Jayne Kennedy’s New Memoir Is Far From Plain, But Could Have Been Exceptional
A quarter of a century in the making, the legendary Jayne Kennedy’s long-awaited memoir, PLAIN JAYNE, has finally hit the shelves.
Is it worth the wait?
For the most part, yes.
The veteran sportscaster / actress / fitness guru deftly walks readers through her journey from her beginning in rural Ohio to the pinnacle of celebrity and international success. She details stories of her marriages, some of which will stop readers in their tracks. She outlines personal details of health setbacks that are partially responsible for sidelining her career.
And she shares joyous tales of raising her own beautiful children that remind me that I should have added “mother” to her titles at the beginning of this paragraph. After reading PLAIN JAYNE, it’s clear that “mom” is Kennedy’s most successful role.
But Kennedy, a first time writer, also name drops like nobody’s business. In assembling PLAIN JAYNE, she would have benefitted by the help of a better editor who might have advised her that readers might not be best served by hearing, multiple times, what a good friend The Fifth Dimensions’ Lamont Maclemore is, for example.
Several of her stories about what it was like for her and her first husband, Leon Isaac Kennedy, to move to Hollywood and try to get their careers launched, are repeated throughout PLAIN JAYNE. Confoundingly, other stories (like the heartbreaking one of the fate of her younger brother) are given a single, far too brief paragraph.
Speaking of Leon, yes, Kennedy writes about the infamous sex tape that is the other reason her career was sidelined. The pain that Kennedy endured — and, possibly, is still enduring — is palpable in PLAIN JAYNE, as is the legend’s bruised ego about not being remembered, appreciated, and even revered as much as she might like. This is despite her acknowledgment that she consciously stepped out of the spotlight in the wake of the sex tape scandal, and isolated herself from even her closest of friends for well over a decade.
“Perhaps I have to take some of the blame myself,” Kennedy writes of the perceived collective cultural amnesia about her.
Perhaps she does.
In PLAIN JAYNE, Kennedy candidly shares at least a few stories that are difficult to process.
According to her, she was to have played Clair Huxtable on the classic 80s sitcom THE COSBY SHOW. NBC executives allegedly thought she was too young to play the wife of the character to be played by Bill Cosby. (Kennedy is three years younger than Phylicia Rashad, the Emmy-winning actress who brought Claire to life.)
Contrary to popular opinion, Kennedy writes that ex-husband Leon didn’t leak the sex tape: his cousin did, and shared that with Jayne on his death bed. Given that, it’ll be hard to fact check that one.
That same ex-husband, according to Kennedy, managed to always get the key to her homes, purchased or rented, after they’d divorced and she’d changed the locks on the house.
Those and other narrative glitches notwithstanding, PLAIN JAYNE delivers. It’s a heartfelt book from a woman that a whole generation of men, and certainly black men, adored. It’s really great to finally hear directly from the source on stories that have been talked about in barber shops for decades. The new book is a great read that details the successes and challenges of a trailblazing black woman in the entertainment industry.
With a stronger editor, it could have been an excellent one.
Connect with freelance writer Michael P Coleman at michaelpcoleman.com
