If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears

When I heard the news that Mackenzie Phillips was claiming to have had a 10-year sexual relationship with her father, Mamas and the Papas leader John Phillips, my first thought was it's hard to believe he'd choose her for an incestuous affair when his two other daughters are Chynna and Bijou.

But then after watching Mackenzie's "tell-all" performance on Oprah, I was left with a number of more serious thoughts. First off, I have no problem with someone telling their story -- however unseemly -- provided it's true. And I have no idea whether or not this story is true. There's no doubt that John Phillips was a crackpot of sorts, and given the complete lack of boundaries that seemed to exist between the two of them, anything's possible. But there's also no doubt that drug addicts will say and do ANYTHING for MONEY to feed their habits. (I think we can all figure out where the advance from this book likely went.) And more often than not, fading celebrities will also say and do ANYTHING for ATTENTION (another form of addiction). Oprah mentioned that Mackenzie could have written this book WITHOUT this "shocking revelation," but anyone who has followed pop culture at all knows this couldn't be further from the truth.

First of all, there really aren't that many people who even care about Mackenzie Phillips anymore. And those of us who (kind of) do have all heard the Mick Jagger story, that Dad injected her the first time she tried intravenous drugs and all about her getting fired from "One Day at a Time" for being a junkie. It's all been well-documented. Furthermore, after rendering herself unhirable for years, the only thing she had going for her was her (alleged) sobriety. While it may not have been as big as her sitcom heyday, she had a starring role on a Disney Channel(!) show for a couple of years at the beginning of the decade, and has been doing guest spots regularly ever since. But -- as she almost too tellingly revealed on Oprah -- the minute she got arrested at LAX last year for cocaine and heroin possession, she KNEW her career was over ... again. (And believe me, she was right. Who would give a has-been 50-year-old who has fallen off the wagon again another chance?)

About the ONLY option she had at this point was to follow the path of her TV sis, Valerie Bertinelli, and write a scandalous tell-all book. (Well, I guess she could have also gotten fat, but everyone knows junkies are no good at that.) And in order to get a decent book deal, she HAD to produce something new and something big -- and "High on Arrival" delivers on both counts.

I was also thinking how pathetic she seemed. Not for the relationship with her father (assuming it's true), but the Norma Desmond quality she exuded as she strolled around L.A. pointing out all of the places she had gotten into trouble and recalling her dad telling her that she's different because she's "a Phllips" and "the rules don't apply to her" because she was John Phillips' daughter. (Did he really say that?) I'm guessing that story had a lot more cache (and was certainly more convincing) 30 years ago.

I don't know how someone who had a 10-year (eventually) consensual sexual relationship with their father is supposed to act, but Mackenzie's complete lack of ambivalence toward her dad and "if I can help just one person" delivery struck me as insincere. More telling, though, is how she made a point of saying no one who knows her would dispute what she was saying (even while allowing that some of her siblings wished she would not come forward with this dirty laundry).

Cut to the statements from BOTH of Mackenzie's former stepmothers:

Genevieve Waite Phillips, John's third wife and Bijou's mother, said in a statement: "I am stunned by Mackenzie's terrible allegations about her father. I would often complain to John about her overly familiar attitude towards him, and he would tell me that that was just her way. John was a good man who had the disease of alcoholism and drug addiction. He was incapable, no matter how drunk or drugged he was, of having such a relationship with his own child."

Michelle Phillips, John's second wife and Chynna's mother, says she has "every reason to believe [Mackenzie's account is] untrue."

"She told me, then she called me back and said, 'You know I'm joking,'" Michelle Phillips told The Hollywood Reporter, adding that Mackenzie told her entire family in 1997. "I said it wasn't funny. Mackenzie said, 'I guess we have different senses of humor.'"

Michelle acknowledges that John was a bad parent and a drug addict. "But fuck his daughter? If she thinks it's true, why isn't she with a good psychiatrist on a couch? I think it's unconscionable that Oprah would let her do her show."

Mackenzie has "a lot of mental illness," Michelle said, adding that she believes the actress timed the release of her book to steal thunder away from Chynna's new album. "Mackenzie is jealous of her siblings, who have accomplished a lot and did not become drug addicts."

OK, admittedly that bit about "Chynna's new album" is almost as delusional as anything Mackenzie's said, but still you can see that she is being dishonest when saying "ask anyone" and they won't dispute what she's saying. (It should be noted, too, that Michelle Phillips normally has NOTHING nice to say about John and wouldn't even speak to him for the last 10 or 20 years of his life -- even while they were being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yet defends him on this one.)

Whatever the truth is the whole thing is sad story all the way around. Still, I can't help but wonder if her publisher's decision to have Augusten Burroughs blurb the book was meant to be ironic.

UPDATE: Several people who were around Mackenzie and her father during the time of the alleged relationship have corroborated that Papa John all but bragged about bedding his daughter, so I am convinced Mackenzie is telling the truth about sleeping with her father. I don't really feel too remorseful about my skepticism, however, given the fact that she is an admitted serial liar. Given my personal experience with them, I guess I will always err on the side of disbelief with addicts. I find it works best for me.