I swear to God, if I became a mass murderer, I think my fans would still like me.But I knew that a big part of my fan base is straight guys.' (Jay L. She was friends with him until he allegedly attacked her at his Bel-Air mansion and forced her to perform oral sex.Ī story she used to reel off as gossip about sleeping with singer Tom Jones - and requiring stitches afterward - becomes unsettling when she unpacks that it was a humiliating encounter and Jones taunted her when she shut it down.Ĭassandra Peterson: 'I was a little worried about writing about my relationship with T. In a chapter titled “You’ll Never Work in This Town Again,” she revisits in harrowing detail how she survived industry predators and accuses the late NBA star Wilt Chamberlain of sexually assaulting her in the 1970s. “It’s not my place to tell her stories,” Peterson says. She kept their daughter, Sadie, out of the book, though. She writes about losing both of her sisters to addiction, watching the onset of the AIDS epidemic ravage her friends in the gay community and the bitter end of her 25-year marriage to musician Mark Pierson, who was also her longtime manager. She grew up with a mother she never thought truly loved her and a doting father who adored her.

Peterson’s memoir is full of heartrending stories that shaped her journey as a self-made star. ”Ĭassandra Peterson holds a copy of her new memoir, 'Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark,' at Chevalier's Books in L.A. “On one of my social media platforms, 11,000 people dropped off after reading. “But I knew that a big part of my fan base is straight guys,” she says, noting that her fears were partly founded. I swear to God, if I became a mass murderer, I think my fans would still like me. “I knew that my fans are going to love me no matter what. “I was a little worried about writing about my relationship with T,” Peterson says. Teresa “T” Wierson, whom Peterson first spotted at Gold's Gym in Hollywood, was her friend and trainer for several years before they became romantic. When the book came out last month, Peterson immediately made headlines with the news that she has been in a relationship with a woman for 19 years. icon with “Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark.” The irresistible tell-all digs deeper than Hollywood dirt to examine Peterson’s circuitous path to stardom and reveal how private she has been.

You know her as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, the campy, vampy horror host who premiered on local television - KHJ-TV, Channel 9 - in 1981 with her own TV show, “Elvira’s Movie Macabre.” Everything about Elvira is over the top, designed as a sendup of Valley Girl stereotypes with a gothic aesthetic pitched somewhere between punk rock and “The Addams Family.”Īt 70, Peterson is finally lifting the veil on Elvira and putting herself in the spotlight as an L.A.

Cassandra peterson new book