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Hello, He Lied

Hello, He Lied

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $10.17
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Next to "Hollywood Animal," must-have for screenwriters
Review: "I wouldn't go near ______________ this week. It's scary over there." Direct quote. Fill in the name of any major studio/media conglomerate and you have the essence of HELLO, HE LIED: Know the territory. And have a tanda--that's the term for a group of allies, especially women. Novel concept. In a business where according to superstars such as Mollie Gregory (WOMEN WHO RUN THE SHOW) women are about as supportive as the final contestants on "The Bachelor," future movie moguls cwill be uplifted by Lynda Obst's lessons learned from being a "d-girl" (that's story development girl) and working on films such as THE ENGLISH PATIENT (standard line in Hollywood: "Great! If you get Julia Roberts we're a go!" Lynda's comment: "Like you're too dumb to know that Julia's unavailable.") Another lesson: Never go to a meeting (or have a conversation in Hollywood) without a strategy. Good advice for all of us, but especially for writers.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: excellent
Review: A really wonderful book, filled with endless offerings of wisdom, clear and original insights, not to mention lots of juicy tidbits from a real player. Bravo, write another please!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Flawed but Important
Review: Anyone not new to or about to enter the industrial bone-crusher of Hollywood should probably take a pass on this book. But anyone looking to make Hollywood a career that hasn't grown up with or in the business needs all the help possible, and this book is a must for anyone in that category.

Mind you, it's not the first or last word on building a career in film. What Obst does is tell her story and at the same time attempt to impart what wisdom she picked up along the way.

Think of it as a long lunch at The Ivy listening to someone who has been there and done that, and you will find Hello, He Lied as an important, insightful part of your film education.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Industry knowledge minus self knowledge equals this book.
Review: As this book proves, Linda Obst is obviously intelligent and well-educated. She must have gotten A's on all of her term papers in school. Yet her technical skills as a writer expose her complete lack of emotional depth and put "Hello, He Lied" right up there with "The Kid Stays in the Picture" as two of the most self-serving autobiographical whine-a-thons ever written. At least Robert Evans had some interesting war stories to tell. Obst droning on about "One Fine Day" just gets tedious. This book also bears a strong resemblance to "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again," in that Obst lets her confessional veer into vagueness whenever details might cast her performance as a producer (or human being) in a bad light. This book's primary function seems to be to deflect blame. Most of the stories here have been told before, the ones that haven't aren't all that interesting and, as other reviewers have mentioned, there are better books on producing out there. Pass.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Learn to manuver like Obst, and world will be yours.
Review: I bought the book to learn how Hollywood works. But I learned more than I bargained for. Obst gives a practical guide for dealing with the most nasty, egomaniacal, bitchy, insecure fools on the planet. If we treat everyone with as much undue respect and courtesy as Obst, we will surely succeed at whatever we pursue. Seriously.

Good luck, Lynda, and thanks for the advice.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: ... Or How to Make It in Hollywood as a Woman
Review: I happened across Hello, He Lied in a used bookstore, and seeing as I'm obsessed with movies and movie-making, I thought I'd give it a shot. The book is smartly written, and very funny. I read it in two sittings.

The best thing about this book is that it is written for women by a woman. It has a lot of ideas and tips I haven't seen in other "how to make it in Hollywood"-type books. Most tend to ignore the sexism that still exists there. However, Linda Obst is honest and straightforward.

Read this book, whether you want to make it in Hollywood or if you're just a huge movie fan. It's a great read.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A brilliant, honest, superbly written analysis of Hollywood
Review: I'm a two-time Oscar winning songwriter ("The Morning After" and "We May Never Love Like This gain") so I have considerable knowledge of the film industry and how it works. Lynda Obst has written an amazingly concise, witty, penetrating study of Hollywood. Her candor is refreshing and her advice invaluable. Aside from the gems of information she passes along, she writes in a clear, articulate, graceful style. I've re-read "Hello He Lied" three times, and plan to comb through it again for more insights from an extraordinarily gifted individual.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: So so
Review: Linda Obst has written a book that gives a good idea at how moviemaking is like most other corporate businesses: it can be hard, frustrating, and full of office politics. This is one of the few books I've seen that tells about the movie business from a female point of view.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Woman In Hollywood's Trenches
Review: Linda Obst has written a book that gives a good idea at how moviemaking is like most other corporate businesses: it can be hard, frustrating, and full of office politics. This is one of the few books I've seen that tells about the movie business from a female point of view.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good insight into Hollywood and people in general.
Review: Lynda is a major motion picture producers and she willingly shares her knowledge. It's a nice little "manual" for coping with the creative process. It lacks the nastiness of Julia Phillips' book "You'll never have lunch in this town again," but that's what makes it good. It's more of a how you can do better book than explaining her past mistakes


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