Carrie Fisher's "Wishful Drinking," With Added Material, Debuts on HBO Dec. 12

By Kenneth Jones
12 Dec 2010

Carrie Fisher in HBO's "Wishful Drinking"
Carrie Fisher in HBO's "Wishful Drinking"
Photo by Patrick Harbron/HBO

Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher's one-woman touring and Broadway play about her dark and funny life and times in showbiz, is now a feature-length documentary, premiering 9 PM ET Dec. 12 on HBO.

The special combines archival footage with her one-woman stage performance, which was taped in June before a live audience. Fisher, internationally known for playing Princess Leia in the first "Star Wars" trilogy, wrote and starred in this salt-kissed biographical show.

Actress, screenwriter and bestselling author ("Postcards from the Edge," "The Best Awful" and "Wishful Drinking") Carrie Fisher is the daughter of the late singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds. Carrie Fisher emerged from the shadows of her parents notorious Hollywood breakup to become a cultural icon at age 19 after starring as Princess Leia. She has been candid since about facing mental illness and substance abuse, always finding the "funny" in the despair.

A particularly pungent section of her stage show features a flow chart of her complicated yet eclectic extended family tree. It's called "Hollywood Inbreeding 101."

The actress is also a screenwriter and bestselling author. Her novels, "Postcards from the Edge," "Surrender the Pink," "Delusions of Grandma" and "The Best Awful," were all critically acclaimed, with "Postcards from the Edge" being adapted for an Oscar-nominated film of the same name starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine. Her memoir "Wishful Drinking," taken from the stage show, was published in 2008 by Simon & Schuster, which will also publish Fisher's novel "Shockaholic" in 2011.

Fisher's one-woman stage performance of Wishful Drinking was taped for the HBO special at the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) in South Orange, NJ. The play opened in Los Angeles in 2006 and was produced on Broadway in 2009 by Roundabout Theatre Company in association with Jonathan Reinis, Jamie Cesa, Eva Price and the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Wishful Drinking is currently touring Australia and will continue to travel to select cities through the end of 2010 and into 2011.

Along with the HBO presentation of "Wishful Drinking," exclusive additional material from a director's interview with Debbie Reynolds will be available on HBO On Demand.

"Wishful Drinking" producers and directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato have produced a variety of nonfiction programming, including 23 documentaries for HBO and Cinemax, including "Heidi Fleiss: The Would-Be Madam of Crystal," "Monica in Black and White" and "The Eyes of Tammy Faye."

An HBO Documentary Films presentation, "Wishful Drinking" is written and performed by Carrie Fisher; produced and directed by Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey; senior producer, Lisa Heller; executive producer, Sheila Nevins.

Other HBO playdates are Dec. 14 (11:15 PM), 16 (9:30 PM), 22 (12:30 AM), 24 (3:15 AM) and 28 (1 AM). HBO2 playdates are Dec. 18 (11:30 PM), 26 (4:30 PM) and 29 (8 PM).