best things that ever happened to me," said Lowe of the scandal, who credits a rehabilitation center with saving his life.
    "Rehab is a bad name now because you see so many I think public figures using it for publicity or image rehabilitation. I think it's a serious place for serious people and there are success stories that come out of, I loved being there, I loved it," explained the actor.
    Now Lowe is able to joke about the scandal that nearly ruined his career.
    "Being a trailblazer, you know I think that I should have a licensing fee on all future works of such import," Lowe said with a smile.
    Lowe's Hollywood friendships extend back to his childhood. As a teen he attended the same high school as fellow actors Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Sean Penn and Robert Downey Jr.
    "There's a lot of stories about Charlie in the book, about us growing up together and you know, treat or tricking and running around like maniac Indians as 12, 13, 14, 15-year -old kids at the Sheen's house. And as we put the book to bed Charlie went on this amazing crazy run that he's on, so I might have written about him with a different eye," said Lowe.
    Lowe's interest in politics is more than just acting for him, the "West Wing" star says he hopes to serve his country one day, but until then says he hopes Donald Trump will seriously enter the race.
    "Here's the thing about Donald Trump, at a minimum, he's the greatest Greek chorus in the debates that you've ever seen and he keeps the conversation real. Nobody will be able to pull any BS in a debate when Donald Trump goes, 'hey, wait a minute," which he will do."
    Rob Lowe currently stars in the NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation" and the cable series "Californication."
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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