50 Shades of Chelsea Handler

The stand-up comedian, known in the books world for her best-selling, vodka-soaked tales of debauchery, is publishing a massive book of "bigger stories, smaller type," titled 50 Shades of Chartreuse: This Time It's Personal. Handler's fourth book will be published under her imprint, A Chelsea Handler Book/Borderline Amazing, which has already published Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me, a collection of stories about Handler by her friends and family. Handler is the host of the late-night talk show Chelsea Lately and the mockumentary show After Lately, both on E!, where she has talked about everything from her relationship with rapper 50 Cent to being attacked by a sea lion in the Pacific Ocean. "This sounds to me like one big wiki leak," Handler jokes in the release. 

The 50 Shades of Grey phenomenon has many fans— Chelsea Handler is not among them. Nor does she probably care about the upcoming movie adaptation of E.L. James' hot, erotic best-seller, or about the film's equally steamy list of actors and actresses currently imagined for the roles of Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele. One could say, it's just not this comedian's cup of tea, or shot of vodka, as the case may be. "It was insulting to anyone's intelligence to read that," Handler boldly proclaimed of the hit book when she finally visited Piers Morgan's eponymous talk show, as CNN reports. "Then my friends who had suggested that I read it, I e-mailed them like, 'you should be ashamed of yourselves for finishing this kind of book. It's a piece of trash.' "In a statement, Beth de Guzman, the VP, Editor-in-Chief of the paperbacks division at GC, who acquired the book joked, "The new book is groundbreaking. Bigger stories, smaller type. We can't wait to publish it.” 

It is strange, though, as Handler might seem to be one to really embrace the Grey area. After all, the late-night TV host is provocative and boundaries-pushing; she packs a salty sense of humor; she's not shy to traipse on the raunchy side; and she certainly isn't afraid to throw a figurative whip of her own around sometimes. Sounds like a perfect equation for some Grey and Steele action. But, as a best-selling author herself (Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea and Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang are among her sassy works), Handler's biggest beef with the book seems to be on the quality control side; she has a different perspective on the printed word, and she simply cannot handle James' style. "I don't profess to be ... a scholarly writer per se. I know my books are really silly and stupid, but I at least think they're amusing to some degree. [50 Shades of Grey] was just so poorly written," she said.

However, while Chelsea Handler may never be a Fifty aficionado nor queuing for a midnight screening of Grey whenever it premieres in movie theaters, she's still a rather brilliant marketer and is using the "piece of trash" to her advantage. Her upcoming read she conveniently named, 50 Shades of Chartreuse: This Time It's Personal, admitting, she "just wanted to rip off the title because [she] just thought it was such a stupid book." Stupid book or not, it was probably a smart, copycat move on Handler's part. Who wouldn't want to embrace a few more shades of color and delve into a green day that's sure to pack its own measure of sexy spice? The book has been out for a month now and makes a GREAT holiday gift!