Carrie Offers Tales From Hollywood Actress/Writer Will Speak At Women’s Conference

When it comes to women helping women, Carrie Fisher is a creature of experience.

Fisher, who will speak Tuesday at a Women Helping Women benefit luncheon at the Spokane Convention Center, has been working as a movie actress since she debuted in the 1975 film “Shampoo.”

Her Hollywood ties predate even that. As the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds, the 40-year-old Fisher grew up in a virtual show-business shadow.

So she’s well prepared to address a question such as, “Is it common for women to help women in Hollywood?”

“No,” Fisher said with a quality of frankness that she maintained throughout a recent telephone interview. “Though I trust women out here more than I trust men, by and large everyone looks out for themselves.”

Yet there are exceptions. Her mother is one.

Because she spent so much time shooting on location, Reynolds delegated much of Fisher’s raising to others, from her own mother to a variety of nannies. When she could, though, Reynolds shared her show-business connections.

Thus Fisher debuted at age 12 in her mother’s Las Vegas nightclub act. After dropping out of school three years later, she got her Broadway start as a chorus member in another of her mother’s vehicles, the musical revival “Irene.”

Beginning with “Shampoo,” the Warren Beatty film that she worked on at age 17, Fisher forged her own career. She’s made some 25 movies, from Woody Allen’s “Hannah and Her Sisters” (1986) to the Billy Crystal-Meg Ryan comedy “When Harry Met Sally” (1989).

But undoubtedly Fisher is best known for George Lucas’ “Star Wars” trilogy (1977, ‘80, ‘83), in which she portrays Princess Leia to Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker and Harrison Ford’s Han Solo.

Since 1989, with the publication of her roman a clef “Postcards From the Edge,” Fisher has pursued a writing career. Aside from her books - “Surrender the Pink” came out in 1990, “Delusions of Grandma” in 1993 - she works regularly as a screenwriter.

In March, Fisher helped write the Academy Awards broadcast. It was a gig that almost didn’t happen.

When the producer of the Oscars show first telephoned, Fisher said, she didn’t return the calls. She was afraid they were planning some sort of corny “Star Wars” tribute.

“I couldn’t figure out why they were calling me, and that did concern me,” she said. “Because I’m happy to be in the movies, very happy, but I don’t want to appear as Princess Leia now.”

Her fears were unfounded. There was no “Star Wars” sequence, and she ended up sharing a touching on-camera moment with her mother.

The emotional quality, as it turns out, was intensified because of the Albert Brooks film “Mother,” which marked a movie comeback for Reynolds. A lifelong friend of Brooks, the film’s writer/director/ star, Fisher had urged Brooks to consider Reynolds for the role.

At Tuesday’s luncheon, Fisher will talk about her relationships with women. It should fit nicely into the theme set by an organization, Women Helping Women, whose purpose is to assist agencies and programs “that are making a positive difference for… women and children in need.”

Even though Fisher lives on an economic plane that most of us can only fantasize about, one where a $7,500 paycheck (which is what the Academy paid her) will barely pay back its worth in taxes, she is familiar with the hard facts of life.

Even now, Fisher - whose acting career is limited these days to episodic television (“Gun”) and other occasional work - can’t afford to retire.

“I mean, I’m not, like, independently wealthy and can just coast,” she said.

Yet she isn’t willing to spend the time away from her 4-year-old daughter that would be necessary were she to continue making movies. So she pursues her writing, helping - and receiving help from - friends such as her mother, Penny Marshall and Meryl Streep.

Fisher not only polished Streep’s dialogue on the film “The River Wild,” but she recommended the double Oscar-winner - a friend who starred in the movie version of “Postcards From the Edge”- to Clint Eastwood for the 1995 film “The Bridges of Madison County.”

“She’s a great woman, you know,” Fisher said. “She doesn’t try to juggle a career and raise kids, she actually just does those things and has her priorities straight.”

In Hollywood or out, that’s something to admire.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: FISHER SPEAKS Author/actress Carrie Fisher will address the Women Helping Women Fund benefit luncheon, which will be held at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Spokane Convention Center. The suggested donation is $100 and can be paid at the door. For information, call 744-3350.