Former "Brady Bunch" star slams disgraced Beach Boy psychologist

October 15, 2008

Maureen Mccormick, former star of The Brady Brunch, has blamed the psychologist who treated Brian Wilson, of Beach Boys fame, for prolonging her drug addiction and depression.

McCormick - who played perfect teen Marcia Brady in the hit series - hired late celebrity psychotherapist Eugene Landy to help her overcome her troubled past after the successful show ended in 1974.

Landy lost his professional licence following accusations of brainwashing, drugging and isolating singer Wilson while treating the "California Girls" hitmaker in the 1970s. And though McCormick admits she abused cocaine and suffered from bulimia as she struggled to find more TV work, she insists it was Landy's treatments that sent her spiralling into a deeper depression.

She says, "A really unfortunate thing was that I ended up getting treated by Dr. Eugene Landy, who was Brian Wilson's shrink - who was awful, I have to say. He set me back so much. He put me on drugs - I didn't know if I was going or coming - and what he did to Brian was just awful. "I'm surprised that I'm still alive, but I feel like there's so much hope out there for people who are going through what I've been through. You have to ask for help."

McCormick also revealed in her forthcoming book, Here's the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding My True Voice, that she is glad she didn't lose her virginity to Brady Bunch co-star Barry Williams - because she's convinced the tryst with her on-screen brother would have sent her spiralling into a deeper depression. Recalling the encounter, she says, "We were swimming in the pool. We were in our bathing suits, hot and heavy...we got very close and his parents, thank God, came in the room. Thank God because he was my (screen) brother, right? I would've been really messed up."