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Brady Bunch star Maureen McCormick 'traded drugs for sex'


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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...icle4941627.ece

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A former child star who was once America’s TV sweetheart has confessed that she became a cocaine addict and traded sex for drugs.

Maureen McCormick played the eldest daughter Marcia on “The Brady Bunch”, the long-running sit-com about the clean-cut, “blended” family of a “man named Brady” with three sons and a “lovely lady” with three daughters.

The TV show, which aired from 1969 to 1974, became a cultural phenomenon that spawned several sequel series as well as two feature films, three made-for-TV movies, and a touring stage show.

But in a tell-all memoir published yesterday, McCormick says her life became the polar opposite of the wholesome world of Marcia Brady. “I had played Marcia Brady for five years. But I wasn’t her in any way, shape or form. She was perfect. I was anything but that,” McCormick writes.

The book, entitled “Here’s the Story,” is the latest episode of revelations about the TV family after the disclosure that Bob Reed, the actor who played the on-screen father, was a closeted gay who later contracted AIDS.

In her book, McCormick, now 52, recounts that she got deeper and deeper into Hollywood’s drug scene - even after a powerful producer threatened to stop her working in Tinseltown ever again.

“I sought refuge in seemingly glamorous cocaine dens above Hollywood. I thought I would find answers there, while in reality I was simply running farther from myself. From there, I spiralled downward on a path of self-destruction that cost me my career and very nearly my life,” she writes.

“Over the years I battled drug addiction and bulimia. I was treated in a psych ward, went in and out of rehab, and looked to God for answers.” McCormick says she traded sex for drugs with a Hollywood cocaine dealer who later went to jail, and once allowed an older man she met at the Playboy Mansion to videotape her naked in exchange for drugs.

She began to “free-base” cocaine with a music-industry boyfriend and the two once spent a week binging in a hotel room with a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door.

On one occasion, she took amyl nitrate pills, or “poppers”, from a bowl on the coffee table at a party at Sammy Davis Jr’s Los Angeles home.

On another, she turned up to an audition with Steven Spielberg for “Raiders of the Lost Ark” completely “messed up” after being awake for several days on drugs. He politely offered her an orange and did not give her the part.

“If there was Coke, I had to stay up and do every last flake even if it meant going without sleep for days,” she writes. “Nothing else mattered.” After several spells in drug rehab, McCormick now lives a Brady-like life in the Westlake suburb of Los Angeles with her husband and their 19-year-old daughter.

She says she has finally made peace with her past as a Brady. “It took most of my life, countless mistakes, and decades of pain and suffering to reach this point of equanimity and acceptance,” she writes.

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From Wiki:

While McCormick found that working on the Brady Bunch show was "fun", her off camera life differed greatly from her “perfect” character, leading to difficulties. During those years her grandmother died from syphilis while in a mental institution. Her grandfather committed suicide one week later, and her mother contracted the disease in utero, leading McCormick to have an unfounded fear that she would contract the disease. Her father also cheated on her mother. Her favorite acting scenes were the ones that called for her to cry because it allowed her to release her emotions. She had two unwanted pregnancies, both which ended in abortion. She was also suffering from depression and bulimia.

McCormick went through a series of interventions, stints in rehab and experimental therapies. McCormick says treatment with the controversial psychiatrist, Eugene Landy, who has also treated Brian Wilson set her back. She began to get sober when she became married. She continued to have problems with depression and developed issues with prozac. She fought them through therapy, medication and the help of former cast members of the Brady Bunch.

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I had no idea about any of this. I think it's great that she has come to terms with it. It's a sad story, and it's sad that anyone has to go through that, but it happens. She's an adult now, and thankfully learned from her mistakes.

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my friends and i all wanted to be marcia brady.

esp when she dated davy jones ( on the show ).

she was so beautiful. im glad she came through it all.

Marcia Brady was a hottie back then . For her own sake, I hope she really does have her life back in order. Everyone say's they do but you just never really know

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I think some of these hasbeen celebs just make stuff up to keep their name out there. Especially these brady bunch cast members.

Good, I'm not the only cynical one here then :) It must be hard for Ms. McCormick's 19-year old daughter to hear this "Marcia Brady was a coke whore" stuff.

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Good, I'm not the only cynical one here then :) It must be hard for Ms. McCormick's 19-year old daughter to hear this "Marcia Brady was a coke whore" stuff.

Don't you think if she wanted to make up some stories about herself to keep her name in the news, she would come up with something less odd than "I was a coke whore"? Because if her 19 year old daughter and what she thinks is important, then she might not have wanted to make this particular story up.

The more off-the-wall it sounds, the more truthful it probably is.

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Good, I'm not the only cynical one here then :) It must be hard for Ms. McCormick's 19-year old daughter to hear this "Marcia Brady was a coke whore" stuff.

