Carrie Fisher's life is an open book. Actually four, plus an autobiographical stage show.

From growing up Hollywood royalty as the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, to nearly burning out in a post-Star Wars blaze of drugs and depression, Fisher tells it like it was even when changing names to protect the guilty; candidly and very, very funny.

Fisher will be doing the Princess Leia thing Aug. 12-15 at Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, meeting many of that "small, merry band of stalkers" she once sarcastically thanked George Lucas for bringing into her life.

I spoke with her Tuesday about that shindig but the conversation quickly shifted to topics like the electroshock therapy she's enjoying (honestly!) while dealing with her demons, why playing Princess Leia was bad for her sex life, and a kidnapping threat while filming The Empire Strikes Back that she hadn't talked about in 20 years.

You'll have to wait until the Aug. 12 Weekend section for those juicy tidbits. For now, here are the few pieces of our conversation that didn't make the final cut.

On an ad-lib line -- in that iconic gold bikini worn as Jabba the Hut's slave -- that didn't make the Empire final cut:

"You know, I was always annoyed: There was one scene in the movie when I’m in the metal bikini and the guys (Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill) are brought in, and I never talked. Once I’m in that metal bikini it’s like what’s-his-face losing his hair. I never say a word once I don’t have clothes on, or as many clothes as I usually wore.

So, when the boys are being dragged off to be digested in the Sarlak Sea for 2 million years or something, on the first take I said: 'Don’t worry about me! I’ll be fine, really!' It didn’t make it in (the movie). Harrison didn’t like it.”

Why Ford won't attend Celebration V, as Fisher and Hamill will:

"He doesn’t really have to. He’s not a playful sort, you know? He’s saddled with a certain dignity that he has maintained over the years."

On whether she has found happiness after all the pain:

"You know what? I found everything and I worked hard at it. I found a hearty mix of all of it. I’ve had romantic satisfaction, I’ve had dead people in my bed, I’ve had drug overdoses, I have a beautiful daughter who’s just going to college. I have great friends, great relationships with my family. I have a good life but it has not only been that. I had to earn it.

"You either learn from your mistakes or you’re condemned to repeat them over and over again. That would be really annoying."