Soap Opera Weekly
June 5, 2007
Buzz

Soap insiders are chuckling over David Hasselhoff’s autobiography, which was just released in the States (after being printed first in England). Titled Don’t Hassel the Hoff, the book is chock full of soap references and stories from his days as Snapper Foster on The Young and the Restless, a period of his life during which he credits Jeanne Cooper [Katherine] as his acting coach and thanks her for her “friendship and dedication.”

Hasselhoff also talks about meeting, marrying and divorcing Catherine Hickland (Lindsay, One Life to Live) which doesn’t ring quite as true. For one thing, Hasselhoff describes the soap Hickland was on when he met her as “a pre-Civil war costume drama,” which of course it wasn’t – Texas was a spin-off of Another World. As for some of the other details, Hasselhoff writes that after Baywatch was a hit, Hickland (by then his ex-wife) sent him a bouquet of flowers with a note that said, “Congrats on Baywatch. It was great and you were great in it,” and goes on to speculate, “Could she possibly want a part on Baywatch? Go figure. But by then I wasn’t playing that game anymore.”

Hickland prefers not to respond to anything in the book, and in fact has never spoken publicly about her marriage to Hasselhoff. But a long-time friend of hers offers, “Catherine sent him flowers when he got Baywatch to show some class and good will toward someone she once loved. He wouldn’t understand that, of course.” As for Hasselhoff’s stated reasons for their breakup in his tome, Hickland’s friend says, “I think recent events regarding David’s lifestyle speak for themselves.”

Judge for yourself. Don’t Hassel the Hoff is in bookstores now.