Kate Green/Getty Images Logo text Rambling hears rumors that John Travolta, 72, is shopping a memoir, some 20 years after his last attempt at an auto-biography mysteriously vanished before it reached bookstores. Back in 2004, Travolta signed a blockbuster book deal — reportedly $2.5 million for U.S. rights and another $2.3 million for the U.K. — with a pub date set for the fall of 2006. “I’ve hit a milestone this year in my life, turning 50,” the actor said at the time. “If I waited any longer, I’d have to write two books.”
He waited, anyway.
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If Travolta is indeed giving a memoir another shot, he couldn’t have picked a better time for it. Celebrity autobiographies are on fire these days — Michael Douglas, Sylvester Stallone, Kyle MacLachlan, Ari Emanuel, they’re all elbowing one another on best-seller lists. Travolta would be “a get,” notes one veteran publishing executive, adding that the actor is “still beloved, even with all the Scientology nonsense.”
Back in 2004, Hyperion’s then-editor-in-chief Will Schwalbe promised Travolta’s memoir would “surprise, move and entertain readers on every page” with stories about Travolta’s “many notable friendships,” including Marlon Brando and Princess Diana. The untitled project got far enough in Hyperion’s pipeline to be assigned an ISBN and listed in bookseller databases as a 384-page hardcover.
Exactly what happened to the memoir, why Travolta abandoned it and what became of his advance remain a mystery. But plenty has happened in the 22 years since he first proposed telling his life story, much of it painful, including the death of his 16-year-old son, Jett, following a seizure in 2009, and wife Kelly Preston’s death from breast cancer in 2020. It turns out Travolta really does have enough material for two books. Maybe one of them will even make it into bookstores.
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Also in Rambling Reporter:
Amanda Seyfried is a bit tongue-tied on red carpets these days but happy to talk about emus. Danny Trejo stars in Pawn Shop, a controversial film tied to ICE protests.
This story appeared in the Oct. 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
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