Stars keep writing books, and the Us Weekly staff keeps reading them.
2025 produced memoirs from all corners of Hollywood, including by Josh Gad — who shared celeb secrets from Broadway through his time in L.A. — and by Priscilla Presley — who didn’t hold back when it came to discussing her life after Elvis Presley.
Jeremy Renner also offered fans a detailed account of his New Year’s Day accident in 2023, which nearly took his life, in the book My Last Breath. His sad story was also paired with some levity, however, like the hilarious story he shared about Jamie Foxx.
Keep scrolling to look back at some of the most unexpected celebrity name-drops from memoirs in 2025:
Josh Gad’s Viewing Parties With Johnny Depp
Josh Gad started off the year strong with tons of anecdotes about celebrities throughout his career. However, the one about Johnny Depp in his book, In Gad We Trust, might just take the cake.
When filming the 2017 movie Murder on the Orient Express, Depp and Gad would watch “old YouTube videos” together, the actor wrote. The clips — like “Charlie Bit My Finger” — totally “blew Johnny’s mind,” according to Gad.
Naomi Watts’ Admission About Billy Crudup’s Balls
In her January book about menopause, Dare I Say It, Naomi Watts offered a lot of information about her husband Billy Crudup’s nether regions.
Watts detailed her experience with hormone patches in the book, explaining that they leave a mark on the skin “that’s very hard to get rid of.” The actress was thus “mortified” the first time she and Crudup went to sleep together.
“He told me he thought it was great I was taking care of myself, and he asked me how he could help,” she recalled. Crudup also said, “Hey, if it makes you feel better: I’ve got gray hairs on my balls.”
Watts wrote, “Those to date remain the most romantic words I’ve ever heard, onscreen or off, and that includes the script of every movie I’ve ever been in.”
Why Michael Caine Wrote About Taylor Swift
Legendary actor Michael Caine had nothing but praise for Taylor Swift in his March book, Don’t Look Back, You’ll Trip Over: My Guide to Life, citing her as an example of a celebrity whose accolades are well-deserved.
“You know, she was a country singer to start with? And now she fills stadiums all over the world, with audiences of 100,000, and politicians are desperate for her to support them. That’s extraordinary,” he said. “You can just tell how much hard work lies behind what she’s achieved too. It’s no accident. She has really earned her success, and it hasn’t come overnight. She’s down-to-earth, which is almost always part of it. Not spoiled by all the accolades and money. That’s impressive.”
Jeremy Renner’s (Sort Of) Conversation With Jamie Foxx
Jeremy Renner reflected on his near-death experience on New Year’s Day in 2023 with his February book, My Last Breath. Following the accident, the Marvel alum was admittedly “so high” on a “combination of opioids for pain and benzos for sleep” that he saw a lot of things — including Jamie Foxx.
“When the curtains didn’t respond, Jamie Foxx did. He was in my room quite a bit (he wasn’t),” Renner wrote. “We talked about this and that (I talked, he didn’t say much because he wasn’t really there); we went snowmobiling together (we didn’t — for a start, there’s no snow in Southern California).”
Scheana Shay’s List of Ex-Hookups
Even the most casual Vanderpump Rules fans know that Scheana Shay’s tenure on the show began with a high-profile dalliance — with Brandi Glanville’s then-husband, Eddie Cibrian, who went on to marry LeAnn Rimes — but in her memoir, she revealed a much longer list of ex-lovers.
“I said to myself, OK, Scheana, you’ve tried dating (or at least hanging out and hooking up with) all of these celebrities — Jesse Metcalfe, Eddie Cibrian, John Mayer, Shemar Moore, Josh Hopkins, Shane West, Jesse McCartney, JC Chasez, Adrian Grenier, Ricardo Chavira, William Tell, two actors from The Notebook, and a few NFL, NBA and MLB players, to name a few — and that’s not really working out,” she wrote in My Good Side, explaining why she decided to take a break from dating famous men. “It’s time to switch things up and date someone who’s under the radar: I didn’t want any of the fanfare or complications that came with being linked to someone famous. I wanted to be with someone who was grounded.”
When asked about the list for her Us Weekly cover story in July, Shay quipped, “I feel like if a 40-year-old Scheana was single and not a mom, I couldn’t get the guys I used to get. I don’t know how I did it in my early 20s — people don’t believe me!”
Charlie Sheen’s Ping-Pong Game With O.J. Simpson
Charlie Sheen crossed paths with the late O.J. Simpson while on set with his father, Martin Sheen — and they played ping-pong together.
“I got into a heated and surreal game of ping-pong with that same man by his other nickname, The Juice,” Charlie wrote in The Book of Sheen: A Memoir, released in September. “O.J. was extremely competitive and clearly didn’t give a f*** that his opponent was a shy 10-year-old child.”
Charlie Sheen’s memoir was full of celebrity name-drops — but some were more impactful to his life than others. His famous father, Martin Sheen, and brother Emilio Estevez were among the stars named in The Book of Sheen, which was released on Tuesday, September 9. Some of Sheen’s former costars, including Jennifer Gray and Alan […]
Charlie explained that Simpson had “changed hands” and made a paddle switch-up to win the game. The actor called the late football star’s right hand f***ing lethal.”
