Why Was Barry Diller’s Memoir Pulled From Amazon?

Where in the World Is Diller’s Memoir?

In late July, when Barry Diller‘s forthcoming memoir, Who Knew, suddenly disappeared from Amazon — after it had popped up for presales ahead of a planned fall release — it raised all sorts of eyebrows. Had the book’s publisher, Knopf, pulled the project for some reason? Had there been an issue with Amazon (and Target, too, which also was taking preorders)? Was the tome even real in the first place? After all, Knopf hadn’t announced anything about a book deal with Diller, despite an early leak to Page Six. The answer, it turns out, is none of the above. Sources close to the project tell Rambling Reporter that it was Diller himself who delayed publication. After sending early copies to a close circle of friends for comments, the 82-year-old media mogul turned memoirist decided the manuscript needed some last-minute noodling. He’s now holed up with his word processor reworking portions of the book — and doing it by himself, having waved off Knopf’s suggestion that he hire a ghostwriter. “He sees it as a chance to really tell his story and separate the facts from the many fictions that have accumulated around him over the years,” says the source. “He’s spent a massive amount of time working on this and takes it very seriously.” Sources say the book very candidly covers both the high and low points of Diller’s operatic life: growing up in Beverly Hills and dropping out of UCLA; his early years in the William Morris mailroom; his climb to the very top of the Hollywood food chain at ABC, Paramount and Fox, not to mention his storied sexual history and marriage to longtime pal Diane von Furstenberg. Frustratingly, inquiring minds will have to wait to read whatever Diller has been scribbling until April 1, the book’s new pub date (presumably not an April Fools’ joke). The title and book jacket apparently are also being revised.

How a Crazy Plotline From The Americans Came True

Turns out life doesn’t merely imitate art — sometimes it makes exact copies of old FX scripts. Take, for instance, that prisoner swap with Russia in early August, the one that finally sprung Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich from his cell in the Urals. As it happens, two of the Russian spies traded in the multicountry deal were married sleeper agents, Artem and Anna Dultseva, who have two young kids, 8-year-old Gabriel and 11-year-old Sofia. After the Dultsevas were arrested this year, those children were placed in foster care, only to be reunited with their parents on the plane back to Moscow, which is where they were told about their mom and dad’s secret identities. “The first thing I thought when I saw the story was, ‘Hey, wait a minute. That’s me!’ ” says Keidrich Sellati, 22, the actor who for six seasons played Henry Jennings on The Americans, the FX spy drama in which Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys starred as Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, Russian sleeper agents with two kids. “It was crazy,” Sellati goes on. “And it got even crazier when I saw their photos. My jaw hit the floor. The parents literally look like non-TV versions of Elizabeth and Philip, if they were just a little bit older.” Of course, there are some differences between the fictional and real-life families: the Dultsevas passed themselves as Argentinians living in Slovenia, not Americans living in Virginia. Still, one of the show’s writers thinks reality was even more brutal than fiction. “At least in the show’s finale, the kids are given a choice [about whether to go back to Russia],” notes scribe Mike Batistick. “These children were not. That’s more tragic. Honestly, this feels Shakespearean.”

Penelope Ann Miller Squeezes Into Nancy Reagan’s Shoes

Penelope Ann Miller has played some vilified figures over her four-decade career, from Mary Kay Letourneau to Jeffrey Dahmer’s mom. But those were a walk in the park compared with her next role: Nancy Reagan. “I can’t judge who I’m playing, because then it wouldn’t be real,” Miller, 60, tells THR of her turn opposite Dennis Quaid in Reagan, in theaters Aug. 30. “I just want to be them as much as I can.” To help her slip into Nancy’s snug shoes — the petite first lady was 5-foot-4, Miller is 5-foot-7 — the actress read everything she could get her hands on, from Nancy’s memoir, It’s My Turn, to Kitty Kelley’s Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography. “It was a pretty overwhelming task,” Miller says, noting that costumes by Jenava Burguiere and Jack Odell were helpful in putting her in Nancy headspace — as were the three wigs depicting Nancy at various ages. “I had this image of her as this cold, aloof, stoic, regal woman who’s not that warm and fuzzy. But she truly loved her husband in a way that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.” — SETH ABRAMOVITCH

This story first appeared in the August 14 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.