The Hype

<p>The Hype was never meant to be a biography of a movie star. But when Christina Crawford's memoir of a childhood spent battling her controlling mother, Joan Crawford, was published as Mommie Dearest in 1978, the reaction was decidedly not that. From having to defend her account of her childhood to friends of her adopted mother (not to mention interviewers and fans) to the stroke that people whispered was actually a nervous breakdown precipitated by the disastrous film adaptation, this is the story how the legend of Joan Crawford almost ruined Christina's life... a second time.</p>