
SHE'S played Craig T. Nelson’s daughter, Alexis Bledel’s mother, David Sutcliffe’s wife, Ray Romano’s fiancée and her real-life boyfriend’s sister in a Hollywood career that has rarely allowed more than a moment’s downtime.
Fans of her two incredibly successful and long-running television dramas, Gilmore Girls and Parenthood, have been aware for years of Lauren Graham’s ability to regurgitate rapid-fire dialogue at a pace that would leave the average actor completely tongue-tied.
What they might not have realised is that Graham – an accomplished writer and producer – has spent a disproportionately generous share of her precious off-screen hours jotting down equally hilarious and irreverent prose of her own.
In her latest book, a collection of vignettes revisiting some of her favourite showbusiness memories, the woman known by millions of viewers as Lorelai Gilmore and/or Sarah Braverman delivers a sassily witty commentary on her experiences both in front of and behind the studio camera.
Graham recalls her excruciatingly awkward first meeting with Peter Krause, the man who would much later become her off-screen partner as well as her brother on Parenthood.
She shares details of her unconventional upbringing in Japan and the Caribbean, her deep and genuine friendships with castmates and her disregard for the celebrity lifestyle, mocking the so-called ‘benefits’ of fame. She confesses her distaste of the outdoors and her constant struggle to meet writing deadlines.
Graham weaves into her commentary a walk through the popular culture of the 1990s and early 2000s (Filofax organisers, videotapes, BlackBerry PDAs) and pokes fun at her nationally televised failing as a fashion judge.
And as a highlight for Gilmore Girls aficionados, she includes diary excerpts from the period in which – a decade after Lorelai was officially retired – she returns to the set of fictitious Stars Hollow to reprise the character for the series’ exclusive Netflix reboot.