Mark Ronson’s Experience With Diddy
In his September memoir, Night People, Mark Ronson revealed that he always felt uneasy around now-disgraced mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs when he encountered him at events in the 1990s.
“For all the gigs I played for Puff, he probably spoke five sentences to me. But even to me, the DJ, he emitted a chaotic energy that left me both starstruck and deeply unnerved,” Ronson wrote, noting that it was “abundantly clear” to him in that Diddy “wielded a tremendous amount of power and cachet” on the Manhattan club scene in that era. “He made people’s careers — playing gigs for him certainly helped mine — and his disapproval meant a certain kind of exile. … He took over downtown — and then the Hamptons — until the whole city seemed to revolve around him and his parties.”
Priscilla Presley’s Surprising Connection to Robert Kardashian
Priscilla Presley dated Robert Kardashian for “a few months” following her divorce from Elvis Presley. Kardashian’s “demanding job” as a lawyer led to their split, because when the “weekend rolled around” he wanted to relax, but Priscilla — who is “active by nature” — grew “restless.” He also wanted to get married, and she wasn’t ready to commit again after Elvis.
Years after their split, Kim Kardashian called Priscilla so she could have “one last conversation” with Robert before his death in September 2003.
Judd Apatow’s Experience With Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold
Judd Apatow worked closely with Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold at one point in his career, and things were tumultuous at best. The trio were shooting something at Apatow’s grandma’s home, and things got heated.
“Roseanne said, ‘Tom, would you ever want me to get plastic surgery?’” Apatow wrote in his October book, Comedy Nerd. “Tom said with a smile, ‘No, of course not. I married you the way you are, so clearly I don’t care about how you look.’”
Judd Apatow name-dropped all his famous friends in his new book, Comedy Nerd: A Lifelong Obsession in Stories and Pictures. “I’ve worked on this book for a few years. It’s emotional getting to the end of this process,” Apatow, 57, wrote in the book, published on Tuesday, October 28. “I have always been a hoarder, […]
Barr made everyone clear the room, and the crew could hear “fighting of some sort” before everyone returned to production. The fight started up again, but things changed the second time around.
“They both go back in the room where we hear yelling and people banging off the walls. Then it gets quiet. Then, too quiet,” Apatow wrote. “Somehow we all came to the conclusion they started having sex. A little while later they both came out of the room happy as can be, and Roseanne shot her cameo.”
Ozzy Osbourne’s AA Run-In With Matthew Perry
Ozzy Osbourne’s posthumous memoir, Last Rites, was a laugh-out-loud romp through his days in Black Sabbath and as a solo artist, but he also shared candid revelations about his health and addiction battles. In one poignant recollection, Osbourne said that the late Matthew Perry used to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings at the Osbourne house.
“He used to come to our house for AA meetings, or so my wife tells me,” Osbourne wrote in the October book. “The funniest, most talented bloke. And he was trying so hard to stay on the right path.”
The late rocker went on to say that he was heartbroken when Perry died of an accidental ketamine overdose in 2023. “Then one day he listened to his addiction telling him it was OK to get loaded, and that was it — game over,” Osbourne said. “I felt so sad when they said he’d been found in his hot tub, unresponsive, with ketamine in his system. He’d given everything he had to stay clean. But it wasn’t enough.”
Paul McCartney Got Too Stoned to Meet Bob Marley
In the November oral history, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, Paul McCartney detailed his time with his second band, which lasted from 1971 to 1982. While the book was full of revelations about his fellow Beatles and Wings members, one of the funniest anecdotes was his recollection of the time he almost met reggae icon Bob Marley.
McCartney said he was a huge fan but passed on his one chance to speak with Marley, for a very ironic reason. “He was playing in London, and to tell you the truth, I was going to see him, but I got high beforehand,” the Grammy winner wrote. “I got paranoid and thought, ‘No, I can’t meet him.’ Just one of those things. Can you believe that marijuana kept me from meeting Bob Marley?”
Tina Knowles’ Many Revelations About Her Famous Daughters
Tina Knowles’ April memoir, Matriarch, is a moving account of her childhood in Texas as well as the ups and downs in her marriage to Mathew Knowles. Fans of her daughters, however, were most excited by the tea she dropped about Beyoncé and Solange. Writing about Solange’s pregnancy, Tina revealed that she tried to convince her younger daughter, then 17, not to marry Daniel Smith and called her future son-in-law to talk it over.
“He called us back, crying. ‘She said, F*** you, and f*** my mama, and f*** Angie [Beyincé] because I know they put you up to this,’ ” Tina recalled Smith saying. “Solange hung up in his face, and then disappeared for two days. We were scared to death, and even if a disappearing act was always Solange’s way, I was so mad.”
Solange ultimately married Smith anyway, and they welcomed son Julez in October 2004. (She divorced Smith in 2007.)
As for Beyoncé, Tina recalled how difficult it was to keep her mouth shut when rumors circulated that her eldest daughter used a surrogate to welcome Blue Ivy after secretly experiencing multiple miscarriages. Tina called that speculation “some of the stupidest s***” she’d ever seen, writing, “I wanted to curse some people out and scream at these losers to set the record straight. They had no idea what she and Jay, and our whole family, had been through. It was one of the worst times that Beyoncé would not allow me to speak publicly.”
