Carrie Fisher had a hysterical interview on “The Today Show” this morning while promoting her fifth book, “Wishful Drinking.” She freely discusses being bipolar, having addiction issues, and being married to a gay man. My favorite anecdote was her telling the story of her mother, actress Debbie Reynolds, having Cary Grant call her to tell her not to do drugs after finding out Fisher had tried LSD.

Lauer asked her to talk about when she started experimenting with drugs, and Fisher laughed at the image that conjured. “ ‘Experiment with drugs’ is hilarious,” she said. “I ran out of the lab with beakers.”

When she started doing LSD, Debbie Reynolds called a friend who had tried LSD under a doctor’s supervision. The man was Hollywood icon Cary Grant, who dutifully called Fisher.

“What did he say?” Lauer asked.

“Don’t eat acid,” Fisher said drily.

When her father, Eddie Fisher later learned about his daughter’s drug use, he, too, called Grant, who called her a second time with the same advice.

[From MSNBC]

Fisher also raved about electroconvulsive therapy, and dryly suggested that everyone try it. Though she admits she lost the memory of four months of her life, she said it was worth it because at her age, nothing’s going to happen that’s that interesting anyway.

Fisher was equally funny talking about her manic depression, or bipolar disorder. When word of her condition got out, her mother objected, calling Fisher to tell her, “You’re not mentally ill, you’re manic depressive.”

Fisher said her disorder resisted all drugs and therapy, and she finally found relief through electroconvulsive therapy, commonly known as electroshock, which applies an electric current to the brain. Decades ago the therapy carried a lot of negative implications, but Fisher said psychiatrists have dialed the voltage down and patients don’t really go into convulsions. “I loved it because it worked,” she said.

However, getting treatments three days a week for several weeks, she added, leaves the patient with gaps in memory. As the brain recalibrates, everything comes back except for about four months, she explained.

When Lauer expressed amazement at her assertion that losing four months wasn’t a big deal, Fisher was blase. “What’s going to happen in four months at my age that’s not going to happen in another four months?”

[From MSNBC]

My favorite line was when Carrie was talking to Al Roker about neck fat, and then said that weight is harder for women, noting, “We have two fat cells to your one to keep fetuses warm,” she said. “I say give us a blanket.” Her humor is very dry but her overall message was very clear: you’ve got to lighten up and laugh when hard stuff happens, and use your sense of humor to fight it.