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Ricki Lake, ‘Never Say Never’

By Staff | Apr 25, 2012

Go Ricki! Go Ricki!

Remember the days of “The Ricki Lake Show?” With doorbell-ringing surprise guests fighting over whose man it was? Well before Ricki Lake was a talk show host, she was an actress in such films as “Hairspray” and “Cry Baby.” Lake looks back at her film roles, her talk show, and the ups and downs in her life in “Never Say Never.”

Lake’s chapters are organized by ‘I’ll nevers” that ended up proving wrong – for better or worse.

She talks about growing up in her somewhat cold family in Hastings-on-Hudson, her love of her Grandma Sylvia and her life as a chubby kid.

She talks frankly about being abused when she was 7 by a handyman that worked for her parents and the fact that her parents would never address the subject again and then a weird “audition” with a movie producer when she was a young teen.

She also writes about a teacher that told her she would never amount to anything and meeting John Waters who cast her as the main character in his movie, “Hairspray” and then in “Cry Baby.”

She writes about other, less known roles, like “Babycakes,” “China Beach,” and “Dogfight.”

She writes about her ups and downs in relationships, including her marriage to and then divorce from Rob during the height of her talk show.

She also writes about her sons and how their births inspired her to make a documentary, “The Business of Being Born.”

She discusses living in New York during 9/11 and the profound impact it had on her.

She also writes about the ups and downs of dating after the divorce, some good and bad relationships, and finally meeting fiance (now husband) Christian. And she discusses her time on “Dancing with the Stars.”

Throughout her whole book, Ricki Lake comes off as a person who is able to reinvent herself and not let the “nevers” get her down. She’s had a lot of ups and downs, but always seems to take them as they come and move on to the next stage of life.