Does anyone else watch Hollywood Darlings? I cannot recall how I stumbled upon it two summers ago…or was it last spring? Regardless, it is a sitcom in which three former child actresses portray exaggerated versions of themselves in the vein of James van der Beek in Don’t Trust the B in Apartment 23. Along with Jodie Sweetin, the series stars Beverley Mitchell and Christine Lakin, and y’all, it is the funniest show that the world is sleeping on. It airs on the Pop Network over the spring / summer transitional period and hopefully will air a third season in 2019.
It was after I finished season one of Hollywood Darlings, I Googled the series in hot pursuit of finding out whether it had been renewed. And with that I fell into a Wikipedia rabbit hole. As I wormed my way out, I realized that I had also purchased Jodie Sweetin’s memoir from iBooks.
It had been a few months since I purchased Jodie Sweetin’s memoir, which was published nearly a decade ago. Once I finished reading Paperbook Crush, I was still doing cardio and needed to pick something else, and quickly. UnSweetined was near the top of my unread queue and I was in the mood for some juicy child star antics.
I read the memoir over the course of three days on the elliptical. Jodie Sweetin’s story reminded me of a west coast version of that of Cat Marnell. So candid and so raw. While she acknowledges that she did not call out all of the bad stuff, she really does not sugarcoat anything. (See what I did there?) I was so relieved when I read that she never traded sex for money or drugs. Her days as Stephanie Tanner bankrolled her addiction.
It is when people share such personal stories and make themselves vulnerable that really gets me in their corner. I hope for a comeback or a Cinderella story for any underdog or anyone who is in a life pit. With Hollywood Darlings concluding a second season and Fuller House just releasing its fourth season, Jodie Sweetin has come back for her second act.
UnSweetined by Jodie Sweetin
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