Oh Brady! Maureen McCormick on book tour
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For two or three or more generations of American TV-watching kids, Maureen McCormick’s Marcia Brady was the perfect blond girl we aspired to be (or to date). She was lithe and popular, somehow grew from adolescent to teenager without a moment of awkwardness, had the coolest halter tops and, until that one fateful football-tossing day, the perfect nose.
OK, her nose was always perfect. It was only broken in the TV-pretend world of The Brady Bunch, not the real world.
Despite her five years as a Brady, Maureen McCormick has always been a real human being, living in the real world. Others have trouble making that distinction, though; for a recent birthday, she recalls in her new memoir ‘Here’s the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My Own Voice,’ reporters asked how Marcia Brady felt about turning 50:
Politely, I reminded them that Marcia Brady was still a teenager, but I, Maureen, created not in Sherwood Schwartz’s imagination but in the womb of Irene McCormick, felt OK about it.
In her book, she has revealed some personal, slightly scandalous details: drug use, visits to the Playboy mansion, a passionate kiss with Barry Williams while filming the Brady’s Hawaii episode. The confusion of the real and Brady worlds affected her, too -- during the kiss, ‘a part of me — a tiny part, admittedly — said to myself, ‘Oh my God! I’m kissing my brother. What am I doing?’’
McCormick is currently on book tour; she’s got two California dates coming up, including a visit to the Sherman Oaks Barnes & Noble, about a 40-minute drive from the North Hollywood Brady house.
-- Carolyn Kellogg
Photo: A fan poses with Maureen McCormick at Book People in Austin. Credit: Farmerchris via Twitpic