She cares more about extending her 15 minutes of Brady Bunch fame then what her family thinks. The only reason to do it is for the attention. When is Bobby Brady's book coming out??? :rolleyes::rolleyes:

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She cares more about extending her 15 minutes of Brady Bunch fame then what her family thinks. The only reason to do it is for the attention. When is Bobby Brady's book coming out??? :rolleyes::rolleyes:

You know absolutely nothing about addiction and recovery... absolutely nothing.

Go ahead and think it must be a ploy to get attention... that is something you seem to be quite familiar with.

You'd probably have a tiny bit of compassion for her if you thought she was a hottie. Meanwhile, why not head over to the Dollar General... they're having a sale on clues (and I'm told the clerk is hot and wants to hook up with insecure attention-seeking guys).

~~~~~~~~

The 19 year old daughter may not be thrilled with some of the stuff in a book like that... but it's doubtful that she's been in the dark about her mother. What's worse... reading in a book that your mother, by her own admission, was a coke whore... or getting to tell your friends that your mom is a coke whore?

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And to think that when I was a teenager back in the 70s, I had sex with Marcia Brady at least a thousand without ever trading any drugs for it...

*cough*

Well...

you know, had sex "in my mind" if you know what I mean.

Had sex with Mrs. Brady and Jan too for that matter...

NO! I never had sex with Cindy! What do you think I'm a sicko or something?

...well

...I think I had sex with Alice once. But I was drunk and she was sad because Sam the Butcher stood her up for a date.

... but just "in my mind sex"

:bagoverhead:

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my friends and i all wanted to be marcia brady.

esp when she dated davy jones ( on the show ).

she was so beautiful. im glad she came through it all.

From her story..... Maureen & JImmy have some thing in common..... :o

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You know absolutely nothing about addiction and recovery... absolutely nothing.

Go ahead and think it must be a ploy to get attention... that is something you seem to be quite familiar with.

You'd probably have a tiny bit of compassion for her if you thought she was a hottie. Meanwhile, why not head over to the Dollar General... they're having a sale on clues (and I'm told the clerk is hot and wants to hook up with insecure attention-seeking guys).

~~~~~~~~

The 19 year old daughter may not be thrilled with some of the stuff in a book like that... but it's doubtful that she's been in the dark about her mother. What's worse... reading in a book that your mother, by her own admission, was a coke whore... or getting to tell your friends that your mom is a coke whore?

So addtiction and recovery makes you want to put a book out and tell everyone on earth about your private life??? She is just looking for attention. She just misses the spotlight. She never accomplished anything in her life other than being known as a Brady and she wants some more attention from that. That's why she is alos on the celebrity fat club. For more attention. "Watch me lose weight America!!!".

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So addtiction and recovery makes you want to put a book out and tell everyone on earth about your private life??? She is just looking for attention. She just misses the spotlight. She never accomplished anything in her life other than being known as a Brady and she wants some more attention from that. That's why she is alos on the celebrity fat club. For more attention. "Watch me lose weight America!!!".

I think maybe she is trying to balance her public self with her private self. She has been a public figure since her childhood. Before the release of her recent story, people had an incorrect view of who she really was. By telling this story she has integrated her public and private selves. From a therapeutic point of view, this was probably a healthy thing for her to do. So I doubt that she was merely seeking attention.

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I think maybe she is trying to balance her public self with her private self. She has been a public figure since her childhood. Before the release of her recent story, people had an incorrect view of who she really was. By telling this story she has integrated her public and private selves. From a therapeutic point of view, this was probably a healthy thing for her to do. So I doubt that she was merely seeking attention.

Do you really believe anyone was really giving her a second thought before this? I don't think many people on earth are chatting about the Brady Kids in their everyday life.

How do you explain going on celebrity fat club?

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So addtiction and recovery makes you want to put a book out and tell everyone on earth about your private life??? She is just looking for attention. She just misses the spotlight. She never accomplished anything in her life other than being known as a Brady and she wants some more attention from that. That's why she is alos on the celebrity fat club. For more attention. "Watch me lose weight America!!!".

Maureen is an actress, so craving attention comes with the territory.....you on the other hand seem to be laughably jealous of this. Try doing anything with your own life before pointing fingers at this woman for "never accomplishing in her life beside being a Brady". Ms.MCormick has successfully raised a daughter, a hell of an accomplishment in my eyes. Try doing anything that involves a long term relationship ( no, not just friends) and then you might be able to speak on the human condition.

The addiction and recovery point that you are missing is that honesty about your days as a user are a big part of the recovery process, as is eduacating other people who might otherwise fall into that trap.

Stick your head back in the sand BOY.

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Do you really believe anyone was really giving her a second thought before this? I don't think many people on earth are chatting about the Brady Kids in their everyday life.

How do you explain going on celebrity fat club?

I believe that she eventually formed healthy relationships in her life, and decided to continue her career.

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