Michael Douglas does not hold back in his new memoir — and if he did, one can only imagine the details he left out.
In his aptly titled new book, One Helluva Ride, the Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction star details secret affairs with co-stars, drug binges and surprising backstage awards show encounters.
“Your 80s may be a good time to share,” the 82-year-old actor explained to The Los Angeles Times. “People interested in movies, we give them a certain insight into the process, and maybe they could learn something. For others, it’s just gossip.” Douglas added to the Associated Press: “I’m pretty tough on myself in the book and, you know, honest. I tried to do the right thing, but I found myself in situations where it looks like I’m the bad guy.”
Below are the seven wildest revelations that have come out so far about One Helluva Ride.
Douglas and Kathleen Turner Had a Secret Affair and Covered It Up for 40 Years: Douglas and Turner had tremendous on-screen chemistry in 1984’s Romancing the Stone, leading to rumors the two were lovers in real life. It turns out, they were. The duo would sneak into each other’s hotel rooms while filming and director Robert Zemeckis and co-star Danny DeVito remained unaware.
Douglas described himself as “still technically married, but separated” at the time from his wife Diandra Lurker (who apparently had a different understanding of exactly how separated they were), and the affair ended after Lurker confronted Turner about the affair on the set.
The stars lied about their romance in press interviews for decades afterward. “The official story went as follows: Yes, we confessed, we had amazing chemistry. Yes, we were both, as Kathleen said, ‘terrible flirts,’ and yes, we were both tempted, but nothing ever happened between us … It was a lie meant to protect my wife and son, a lie we told the world for 40 years.” Douglas says he got permission from Turner (and from other women whose relationships he discussed) to reveal the affair in the book. Turner has since commented, “Good heavens what a fuss about something 40 years ago! I love Michael and I look forward to enjoying the book.”
Douglas added he had a brief romance with the screenwriter of Romancing the Stone, Diane Thomas, as well.
Douglas Slept With His Basic Instinct Co-Star (But Not the One You Might Assume): While Douglas and Sharon Stone shared several steamy scenes in Basic Instinct, Douglas says he had an affair with his character’s former romantic interest who was played by Jeanne Tripplehorn (who was nearly 20 years his junior). Douglas says he “fell very hard” for Tripplehorn. “[The press] were so focused on a possible relationship between Sharon and me, they missed the real relationship happening between me and Jeanne,” Douglas wrote. “I was crazy about her. But I was also just self-aware enough to know that the worst thing I could do at that moment after nearly twenty years of marriage was jump right into another serious relationship. My relationship with Jeanne lasted through production, then we went our separate ways.” Douglas was married at the time, though described his relationship with Lurker as on the rocks.
When Catherine Zeta-Jones Asked for Monogamy, Douglas Broke Up With Five Women: In 1998, Douglas met the love of his life, Catherine Zeta-Jones, at a film festival. When he and Zeta-Jones became official, Douglas said he had to make “five quick phone calls” to break up with other women who he made sure “all lived in different cities.” “None of them asked for a commitment or even asked what else I was up to,” he added. “I am sure they were seeing other people, too. That day, I called each one to say I’d met somebody and would no longer be able to continue seeing them. They all took it well.” Douglas and Zeta-Jones wed in 2000 and are still married today.
Douglas Drunkenly Insulted Julia Roberts: At a 1990 Golden Globes party, an intoxicated Douglas spotted Roberts with her arm around his 13-year-old son and “kind of nuzzling him.” Douglas blew up at her, and said, “Take your hands off my son and take that Golden Globe and stick it where the sun don’t shine.” He later apologized and sent flowers to Roberts and her then-fiancé Kiefer Sutherland. “I remained friends with Kiefer,” Douglas wrote. “Julia, not so much.”
His Wife Caught Him In Bed With Another Woman, Which Led to An Ultimatum: Douglas and his wife were visiting Los Angeles and Lurker declined to spend the night with him. So Douglas called somebody else to come over — and then his wife came back to the hotel room. The actor describes hearing “the door handle turn” and then saw his wife “standing in the doorway, staring at us.” He speculated that Lurker might have been tipped off by a private investigator. Douglas says Lurker gave him the choice of “rehab or divorce,” and he opted for rehab. That said, he hotly denied media reports from the time that he was in rehab was for sex addiction (“I was never a f–king sex addict” he writes).
Also, Douglas claimed that Lurker had affairs, as well. “This wasn’t a case of her sitting at home in her nightgown waiting by the telephone for me to call and check in. She was out with her friends and having romantic interludes with people, too.”
Douglas Used Cocaine Heavily, Including With O.J. Simpson: The actor says he didn’t use drugs while working, but that between projects he abused coke so heavily that he once fell asleep with a straw in his nose. One night, in the late 1970s, he says he did cocaine with O.J. Simpson while hanging out with Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner. “I was overwhelmed, [under] a lot of pressure and began to get more involved with cocaine,” he wrote. “I think it was a large part of the failure of my first marriage and going for rehab … I look back on cocaine as a ridiculous, useless drug. But at the time, it was a way to extend partying and to let off steam.”
Somebody Wanted to Stab Douglas at the Oscars: At the 1992 Academy Awards, Douglas was stopped by an FBI agent at the Shrine Auditorium and told there was a credible threat from somebody inside the building who wanted to stab him with an HIV-infected needle. Douglas says he was “terrified” yet still went on stage to present the award for Best Actress along with Jodie Foster. “As I walked out, I took a quick glance into the crowd to make sure that no one was rushing to the stage.”
One Helluva Ride is released today by Grand Central Publishing.
