According to TMZ, excerpts from Joe Manganiello's memoir "Bloodlines," out Oct. 13 from Simon & Schuster, claim ex-wife Sofía Vergara refused to hug him and mocked his dog during his seven-year autoimmune battle. PEOPLE has the excerpts.
First, the mechanism. Six days before the book hits shelves, the marketing team drops the ex-wife chapter to the tabloids. The excerpt is not a leak, the excerpt is a funnel. PEOPLE "obtained" it, the publisher "happened to have" a copy, and the Bubbles chapter is now the trailer for a 320-page movie you cannot finish without paying. That is how a book tour works now: the worst part is the preview.
Now the content, which is a work of art. In a year when divorces are litigated in court documents, this man chose his weapons at a pet store. A 5-pound dog allegedly ridiculed by his ex is now the most important witness in the marriage. He cannot testify, he cannot file a countersuit, he cannot do a sit-down. "She mocked the dog" is a sentence that survives any defamation review, because the jury is the dog fanbase.
Then the two versions of the breakup. She says he wanted kids and she didn't want to be an "old mom." He now says he was the one who abandoned the idea. Both versions are true in exactly the way a trailer is true, which is to say not at all. October 13 is on the calendar and there is a chapter budget to fill.
YOUR TURN: a memoir excerpt about your ex or a court filing, which one do you think survives better by day two?
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