Jerry Lewis had a reputation of just being mean. In the book he wrote after Dean Martin died, he blamed their split completely on Martin. He also admitted that he routinely cheated on his wife, and considered it acceptable and normal for men who were away from home a lot. I remember reading a funny book years ago, about airline stewardesses. It was called Coffee, Tea or Me?, I think. The stewardesses who wrote it specifically called out Lewis as one of the most unpleasant celebrities they dealt with.
He writes books in the same vein as Hillary.
“In the book he wrote after Dean Martin died, he blamed their split completely on Martin.”
That isn’t how I remember it. The book was called Dean & Me: A Love Story. From Publishers Weekly’s review:
The duo’s fascinating kinship—Lewis idolized his partner, while Martin was aloof—has been chronicled in Shawn Levy’s King of Comedy and Nick Tosches’s Dino, but Lewis wants to give his late partner the credit he feels critics missed by always praising the “the monkey” rather than the straight man. Untangling the complicated union, Lewis doesn’t spare himself, admitting that when the team’s relationship unraveled (they weren’t speaking between scenes on their last film), he became a bully on set and made others the brunt of the anger he couldn’t vent at Martin. Lewis is a wonderful raconteur, and his tales capture the excitement of their budding career and the slow, sad erosion of the fun. Whether it’s his age (Lewis is 79) or his coauthor (Kaplan co-wrote John McEnroe’s You Cannot Be Serious), fans will be surprised and entertained by Lewis’s honesty and diminished ego and bitterness.
From Booklist:
But despite attempts to manage their egos and to handle the other pressures that come from living a fast life, eventually the magic began to fade and the two finally called it quits in 1956. After parting ways, both achieved great solo success: Martin becoming a member of the famous Rat Pack and Lewis a successful writer, producer, and director. Although they never really worked together again, Lewis maintains that he never stopped loving Dean Martin, and indeed this book is an adoring tribute to the man.