In the pantheon of great Hollywood legends, there are many mother-daughter pairs who have graced the screen: Garland and Minnelli, Bergman and Rossellini, Reynolds and Fisher. And then there’s Laura Dern and Diane Ladd, a dynamic duo who not only worked together but also seemed to genuinely like each other. HONEY, BABY, MINE is both a tribute to their relationship and a walk down the industry’s memory lane from their personal and intimate perspective.

"While they may walk in the limelight with a host of other mother-daughter acting royals, Laura Dern and Diane Ladd show us that they are human beings with foibles and fears, loves and losses, humor and hurt."

This project rose from a daughter’s love and concern for her mother. Ladd’s diagnosis of a life-threatening lung disease saw Dern jump into caretaker mode quickly, encouraging her mother --- sometimes against resistance --- to take daily walks to better her lung capacity. These walks evolved into revealing, often funny and painful conversations about their shared love of acting, their love lives, and their fears and motivations. These exchanges were recorded; along with brief personal pieces written by each, they became the basis for this lovely book, laid out on the page not unlike a script.

For fans of Hollywood and tales of bygone actors, their stories don’t disappoint. But don’t read HONEY, BABY, MINE for salacious details (there are very few) so much as for the reverence to be found in their shared tales of the greats who walked on screen and boards. These consummate actors spend a great deal of time dissecting their craft and the changes they have witnessed in the arts. They heap love on co-stars, directors and crews.

But for me, I think the true beauty of this shared reflection is how much we see of them as genuine, relatable people. They are both mothers and daughters, and their revelations about those familial roles are lovingly shared. From Dern’s painful divorce (echoed in Ladd’s own divorce from Dern’s father) to the very real trials of balancing a successful acting career with the toughest job of all --- raising children --- they expose so much about how they each, and sometimes together, traversed the ups and downs of lives fully led. To be honest, I wanted more.  

Which is not to say that the book was lacking. It wasn’t. I so enjoyed their back and forth and how they delved into wounds and delights with equal candor. They introduce us to other members of the family through tales of betrayal (Ladd’s father’s promiscuity) and loyalty (Ladd’s mother’s caring for a young Dern while Ladd worked). We see genuine remorse in what they feel they have missed out on, as well as joy in watching each other succeed. There is real love on the page and all that this entails.

While they may walk in the limelight with a host of other mother-daughter acting royals, Laura Dern and Diane Ladd show us that they are human beings with foibles and fears, loves and losses, humor and hurt. (Secretly, I hope Dern does a second book with her dad, Bruce Dern.)