Donald Sutherland’s book was set to be released today, but was quietly rescheduled to be released February 3rd, 2026.
Well, the article I just read suggests it’s because he got “too candid” about his sexual relationships.
I read an article from earlier this year that Kiefer and the family had not yet read the book because Donald was still editing it three days before his passing.
I’ve seen nothing thus far of the family commenting on this news.
Frankly, it should come as no surprise that he would be so open on the page.
He was a reasonably private man, but not terribly shy about his past. He also notoriously spoke “in paragraphs,” which was amplified in his letter writing.
If anything, this feels like an attempt to stifle some of his last words.
Something which I feel is INCREDIBLY DISRESPECTFUL to his memory.
Donald was larger than life and you can’t just water down his life because it MIGHT not be appropriate for all audiences.
Donald was someone who kept little to himself if he got comfortable around you. There’s a rather nice interview from Playboy that illustrates this perfectly. (It includes mentions of the first time he masturbated, the first time he kissed a girl, and the thing he regretted most about his life up until that point was that he hadn’t had more sex, just to give you a clue)
The man was open to notes, but I can guarantee they’ll be pulling far more information from it than he would approve.
And the article had the AUDACITY to suggest his openness in the book was due to his being ill (in whatever way he was ill).
There’s article upon article with snippets of stories about his sex life, and that’s just the ones approved for the general public who would be reading those magazines.
The man’s life, even when not behind closed doors, was hardly PG.
An interaction with one of the stars of “Die! Die! My Darling!” (Not while working on that particular project, if I recall correctly), working with Federico Fellini, a rather uncomfortably intimate, heavily choreographed “sex” scene expertly edited by Nic Roeg to trick the brain into seeing what isn’t actually there, Donald’s bare ass being shown as a joke for the rushes that ultimately made it to theatrical release of Animal House.
His wife is French Canadian. When they met, he didn’t speak French and she didn’t speak English. Naturally, their early on communication methods were largely physical.
(And based of what was allowed to print in magazines over the years, I can imagine just how much more “candid” this candidness may have gotten, so I am not saying any of this lightly or solely out of anger. I do have a working understanding of the kind of things they are alluding to him having written)
I am not the most comfortable hearing or reading about other people (real or fictional) and the ways in which they choose to be intimate with each other.
So believe me when I say: I DO NOT CARE HOW “CANDID” HE GOT. LET US READ THE DAMN THING.
If censorship insists on continuing, those of us who preordered the book should at least be given the option of receiving the book with or without the censorship.
We should not all be required to wait another 15 months just because some editor got all hot and bothered with their panties in a twist.
These people do not know with whom they are fucking.
Donald Sutherland’s vengeful ghost is not something anyone would willingly sign up to deal with.
I guaran-fucking-tee the man has been hanging around this whole time.
Donald, by all accounts, was one of the sweetest people to ever live.
That said, an angry Donald Sutherland is one of the scariest things you will ever see.
