Pam Grier’s role as the owner of a hardware store in rural Nebraska in the ABC sitcom Bless This Mess isn’t a complete departure for the film legend: She lives in rural Colorado and has spent much of her life on ranches to find serenity from Hollywood life. “I commuted to work really for 50 years because I couldn’t have that lifestyle that I wanted of horses and ruralness. It would always be the city, hotels, room service,” said Grier in a recent interview. “My grandfather was the first feminist in my life, from Wyoming, who taught all of us girls how to hunt, fish and shoot, so I could bring that to this show, every element, and it just kind of fit,” Grier said. “He had this glow, this peace and this unbelievable calm about him during the day after working sun up, sundown doing some labor. And he just was so spiritual and enjoyed life and he would always say you know if you wake up breathing you’re going to have a good day.” Grier made her name as the queen of Blaxploitation films in the 1970s with roles in classics like Coffy and Foxy Brown but struggled in Hollywood after the genre fell out fashion. Grier was the victim of two sexual assaults — one when she was just 6 years old. She opened up about her personal struggles in her 2010 memoir, Foxy: My Life in Three Acts. Grier said she’s gratified that many more of her fellow actresses are talking about their experiences with abuse in Hollywood in the era of #MeToo and Time’s Up. “I always say it’s about time. It takes confidence. It takes other people around you to set an example that you won’t inflame or flame out you — you’ll be OK. And it is tough to talk about it,” she said. “A lot of people haven’t healed yet.”
Prize-winning crime novelist Laura Lippman has several new books planned, not all of them fiction. Lippman has reached a five-book deal with her current publisher, William Morrow. The deal, announced Thursday, includes three novels, a short story collection and a book of personal essays, her first-ever nonfiction release. Lippman said in a statement that her longtime editor, Carrie Feron, had seen “the potential” of an essay collection, something she hadn’t thought of herself. Lippman is known for her Baltimore-based Tess Monaghan series and for such stand-alone novels as Every Secret Thing, adapted into a movie starring Diane Lane and Elizabeth Banks. She won an Edgar Award for her Monaghan novel Charm City, published in 1997.
