Famous Family Secrets

Oprah Winfrey's father, Vernon, will probably never get his tell-all book on his daughter's must-read book club list. At the moment, "Things Unspoken," is not in bookstores; it's being shopped to agents. But a couple of excerpts are already circulating, and they paint a less-than-flattering picture of the media superstar.

The memoir gossips about Oprah as a child, when she was living in Milwaukee with her mother and visiting her estranged father in Nashville, Tenn.

"Our daughter was out of hand, an unruly child," Vernon quotes Oprah's mother, Vernita, as saying, "She said she stayed out all times of the night and lied regarding her whereabouts, said she made herself known to boys," he writes.

That interesting euphemism is just the beginning.

"She had secrets," writes Oprah's father. "Dark secrets," he continues. "Some I didn't discover till she was a grown woman, till it was too late."

When Winfrey was informed about the book by the New York Daily News, she said she was "shocked and disappointed," according to an article published Tuesday.

Winfrey is just one example of the famous and would-be famous contending with relatives who write "family secret" books and magazine articles or talk "out of school" on TV shows. A brief search turned up the following examples of publicity engendered family feuds.

Jennifer Aniston's mother, Nancy, became estranged from her famous daughter for apparently talking about her on a tabloid TV show. She wrote about their relationship in "From Mother and Daughter to Friends; A Memoir."

Meg Ryan's mother, Susan Jordan, scolded her daughter in a British newspaper for taking up with Russell Crowe a number of years ago. Meg was already upset with her mother, as the story goes, ever since her mother left her family to pursue a career.

Andrew Giuliani's relationship with his famous father-turned-presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani, soured when the former mayor of New York City divorced Andrew's mother, Donna Hanover, and married Judith Nathan. Andrew spoke about it to the press, saying his devotion to becoming a professional golfer allowed no time for the sort of distraction campaigning for his father would create.