Christie Brinkley announces memoir ‘Uptown Girl’ about ‘whirlwind career’ and 4 ‘tumultuous marriages’

NEW YORK (AP) — Christie Brinkley will have a memoir out this spring, tracing “every adventure and twist of fate” from her rise to becoming a supermodel to her acting career to her marriage to Billy Joel.

And, yes, she’s calling the book “Uptown Girl.”

“I wrote ‘Uptown Girl’ to inspire readers to create the life they want, which is what I’ve always tried to do, not through fortune or fame, but by saying yes to adventure and trying to find the magic in every moment, no matter how big or how small,” Brinkley said in a statement Tuesday released through Harper Influence, which will publish her book on April 29.

Brinkley, who turned 71 this week, has been a celebrity for half a century, since she was discovered in Paris by photographer Errol Sawyer.

Her image has appeared on hundreds of magazine covers, from Sports Illustrated to Vogue.

She’s also known for such films as “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” her turn on Broadway as Roxie Hart in “Chicago,” and her cameo in the 1983 video of Joel’s “Uptown Girl,” a top 10 hit widely associated with her. (Joel has cited Brinkley and fellow supermodel Elle McPherson as inspirations.)

Brinkley has been married four times, most recently to Peter Cook, whom she divorced in 2008.

According to Harper Influence, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, she will reflect on “her whirlwind career, her four tumultuous marriages — including her heartbreaking divorce from Billy Joel — and the harrowing experiences (a 1994 helicopter crash) that almost cut her life short.”

“In ‘Uptown Girl,’ she chronicles the unexpected, unexplainable ways her life has unfolded,” Tuesday’s announcement continues, “embracing every adventure and twist of fate along the way: traveling the world as a supermodel at the height of the model wars, living life on the road with her rock star husband and their baby, starring in blockbuster movies, riding horses with cowboys, training with world-champion boxers, and even stepping into the spotlight on Broadway.”