Breathing Out
Lipton's story is clichéd, and her writing's clunky to boot. But that's no matter, because the main reason readers will pick this book up is for its pages on the sexual encounters Lipton—who played the hip chick of TV's undercoverMod Squadin the late 1960s and early '70s—had with Paul McCartney and Elvis. Born in 1947 and raised on Long Island, Lipton was a model at 15 and had started acting classes by the time her family moved to California a few years later. Hanging out in Hollywood, Lipton soon became a mod version of the "it" girl. After ridding herself of her virginity, her first goal was to seduce McCartney. That accomplished, she slept with a series of alcoholic or abusive married men, meanwhile experimenting with a variety of drugs. Her psychedelic adventures with actor Terence Stamp were quintessential Haight-Ashbury; she even had a fling with Elvis: "He was a great kisser," she allows, "but that was about it." In 1974, she married musician Quincy Jones, who didn't want her to work. A full-time mom until their marriage fell apart, Lipton then struggled with depression and debilitating fatigue, finding strength from her guru, Gurumayi, from acting work and from her two beloved daughters. There's a lot of '60s and '70s color—joints smoked in the bathroom, an interracial marriage, a trip to an Indian ashram—but it all boils down to an old-fashioned kiss-and-tell. 16 b&w photos.(June)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.