Author Description

A fascinating, quirky, and above all personal look at herself and her life by the renowned model/actress, who illuminates her life and her world in a brilliant mosaic of short takes accompanied by scores of pictures ranging from those she keeps on her bedside table to family snapshots and her many Richard Avedon Vogue covers. She writes of her mother, Ingrid Bergman: "Second to acting, Mother loved cleaning, which is not to say she loved even that above me. I'm sure she loved me more than cleaning, but what made her happiest was combining the two." She writes of her father, Roberto Rossellini: "My father was a Jewish mother.... When we were children (there were seven of us), one of our favorite games was throwing ourselves onto Daddy's body. Lying on his side, he pretended to be the sow and we were the piglets.". She writes about her famous nude scene in David Lynch's Blue Velvet and of posing for Avedon, Bruce Weber, and Steven Meisel. About being fired as the face of Lancome because she dared to turn forty. About the two years of scoliosis that blighted her adolescence. About acting as opposed to modeling. About being a daughter, a sister, and a mother. About her children: Elettra, who, when asked by her kindergarten teacher what she would do if she got lost in an airport, answered, "I'd look for my mamma's poster and wait underneath it for help"; and Roberto, her adopted son. About her unforgettable encounters with Anna Magnani (her father's onetime mistress) and Katharine Hepburn, as well as the peculiar behavior of her many pets. About her wardrobe. About lying. She talks - candidly yet discreetly - about the men in her life: her ex-husband Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Gary Oldman. And she conducts intimate and extended dialogues with her beloved dead ones.