Hollywood Heir Randy Spelling To Appear At Portland Bookstore

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Friday, July 17, 2015

Byron Beck, GoLocalPDX Features Editor

Former Hollywood celebutante and current Portland-based life coach Randy Spelling will read and sign his book on Friday, July 17, at New Renaissance Bookstore in Northwest Portland from 7 to 8:30 pm.

This will be Spelling’s first Portland reading for his first book “Unlimiting You” and the 36-year-old is curious who just might show up for it.

Spelling is fully aware that people are curious about his family and, in turn, himself.

After all, Randy is the blue-eyed, angel-faced son of one Hollywood’s most prolific television entertainment producers of all time—the late, great Aaron Spelling ("Love Boat," "Fantasy Island," "Charlie's Angels" among many others). He’s also the brother of Tori Spelling, of “90210” and reality television fame. And his mom Candy is as well known for her infamous “wrapping room” in their beautiful L.A. mansion they once all lived in as she is for her "rich-and-famous" lifestyle and philanthropy.   

Our current celebrity obsessed culture isn’t what drives Spelling, although it almost killed him.

From an early age this sensitive self-described “mama’s boy” felt the pressure to succeed financially on and off the screen. He felt he had no other choice and that he was locked in the velvet cuffs of what from, on the outside, looked like might be the most fabulous life ever. 

It wasn’t.

And to numb his nerves, Spelling ended up heading down the path of self-destruction. High on drugs one too many times, he ended up being the last thing he ever wanted to be: a stereotypical Hollywood rich kid cliche.

“I always thought I would end up in the entertainment business as a producer,” said Spelling over coffee on July 15th in the corner of Southeast’s Coava coffee, one of his favorite places to grab a decaf espresso in Portland. “It was always pressed upon me that that was what I was going to do—follow in the footsteps of my father.” But Randy knew in his heart that was not what he wanted to do. The pressure came to a boiling point and Spelling—in the the throes of destroying himself—knew he had to choose to live or he was going to die, a point he speaks to at length in his book. “I remember getting on my knees and asking God, the universe, my late father, to help me.”

That breaking point in his young life led Spelling to recovery and what he calls a "re-discovery of self." It also led him to something else. “Meditation saved my life,” said Spelling. 

Randy Spelling is now a ICF Certified Life Coach, motivational speaker, and now, author. 

So what's a “life coach" and how does it apply to this former television star turned wellness expert who started his own company "Being In Flow." 

“I think of myself as a perspective coach,” said Spelling. “I help people make improvements in their lives.”

One of Spelling’s biggest personal improvements is when he personally decided to leave Los Angeles and move north to Portland around five years ago. “I saw Portland in a magazine, and the author made it sound so great, I had to check it out.”

Spelling nows lives a relatively quiet life in Southeast Portland with his wife, Leah, and his daughters, Sage, 4, and Lotus, 2. He’s rarely recognized in Portland and doesn’t get hit up too much by Hollywood for acting gigs, although he does hear from one particular show every time casting time comes around. “Dancing with the Stars” keeps asking me if I want to do their show,” said Spelling. He continues to politely decline their offer. 

Randy, who says he texts his sister and mom often, and keeps in touch with his family “enough,” only goes back to Los Angeles when he absolutely has to. “I love Portland,” said Spelling. “When I am here I never want to leave it.”  To that end, he has left all the trappings of his old Hollywood life behind him as well. Unlike pretty much every other "star" in the universe, Spelling keeps everything pretty simple. He arrived at the interview without an entourage or a publicist. He drives his own car. H answers his own emails. He even does his own grocery shopping. "Who else is going to do it?" he asked.  

Randy Spelling is just a regular, normal guy who wants to help other people live their best lives. But he's also savvy enough to know there might be a time in his life when he will return to Los Angeles and the “family biz.” “It feels like I have lived two separate lives," said Spelling. "The way I grew up in mansions and my mom's place and living the life I live now."

"When I was the ‘cabana boy’ on “90210” and doing reality television I wasn’t living my authentic self," says Spelling. He refers to those as some of the darkest days of my life and has no interest in ever re-visiting them. "If I do go back into television I want to move the consciousness forward and carry my father’s legacy in a different way."

Spelling lives a fairly-open-yet-somehow-still-private, passionate life in Portland and appreciates the joy it has given him and his family, although he does have his moments when being in Los Angeles made finding particular items just a little bit easier. “I never read (tabloid) magazines,” said Spelling. “But recently I was looking for a particular magazine and couldn’t find it anywhere in Portland. You have to love Portland for that.”

Randy Spelling will read from and sign his book, "Unlimiting You," at the New Renaissance Bookstore, 1338 NW 23rd Ave., 503-224-4929, 7pm-8:30pm Fri., July 17th.

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