When Cher was nine years old, she stood on top of her bed in a small Los Angeles apartment, using a hairbrush as a microphone and the mirror as her audience. Her mother, Georgia Holt, a struggling actress and singer herself, would watch from the doorway — proud but worried. Money was scarce; Georgia often worked late-night diner shifts, sometimes pawning jewelry just to afford acting lessons for Cher. Their car was repossessed once, and dinner was sometimes canned soup shared between them. But G