MY GORGEOUS LIFE: The Life, the Loves,...

MY GORGEOUS LIFE: The Life, the Loves, the Legend by Dame Edna Everage (Dell: $11.95; 284 pp.). The toast of what remains of the British Empire, Dame Edna Everage (the alter-ego of Barry Humphries) has gone beyond mere stardom to become a veritable nova. Although she assures the reader that “Gorgeous” is not “just another showbiz autobiography written by a ghost for some stupid empty-headed glamourpuss,” her memoir ranks as the most outrageous send-up of Hollywood books since Patrick Dennis’ “Little Me.” As she chronicles her rise to megastardom, Dame Edna mercilessly lampoons the cliches of the genre, littering the text with dropped names and barbed observations. Although she could have inspired Rogers and Hammerstein to pen “There Is Nothing Like a Dame,” Everage accepts adoration with becoming modesty, noting, “I would probably be the reincarnation of Mother Theresa except that she’s still alive.”