"High On Arrival" by Mackenzie Phillips (**)

September 30, 2009 2:03 p.m. EST

Simon Spotlight Entertainment

304 pages

For a quick financial fix, many forgotten names of yesterday's celebrities flex their rumba skills on "Dancing With The Stars" while others take on small parts on long-time running television shows, do a few charity events here and there, and even make the talk-show circuit rounds promoting whatever new, obscure series they may have on a channel no where near the first 100 channels of your cablevision lineup. Former child actress Mackenzie Phillips, on the other hand and for one reason or another, decided to retell her life story up to her present moment - detailing her rapes, arrests, drug abuse, drug overdoses, lost childhood and overall instability - in a new book that proves to be as shocking as the claims she makes that her father John Phillips, of the Mamas and Papas, raped her and later had a consensual 10 year sexual relationship with his daughter.

Known mostly for her role as rebellious Julie Cooper on the hit 70s sitcom, "One Day at a Time," Phillips first shot to fame in her breakout role in "American Graffiti" in 1973. But due to her downward spiraling use of drugs and lack of parental guidance as her free-living hippie rock and roll father was mostly absent during her early teenage years and her mother was dealing with her own demons with alcohol abuse and violence, Phillips was left to fend on her own - and sometimes even literally - and had no one to turn to except for the drugs that were readily and daily available to her. Fired twice from "One Day at a Time" Phillips was at a low-point in her career and without any reliable source of income, she spent most of her twenties touring with her father in their newly-formed "The New Mamas and Papas" where her problems seemed to grow from bad to worse.

The book for the most part is a steady page-turner, and Phillips herself seems to be very honest and upfront about many of her first memories rolling joints for her legendary father at the age of ten, shooting up by the time she was 12, and living in an all-access kingdom that brought freedom and an abundance of drugs - but all of course, with a price. What's more astounding though is that Phillips herself, even though living more than half her life in a cloud-induced drug haze can actually retell some early episodes - moments she claims not to remember at all. But the turning point in her half-century of events is her revelation that on the night before her wedding, her father had raped her, with both of them being under the influence of heavy narcotics at the time. Phillips further claims that their incestuous relationship gradually happened for ten years until she became pregnant and her father paid for her to have an abortion and the relationship ended shortly thereafter.

The only problem with Phillips' story is that there is no one else to admit or deny her claims. Her father John passed away eight years ago of heart failure at the age of 65. Both of his ex-wives, Genevieve Waite and Michelle Phillips, deny any truth to their stepdaughter's claims, leaving in to question why Phillips decided to reveal these shocking revelations so late in her life.

Just as being re-hired after her first termination from "One Day at a Time," Phillips was given mass opportunities in her life, but perhaps because of the irresponsibility and irrationality that surrounded her, lost any chance handed to her during her mostly privileged existence. Most recently, Phillips was arrested last year at Los Angeles International Airport for cocaine and heroin possession. Whether she will ever remain sober and clean remains in question, as the book mostly seems like another celebrity memoir with a story to tell, but no real ending to it.

This book might have easily gone down three different paths: to enlighten people about the perils of heavy drug abuse, the downfalls of an extravagant life of a child born into rock and roll royalty, or to blame her father for everything that went wrong. Unfortunately the reader gets no sense of remorse or "spiritual epiphany" that most celebrities encounter after going down such a self-destructive road leading to no where. Phillips is honest (even though that statement is only held to her own accountability), but it ends right there.

Perhaps it would have been a better idea to invest in a few good years of therapy and counseling before making controversial allegations openly to the world that would result in hurting her family and those around that love her. Openly extending her agony and pain to those close to her in a book and countless tell-all interviews might not seem like the answer this oftentimes unemployed actress could be looking for to solve the troubles of her past. But whether her story is strong enough to help similar victims as herself, which Phillips gives very little evidence in intention of doing, remains doubtful as well.