Rating: 
Summary: julia phillps is no dope
Review: OSCAR WINNER JULIA PHILLPS IS NOT YOUR NORMAL GIRL. THE BOOK IS ABOUT THE BUSINESS (SHOW) AND DEALING WITH IT. ON ANOTHER LEVEL IT IS THE RISE AND FALL AND RISE OF JULIA. IS THIS BOOK FOR EVERYONE? I DON'T KNOW. WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? FOR THE INSIDER, AND MY BROTHER WON AN OSCAR FOR WRITING DANCES WITH WOLVES, IT'S A BIGGER SLICE OF THE LIFE THAN YOU'RE EVER GOING TO GET ON ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT. PLUS, AN ADDED BONUS, IT'S A FEMALE POINT OF VIEW. HOLLYWOOD IS VERY COMPLICATED. THERE ARE NO RULES. (EXCEPT MAYBE TALENT RULES--AFTER MONEY OF COURSE.)
Rating: 
Summary: Kinehora
Review: The autobiography of the producer of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" "Sting" and "Taxi Driver." It's more interesting if you've seen all three movies and also if you have some familiarity with all the show business celebrities she talks about. The names keep proliferating in a bewildering way if you've never heard of these people and it gets repetitious after six hundred pages. It's witty and well written and full of drugs and sex.
Of course a memoir always gets judged by different criteria from other boooks. We pass judgement on the writer as a person. Autobiographers believe that we should forgive them for the sins they confess because they are confessing, but on the other hand they are always self-justifying to some extent and then again we always wonder if they're telling the truth. Assuming she's telling the truth I would only give Julia Plillips about a two or three on a wickedness scale of one to ten. (In fact there is a Depravity Scale that criminologists use and she would wouldn't register on it).
At one level she is telling her story as a kind of Aesop's fable with a moral. The basic plot is "see how I messed up." Pride goes before a fall, being rich and famous isn't everything, and don't get too happy and self-confident because something bad may happen. Kinehora (which I thought was spelt keine hora but she makes sound Hawaiian) means "no celebration." She puts a lot of emphasis on ethnic identity as a behavior explanation and maybe guilt is a Jewish thing, although plenty of Catholic and Protestant groups are good at instilling it. Essentially she's saying she should have felt more guilty sooner. Along with it though she is saying she was unfairly treated.
I found her account of cocaine addiction fascinating but I don't think I'd recommend the book to an addict. Although she sounds grateful to Dr Ron Siegel the bottom line seems to be that she gave it up herself cold turkey, without hospitalization, after a month in the Mayo Clinic had failed. At the end of the book she's still smoking cigarettes and dipping into a few other chemicals.
Rating:
Summary: Phillips Had Real Wit --- A Thing Missing In Hollywood
Review: The book is a very funny and filled with wonderful quotes. Phillips was a true a original. Reading of her death, I re-read the book. Rather than a decline and fall in Hollywood for Phillips, it's more like a liberation from it. Readers will enjoy this book who have a sense of irony and humor about Hollywood and celebrityhood. The only sorrow in this opus is that Phillips didn't spend more years writing than trying to scrounge a living in the tawdry world of show business. She had an exceptional talent as a wordsmith. Thank God this book is a record of her humor and wit.
Rating:
Summary: Phillips Had Real Wit --- A Thing Missing In Hollywood
Review: The book is a very funny and filled with wonderful quotes. Phillips was a true a original. Reading of her death, I reread the book. Rather than a decline and fall in Hollywood for Phillips, it's more like a liberation from it. Readers will enjoy this who have a sense of irony and humor about Hollywood and clebrityhood. The only sorrow in this opus is that Phillips didn't spend more years writing then trying to scrounge a living in the tawdry world of show business. She had an exceptional talent as a wordsmith. Thank God this book is a record of her humor and wit.
Rating: 
Summary: oooo not a new yorker, who cares
Review: The book was okay for what it was. Not an original idea, personally I would read the sample pages closely to see if her writing style is what you would like read. She definitely is not beating a dead horse like some writers. I will say there is no prize either.... I think it is interesting to read reviews from other people here who happen to be authorities on New York, when they live 1 hour away In New Jersey. What, can't afford Far Hills?
This is a great place to come and air grievances, but please the East Coast/West Coast discrimination is very middle aged. Who really cares about the differences? No one I know. Except people who are athorities on what others are thinking. Have a great day! :-) Keep smiling!!
Rating:
Summary: oooo not a new yorker, who cares
Review: The book was okay for what it was. Not an original idea, personally I would read the sample pages closely to see if her writing style is what you would like read. She definitely is not beating a dead horse like some writers. I will say there is no prize either.... I think it is interesting to read reviews from other people here who happen to be authorities on New York, when they live 1 hour away In New Jersey. What, can't afford Far Hills?
This is a great place to come and air grievances, but please the East Coast/West Coast discrimination is very middle aged. Who really cares about the differences? No one I know. Except people who are athorities on what others are thinking. Have a great day! :-) Keep smiling!!
Rating:
Summary: I bet all the negative reviews come from Hollywood actors!
Review: The truth hit them in the head like a hammer and they don't like it, too bad; take a bite and chew it pal! Great Book by the way...
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book
Review: This book angered so many people in the film industry, as well as many who weren't. But how wonderful that it did! I fully believe in what she wrote, and that her depiction of Hollywood and the power players in it were dead honest. This is a fabulous book to read just for all the delightful name-dropping - i.e, Steven Spielberg, Goldie Hawn, David Geffen, and Richard Dreyfus to name a few. Ms. Phillips describes the glorious sucess as producer to her miserable failure as a free-base addict, to her slow and painful return to the real world. A triumphant first work!
Rating: 
Summary: Poorly written about a subject the author has no insight on
Review: This book is almost impossible to read. There is no logical continuity, names are dropped without identification, and subjects raised and dropped freely. The self absorption of the author is monumental, yet she seems devoid of insights into herself and her world. If the world of Hollywood is as devoid of decency as she portrays, the radical right may in fact be right.
Rating:
Summary: Trashy and Fabulous - You'll Love It!
Review: This book is marvelous. If you are looking for real insight on the goings-on of the Hollywood elite in the 1970s, this is the place to find it. Phillips writes with an unmistakeable prose in the tradition of Hunter S. Thompson. She reveals the industry and herself in this absorbing autobiography.
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