Hendra, Jessica 1965-

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Hendra, Jessica 1965-

PERSONAL:

Born May 9, 1965, in New York, NY; daughter of Tony (a writer and editor) and Judith Hendra; married Kurt Fuller (an actor), December 24, 1993; children: Julia and Charlotte. Education: Attended Sarah Lawrence College and Central School of Speech and Drama.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Los Angeles, CA. Agent— Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc., 65 Bleecker St., New York, NY 10012. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Actress and writer. Actress on television shows, including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, 1995; Mad about You, 1998; Working, 1999; and Malcolm in the Middle, 2003.

WRITINGS:

(With Blake Morrison) How to Cook Your Daughter (memoir), Regan Books (New York, NY), 2005.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Book about the idiosyncrasies of everyday life in Hollywood.

SIDELIGHTS:

Aside from her writing, Jessica Hendra achieved some success as an actress on various television shows, including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She is also the daughter of Tony Hendra, longtime editor of the National Lampoon. It is her relationship with her father, however, that has garnered her the most attention in the press. In 2004 her father published a book, Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul, about how his faith helped him to atone for the past wrongdoings of his life. Jessica Hendra felt that one crucial event was left out of the book and decided to tell her side of the story in her memoir, How to Cook Your Daughter. In it she tells how her father sexually molested her on three separate occasions before she was ten years old. An article in the Los Angeles Times quoted an earlier article in the New York Times, in which her father denies he ever molested her. He said: "I can only just categorically deny this. It's not a new allegation. It's simply not true, I'm afraid."

How to Cook Your Daughter was reviewed by critics, although many did not comment beyond the actual controversy of the unproven allegations. Kathryn Harrison noted the sensitivity of the issue in her review in Publishers Weekly. "Reviewing a book like Jessica Hendra's is a tricky proposition," Harrison cautioned, but remarked that due to the large number of similar books published on parental molestation, the only reason to read this book would be "to discover her side of the bitter conflict that erupted in the wake of her father's publishing an account of spiritual awakening that failed to acknowledge what she considers his greatest sin." A critic writing in Kirkus Reviews felt that the memoir was "a polished and touching piece of work" to the point of being "uncommonly fair and evenhanded." Carolyn See's review in the Washington Post concluded that "after reading How to Cook Your Daughter, you can only feel stinging pity for father and daughter both."