Chances are, if you're famous enough to have an authorised biography, you're famous enough to have some bad publicity as a result of it.

As Simon Cowell has recently discovered following last week's publication of Tom Bower's Sweet Revenge: The Intimate Life Of Simon Cowell, secrets you didn't even know you kept can raise their ugly heads when somebody else writes your life story. And as authors and publishers have long learned, reading gossip about celebrities - true or otherwise - makes for great book sales.

Cowell (or indeed, Dannii Minogue) isn't the first victim of the unauthorised biography, and nor will he be the last. We've rummaged around to find the most scandalous celebrity life stories - authorised and unauthorised. Whether you believe their tall tales or not, chances are you'll want to check at least one out from your local library.

Any we've missed? Let us know below...

Elvis, by Albert Goldman

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Albert Goldman may have written his book Elvis based on four years of research, but the accusations levelled at its title star were dubious, to say the least. Presley was accused of being insane, homosexual and a plagiarist - which critics used as reasons to suggest Goldman simply disliked the star. As well as announcing, "Elvis was a pervert, a voyeur.", Goldman criticised Elvis's weight and costume choice. Elvis does contain one revelation, however - that Elvis's manager was Dutch, rather than from the deep South of America, something Presley himself had no idea about until the book was published.

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Albert Goldman may have written his book Elvis based on four years of research, but the accusations levelled at its title star were dubious, to say the least.

Presley was accused of being insane, homosexual and a plagiarist - which critics used as reasons to suggest Goldman simply disliked the star. As well as announcing, "Elvis was a pervert, a voyeur.", Goldman criticised Elvis's weight and costume choice.

Elvis does contain one revelation, however - that Elvis's manager was Dutch, rather than from the deep South of America, something Presley himself had no idea about until the book was published.

Elvis, by Albert Goldman

 

1

 / 10

SHARE THIS SLIDE

Albert Goldman may have written his book Elvis based on four years of research, but the accusations levelled at its title star were dubious, to say the least. Presley was accused of being insane, homosexual and a plagiarist - which critics used as reasons to suggest Goldman simply disliked the star. As well as announcing, "Elvis was a pervert, a voyeur.", Goldman criticised Elvis's weight and costume choice. Elvis does contain one revelation, however - that Elvis's manager was Dutch, rather than from the deep South of America, something Presley himself had no idea about until the book was published.

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