Special Guest Blogger: Diana Barrymore

With hindsight I had it all, the famous name, wealth and career should have not been just a silver spoon but the whole cutlery drawer but I didn't have the best example in my father, John Barrymore.
You think you got embarrassing parents? When I was 13 my dad took me and my 17 year old friend for an exciting day out but he spent the whole day flirting with her before copping off with, drinking too much and passing out in the car.
He was a jerk but he was a famous jerk and I received no shortage of media attention and  job offers and Hollywood came calling but my Mum was worried as she seemed to think there was some sort of curse on the family but i promised my Mum I would not let the industry turn me into a monster like my dad.
I did move in with him for a short time in Hollywood but when I arrived home one day and found him in a drunken stupor with a group of women, I said he was a disgusting and drunken old fool and left.
As it turned out they were the last words i spoke to him as a few weeks later he died of liver and kidney failure but by now I was 21 and my star was rising and opportunities and i did what any 21 year old with fame and money would do, i partied hard and dated every eligible (and ineligible) man in Hollywood which my then husband didn't take too well and he walked out.
Being an actress, i hatched the perfect plan to get him back and faked an overdose with sleeping pills but i must have been a better actress than i thought because he not only believed it but held me down while a doctor  pumped my stomach.
My fall from grace was about the same time as i got a reputation for being awkward and usually full of alcohol and after six films the roles dried up but i did marry a hot Tennis Player but things really hit bottom when after a night of drinking, we got pulled over by the cops and i took a swing at one which they didn’t take very well and spent the night behind bars and the next day on the front page of every newspaper.
Movies and Hollywood was out but i got offered a TV Talk Show, The Diana Barrymore Show, but on the day of filming I have one little drink to clam my nerves, then a dozen more and when i slurred and stumbled my way into the studio for filming, the fact that The Diana Barrymore Show became The Faye Emerson Show tells you what happened.
I was only 38 when i died from an accidental drug overdose and maybe mum was right and the family name is cursed but i hear that my niece, Drew, is now a Hollywood actress, wonder how that is working out for her?