192
She can’t stop momming no matter how
hard she tries, and when I send Tallulah a
text describing her mother feeling my head
in this lacy pink bedroom, she writes back
simply: “Safety.”
In Inside Out, Demi asks a very straight-
forward question with no easy answer: How
do you find safety if the ground is always
moving beneath you, if the goal posts keep
changing? “The kind of love I grew up with
was scary to need and painful to feel.” But
she found it, right where it had always been:
“Learning that I’m okay with just me was a
great gift I was able to give myself.”
The other gift is sobriety, something she
achieved in her 20 s, lost in her 40 s, and got
back as she headed into her 50 s. “In retro-
spect, what I realized is that when I opened
the door [again], it was just giving my power
away.” She pauses, the eventual headline
already forming between her brows, and
speaks slowly, turning each word over in
her palm. “I guess I would think of it like
this: It was really important to me to have
natural childbirth because I didn’t want to
miss a moment. And with that I experienced
pain. So part of being sober is, I don’t want
to miss a moment of life, of that texture,
even if that means being in—” She takes a
breath, then smiles. “Some pain.”
I’m in bed now, new shawl on. (Safety.)
She’s pacing outside my door, back and
forth to brush her teeth, and grab her beloved
can of Red Bull from the kitchen. (She
doesn’t apologize for what she
loves anymore.) The next morn-
ing I take a photo of her in that
darn pink bedroom, among her
Gucci and her Dil Pickles doll
and her script pages strewn across
the bed. “What kind of face do
you want?” she asks, before set-
tling into a half-grin. “Never
mind, I’ll just do me.” ■Demi Moore’s memoir, Inside Out (Harper
Books), hits bookshelves September 24. Her
latest film, Corporate Animals, will be released
September 20.DEMI
MOORE
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 162that one woman’s success helps other women
because it shows women can do the job.
When I’m trying to encourage women to
run, and I believe this is a major responsi-
bility that I have, I want them to have all the
confidence in the world because it takes
courage. It’s not for the faint of heart.”
Eleanor Roosevelt once said that women
run to make things happen, while men run
to win. Are women really different as leaders?
I wonder. Pelosi loves to count votes on the
floor and win, after all. “When I was grow-
ing up, they talked about something called
‘women’s intuition,’ and I really do believe
in that,’’ she replies. “Women evolved having
so many responsibilities that demanded deci-
sions. We use our time to get results.’’
Roosevelt also said that women in public
life must “develop a skin as thick as a
rhinoceros hide,’’ and Pelosi certainly has.
Before AOC became Fox’s favorite lefty
she-monster, Pelosi was the right’s favorite
punching bag. “If you’re effective, they’re
going to come after you,’’ she says. “They
wouldn’t have 37 , 000 ads against me if
I were not effective. Did you ever hear any-
body come to my defense? Never, right?
And I don’t want them to, and I don’t want
to spend one dollar countering anything
they say because I want to spend our money
to win elections. And I think my members
know that my purpose politically is for them
to get elected, not for me to be popular. And
sometimes when women make it more about
themselves, they become a target.’’
I note that when powerful women get
criticized, it often centers on their looks and
sexuality. Republicans have openly mocked
Pelosi as “Botox Nancy.” Says the speaker, “We
had this argument before I went to Africa,
where I was saying, ‘I’m not getting a typhoid
shot.’ And the doctor said, ‘You have to.’ And
I said, ‘You don’t understand, I don’t get shots.’
I mean, I hate needles. I don’t get a flu shot.
“Yeah, they’ll say, ‘She’s too busy getting
her face-lifts.’ And I think, ‘I have news for
you. This isn’t what it is.’” I tell her that I’ve
seen more male politicians getting Botox. “If
you want to look good, who cares?” she says.NANCY
PELOSI
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 190“If you use face cream or you use Botox,
what’s the difference? Botox isn’t even an
exotic thing. So many of my girlfriends want
it when their daughters are getting married.”
Of course, Trump stoops to petty trash-
ing of people’s looks more than any poli-
tician in history. He’s an equal-opportunity
slasher, belittling the appearances of both
men and women. “Understand this about
Trump,’’ Pelosi says. “He totally projects
everything. When he talks about Elijah
Cummings being a racist, he’s talking about
himself being a racist. When he talks about
looks, is that a normal-looking person, for
goodness’ sake?”
She pushed back on a congressional
reporter who asked her a few years ago if she
should retire, suggesting to him that he go
ask Mitch McConnell that. (Cher later did
the same thing, telling a man who asked her
if she was too old for rock ’n’ roll, “I don’t
know. Why don’t you ask Mick Jagger?”)
“I think age is a relative thing,’’ Pelosi tells
me. “It’s a reality, but the question should be
fairly asked. It shouldn’t just be a question
for women. I mean, really?”
Pelosi says she exercised like a demon after
the birth of each of her five children, but
then she gave it up. The doting grandmother
of nine has also given up her old habit of
splashing cold water on her face 30 times in
the morning and instead just relies on what
she calls her good Italian skin.
Pelosi’s youngest daughter, Alexandra,
marvels that her mother has no personal
staff—no hairdresser, makeup artist, or cook
to give a hand at home day to day. “I keep
thinking I’d like to have somebody help me
pack and get my clothes to the cleaners, and
help me go buy stuff at the gro-
cery store and pick up my laun-
dry,’’ she says. “But I just don’t
have time to think about it.’’
It’s almost sunset, and Pelosi
reluctantly leaves her Trinity
sanctuary. She doesn’t watch
much TV at night or have any
guilty pleasures on Netflix. She
might watch a ball game or just
do more work, taking advantage
of the fact that it’s earlier in California.
There might be some ice cream later. And
there will definitely be a prayer for the
president—and America. ■