Matthew Perry is revealing ALL the dirty behind-the-scenes details in his new book!
The Friends alum is set to release his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing on Friday. Of course, we’ve been reporting quite a bit on excerpts that have already been released to the public. And there’s one more coming now — a tall tale about the sitcom star’s alleged dalliance with Valerie Bertinelli!!
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For this one, the actor goes all the way back to 1990. That year, he was starring on the short-lived sitcom Sydney. Valerie was the lead on that show, playing a private eye, while Matthew was her on-screen brother. But off screen, he was a mess with love and lust for Eddie Van Halen‘s wife!! In a new excerpt shared with Page Six, the man who so famously played Chandler Bing recalled how he fell for the actress while things were apparently not going so well between her and the Van Halen rocker:
“I fell madly in love with Valerie Bertinelli, who was clearly in a troubled marriage. My crush was crushing; not only was she way out of my league, but she was also married to one of the most famous rock stars on the planet, Eddie Van Halen.”
For a while, as the two became close professionally while working on the set of the show, the romance was a one-sided thing. Perry explained:
“It is important to point out here that my feelings for Valerie were real. I was completely captivated — I mean, I was obsessed with her and harbored elaborate fantasies about her leaving Eddie Van Halen and living out the rest of her days with me.”
But then, one night, everything changed. The sitcom vet recalled how he was hanging out at Valerie and Eddie’s place when the rock-and-roll star had a bit too much to drink and passed out. Sensing his moment had come to woo Bertinelli, Perry made a shocking move despite the TV star’s marriage commitment and close-by husband:
“I was over at Valerie and Eddie’s house, just hanging out and gazing at Valerie, trying to make her laugh. When you made her laugh, you felt ten feet tall. As the night progressed, it was clear that Eddie had enjoyed the fruits of the vine a little too hard, one more time, and eventually he just passed out, not ten feet away from us, but still. This was my chance!”
OMG!!
And… it worked?! The 17 Again star wrote how Valerie gave back the energy he was giving her as the two began to lock lips in a steamy embrace:
“If you think I didn’t actually have a chance in hell you’d be wrong, dear reader — Valerie and I had a long, elaborate make-out session. It was happening — maybe she felt the same way I did. I told her I had thought about doing that for a long time, and she had said it right back to me.”
Long and elaborate?! So wild! And again, Eddie Van Halen was passed out, like, RIGHT THERE!!!
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The next day, Matthew confided in Sydney co-star Craig Bierko about what had happened. The UnREAL alum warned his pal to be careful with Bertinelli’s marriage, which is good advice Perry probably could have used 24 hours before… On set though, Valerie went along as if nothing had happened:
“[Valerie] made no mention of what had happened and was behaving — as she should have been — like this was just a normal day. I quickly got the hint and also played the role I was supposed to, but inside I was devastated.”
That hurts…
Perry admitted he spent “many a tearful night” over the de facto rejection after getting so close to the woman for whom he’d been pining. Thankfully for him, though, Sydney was canceled. That failure allowed everyone involved to move on:
“The show did very badly, and I was so grateful that four weeks after that fateful night, Sydney got canceled, and I didn’t have to see Valerie anymore.”
Jeez. What a story!!
Related: Perry Recalls How Jennifer Aniston Confronted Him About His Addiction
And it’s one Valerie has already responded to, too! The 62-year-old actress took to TikTok on Wednesday with an eyebrow-raising video. In it, she didn’t mention Perry or his forthcoming memoir, but she did suggest some dirty past deeds! While playing Taylor Swift‘s Anti-Hero in the background, the One Day At a Time star smiled awkwardly to the camera, waved, and put her hands in her face while this suggestive caption shot out over the screen:
“Anyone else misbehave in their 20’s and early 30’s? Are you mortified?”
Ch-ch-check it out for yourself (below):
@realwolfiesmom
Whoa!!
Do we simply brush off cheating as “misbehaving” now?? Seems a bit disrespectful considering the rocker’s tragic death, one their son Wolfgang Van Halen has openly struggled with. Sigh. Like we noted up top, Perry’s memoir hits stores on Friday. Will U be buying it up to indulge in more of his old, shocking escapades like these, Perezcious readers??
[Image via FayesVision/PNP/WENN]
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