Growing up in a Beverly Hills mansion, well-fed, well-educated and well-traveled - what could be more perfect? But absentee father Eddie Fisher, an alcoholic and self-confessed drug addict, and sexpot mother Connie Stevens, introducing a succession of men into her life, made growing up very complicated. Childhood was emotional and problem filled. Having so vivacious a mother produced jealousy and an eating disorder and, by adolescence, she was overweight and playing the "fat friend" in summer stock and on TV. Entertaining was, however, in her blood, and her first show business gig was in Las Vegas at the age of 7. Two years later, she and her sister, Tricia Leigh Fisher, joined her mother in a nightclub act. Travel became a part of her life as the act toured the world. Schooling was sporadic, with many different schools and tutors until high school, when she and Tricia entered Beverly Hills High School. But, even there, the fast-lane, experimenting with drinking, drugs, smoking. Also, after-school jobs in an ice cream parlor and as a receptionist. A semester at the University of Paris was followed by Emerson College, but she left before graduating to start a serious acting career. Her weight cost her parts - she went into therapy, lost weight, and turned the career corner with I'll Do Anything (1994). On the personal front, she re-established relations with her father by "dropping in", unannounced, in New York as she was traveling to the University of Paris, and forced her way into his life.
