Some of Me

She writes of her mother, Ingrid Bergman: "Second to acting, Mother loved cleaning, which is not to say she loved even that above me. I'm sure she loved me more than cleaning, but what made her happiest was combining the two."

She writes of her father, Roberto Rossellini: "My father was a Jewish mother ... When we were children (there were seven of us) one of our favorite games was throwing ourselves into Daddy's body. Lying on his side, he pretended to be the sow and we were the piglets."

She writes about her famous nude scene in David Lynch's Blue Velvet, and of posing for such world-renowned photographers as Richard Avedon, Bruce Weber, and Steven Meisel. About being fired as the face of Lancome because she dared to become forty, and about the two years of scoliosis that blighted her adolescence. She talks -- candidly but discreetly -- about the men in her life: her ex-husband Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, and Gary Oldman. And she conducts intimate and extended dialogues with her beloved dead parents.

This book is utterly original, human, and provocative. Like the author herself.

Isabella Rossellini grew up in Paris and Rome. She moved to New York at the age of nineteen, and began her modeling career at twenty-eight, when she was photographed by Bruce Weber for British Vogue. She has appeared in eighteen films, including Blue Velvet, Cousins, Wild at Heart, Fearless, Immortal Beloved, and, most recently, Big Night -- as well as several made-for-TV movies. After being the exclusive model for Lancome for fourteen years, Rossellini is now working to develop a new line of make-up, skin-care, and fragrance with the Lancaster Group. She lives in New York City with her two children.