People: Surviving all the hazards
Ben Jones figures he drank 43,000 beers, 2,000 jugs of whiskey, wine, gin and vodka, and smoked several pounds of pot in the 20 years he was out of control.
“I’d wake up in jails just wondering how I got there. Vomit on my shoes and blood on my shirt,” says the 66-year-old actor.
With the help of a friend, he quit drinking cold turkey in 1977.
“A year later,” Jones says, “I walked into an audition and was cast in what was to become one of the greatest television shows in the history of entertainment” – namely, “The Dukes of Hazzard,” as the wisecracking mechanic Cooter.
That lasted until 1985. Three years later, Jones was elected to Congress as a Democrat, serving two terms.
He’s written about his ups and downs in his new autobiography, “Redneck Boy in the Promised Land” (Harmony, $23.95).
“My life is not a story about falling down,” he says, “it’s a story about getting up. I think people could relate to that and they could relate to alcoholism and all that behavior that goes with it because it’s a common disease.”
Turning more new leaves
Elsewhere on the celebrity book beat:
“Madonna’s brother, Christopher Ciccone, is writing a memoir about her, to be released in mid-July by Simon & Schuster.
“Sean Connery will offer the first public glimpse of his memoirs at this year’s Edinburgh Book Festival on Aug. 25 – his 78th birthday.
“Oscar-winning actress and “Dancing With the Stars” sensation Marlee Matlin is working on a memoir for release next year.
“As a young girl, I imagined myself as Marcia Brady who just happened to be deaf, skating down the street saying ‘hi’ to everyone I knew,” says Matlin, 42.
“But today, as a mom of four, I’m no longer Marcia. I’ve morphed into Alice, the Maid.”
Welcome to the club
And speaking of substance abuse, London police have charged a man and a woman with supplying drugs to Amy Winehouse in connection with a video that appeared to show the troubled singer smoking crack cocaine.
Police began an investigation after photos from the footage were published in The Sun newspaper in January. Detectives say Winehouse will not be charged in the case.
Garbage chameleon
Two years after sweeping New York City streets as part of community service, Boy George is performing a free concert for his former co-workers.
The former Culture Club frontman will sing some of his hits for the Department of Sanitation’s Family Day on Aug. 17.
He was ordered to work for the department after pleading guilty to falsely reporting a burglary at his Manhattan apartment. Police who responded found cocaine.
The birthday bunch
Actor Gene Barry is 89. Actress Marla Gibbs (“The Jeffersons”) is 77. Actor Jack Bannon is 68. Singer Rod Argent (The Zombies) is 63. Singer Janet Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) is 62. Businessman-TV personality Donald Trump is 62. Actor Will Patton is 54. Singer Boy George is 47. Actress Yasmine Bleeth is 40. Actress Traylor Howard (“Monk” is 37. Actor Daryl Sabara (“Spy Kids”) is 16.