Applegate Memoir Details Ditching Pitt for Bach at 1989 VMAs

Christina Applegate recounts in her new memoir a youthful decision that strained her friendship with Brad Pitt for years: inviting the up-and-coming actor as her date to the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards, only to leave the event with Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach.

The incident, detailed in "You With the Sad Eyes," released on March 3, occurred when Applegate was 17 and already two years into her role as Kelly Bundy on the Fox sitcom "Married... with Children," which premiered in 1987. Pitt, then 25, was part of her extended circle of friends in Los Angeles, a group that included musician Johnny Depp. Their relationship had been platonic, with Pitt occasionally visiting her modest row house for barbecues among a larger crowd. But Applegate writes that one day, mutual attraction sparked. "One day I took another look at Brad and thought, hmm... Apparently, he did the same," she recalls.

For the VMAs, Applegate needed to arrive early for a rehearsal appearance as a presenter. Pitt offered to drive her mother, actress Nancy Priddy, and her best friend, Lori Allison—formerly married to Depp—to the event. The evening unfolded smoothly until Applegate spotted Bach, the long-haired...