Mental Illness

By Andrea Sachs

CAMERON WEST, who claims to have 24 personalities, is vague on many details of his life, but he knows exactly how much he has been paid for his story. West, 43, received a $110,000 advance from Hyperion for his new book, First Person Plural: My Life as a Multiple, and screen rights have been sold for $1.15 million. West says his numerous personalities, whom he refers to as "my guys," are the result of severe sexual abuse as a child; they include a six-year-old named MOZART, four-year-old twin girls named Anna and Trudi and a 30-year-old seducer named Stroll. ROBIN WILLIAMS plans to play West in the film. The author and his wife Rikki, who live near San Francisco, will be going to Hollywood next week to see the film's producer and screenwriter.

That won't be the couple's first brush with fame. Earlier this month West was on Oprah. That appearance sent West's awkwardly written tome into the Top 10 on Amazon.com's best-seller list. For those who doubt his story, West says, "I understand why people would be skeptical. I think it's because everyone knows you can't have more than one person living in a body." Well, exactly.

--By Andrea Sachs