BEVERLY HILLS -- Macaulay Culkin, at the ripe old age of 24, isn't publishing his memoirs about life as a former child star just yet.

So imagine his surprise when he read Miramax is promoting in its catalogue his new autobiographical novel Junior and has given it a publication date next March.

The novel, claims Miramax, is "part memoir, part rant, part comedic tour-de-force," dealing with the author's "quest to come to terms with the awesome pressures of childhood megastardom and family dysfunction."

Culkin, who became a household name in 1990 when at a precocious nine years of age he starred in the family blockbuster Home Alone, says he had just one meeting with the publisher and didn't sign a contract. And though he has penned a book which is loosely autobiographical, Culkin says Miramax seems to be confused over the focus on his past life.

"It doesn't even refer to that," he says. "I think at one point I refer to my former life as 'the life and times of monkey-monkey boy' and 'I used to work in the circus,' a little bit of that, but it's not like that at all."

Culkin, who is now contemplating not publishing the book, says it was mostly written during a stint performing in Madame Melville on a London stage.

"I was exiled to London for seven months, by myself, drinking a bottle of wine a night," he says.

It's hard to think of Culkin with a boozy wine glow about him, getting all Ernest Hemingway as he scribbles pages of his thoughts. But the Culkin of today -- dipping his toe into stage and movie waters, returning to acting after a nearly decade-long, self-imposed absence, feeling out audiences' receptivity to his return -- is pretty much all grown up and not too worse-for-wear, either. First off, there have been no appearances on television C-list reality shows like The Surreal Life or The Mole: Celebrity.

"Contrary to popular belief, I've never been to rehab," says Culkin. "I've never been to jail, never been arrested. All the child-star cliches. I've tried very hard to avoid them all."

After several bad films (1994's Richie Rich was one of the last) he simply faded away, for a time attending the Professional Children's School in New York.

There, Culkin says he floated between the ballerinas, Julliard-bound musicians, fellow actors, a top-ranked in-line blader and a golf prodigy, managing to live like a real teenager.

He got married, at 17, to actress Rachel Miner, and quickly divorced. These days he has a steady girlfriend of two years (That '70s Show actress Mila Kunis), put behind him nasty court battles with his estranged father Kit Culkin over the millions he earned in those early movies, and distanced himself from troubled former mentor Michael Jackson.

Culkin seems to be building a respectable adult career for himself. In addition to those stage turns in London and, later, New York, he starred in last year's Party Monster as a typecast-busting gay and drug-addicted murderer.

In Saved! a new teen comedy tackling the weighty issues of sexuality, teen pregnancy and faith in the context of an evangelical Christian high school, Culkin is confined to a wheelchair as the "differently abled" younger brother of an obnoxiously religious character played by Mandy Moore.

Culkin has been attached to the project for years, signing on after meeting co-producer Sandy Stern way back at 17 years of age and in the process crossing off a belated item from his acting to-do list. "He said he knew in his career he'd get to make one teen movie," says Stern.

-- With files from AP


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