Baxter Hates Birney?
Meredith Baxter's autobiography, Untied: A Memoir of Family, Fame, and Floundering, has received a flurry of media attention over her allegations that her ex-husband, actor David Birney, was mentally and physically abusive to her. Birney, clearly not wanting to join Charlie and Mel in the pantheon of horrible husbands, hotly denies these allegations and calls her book "a kind of fairy tale." Baxter, somewhat disingenuously, has expressed surprise and some regret that the media has focused so heavily on this part of her book. Watch Baxter interviewed on Canada AM. Read Rob Salem's article from the Star.
Baxter and Birney starred together in the 70s sitcom, Bridget Loves Bernie, a shortlived but critically-acclaimed series about an interfaith marriage. Baxter was also in the television series, Family. However, Baxter is best known for her role as Elyse Keaton in the long-running 80s show, Family Ties (co-stars Michael Gross and Michael J. Fox have expressed support for Baxter).
This blonde's latest bombshell comes on the heels of her coming out as a lesbian in 2009. Her harsher critics suggest that her revelations have returned a somewhat forgotten television star back to the public eye. Others are more wary of her 12-step-ishness. Sarah Hampson writes in the Globe, " … her [Baxter] candour is her shtick, which she touts like a new religion."
Nevertheless, Baxter's bio will be of interest to readers who remember her as the television 'mom' of the 70s and 80s (a precursor to the millenium mom, Claire Dunphy, in Modern Family) and to those who find her story of surviving abuse and alcoholism inspiring.
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