Bobby Brown's tell-all drops today
Last spring, I was assigned to review Bobby Brown's hotly anticipated autobiography, Bobby Brown: The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But (originally due out May 13), after a bunch of juicy excerpts about his failed marriage to Whitney Houston were leaked to the press. But my request to receive a review copy of the book was declined by an online customer service rep for the publisher, who wrote: "I regret to inform you that the production of the book has been put on hold for an undisclosed amount of time. However, your request for a review copy is currently in our system and will be sent out the moment the book is available." Of course, that never happened, so I assumed that the lawyers were having a field day and this tell-all may never hit stores.
Turns out, I was right. The version of the book that drops today (and is curiously "temporarily out of stock" at Amazon.com) is an unauthorized biography by Derrick Handspike, Brown's original co-author and self-proclaimed "biographer/publisher of the stars." In the tome's new foreword, which, not surprisingly, has magically leaked online as well, he suggests the troubled R&B singer got "cold feet" about publishing his story following the firestorm of negative publicity that was ignited by the previous leaks. He also outrageously claims, "This book had just about as much coverage as the infamous O.J. Simpson trial that swept the nation years prior. It got more coverage than all the newsworthy moments of that time such as the Jay-Z and Beyonce wedding, Michael Jackson's 25th year Thriller Anniversary, and more coverage than the Presidential Election....I think this left a bad taste in Bobby's mouth." Oh, really? At any rate, rather than "just drop the ball," Handspike shamelessly revised the manuscript "so that it reads as a biography in lieu of an autobiography." Way to keep it classy, fella.
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