Rating:  Summary: Like Slogging Through Mud Review: I looked forward to dishing the dirt on Hollywood, but this book was like walking through knee deep mud and about as much fun. The writers are joyless and lack wit, and the gossip is old.
Rating:  Summary: Your gods have feet of clay Review: A lot of us jokingly refer to Hollywood as Hollyweird but this book shows the reader that it's a lot worse and uglier than we thought. For those who worship celebrities -- many of whom are seriously messed up, uneducated individuals -- this book is will come as a shock. Your gods have feet of clay and with their PR machine out of way they are no prettier, smarter, nicer or more talented than you. After reading this very dishy, very tough expose I was left wondering about the whole American cult of celebrity. What's missing in our lives that we need to fill it with devotion to some movie star?
Rating:  Summary: Send in the clowns! Review: Hollywood. The home of swimming pools and movie stars, of silicone and botox, of power lunches and big money deals. It's a warm, sunny place inhabited by the nicest people you would ever want to meet. Everybody is a friend in Tinseltown, always willing to lend a helping hand to his or her fellow man (or woman) with no expectation of a favor in return. I get the warm and fuzzies just thinking about how wonderful life must be in Southern California, how much better a place like Los Angeles is than boring old Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota, or virtually any other lame state in the country. Heck, the people who live in Hollywood, the people we see on television every day in movies and television shows, are obviously a cut above the rest of us. How can this not be so? All you need to do is spend a few hours a day with the television set and you rapidly learn these glamorous creatures are more beautiful, smarter, savvier, and more fashionable than the yucks who live in fly over country. Moreover, celebrities possess a greater capacity for truly caring about humanity than the rest of us do. Media stars care so much about the travails of life that they don't hesitate to use their money and influence to instruct us in the finer arts of raising children, waging war, and a host of other bread and butter issues the general populace knows nothing about. Every day when I wake up the first thing I do is thank my lucky stars I have such dedicated souls looking after my life. Yeah right. "Hollywood, Interrupted," written La-La Land watchers Mark Ebner and Andrew Breitbart, attempts to reveal what often goes on in Hollyweird behind the megawatt smiles and popping flashbulbs. The picture painted in this sometimes gossipy, sometimes tabloidish, but usually serious book is not a pretty one. It is also not a picture anyone remotely familiar with the garbage culture of Tinseltown should be surprised to read about. The two authors cite the usual sick suspects in their compelling examination of why celebrity culture simply must go away for good. Chapters examine the weird behaviors of Michael Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Roman Polanski, Courtney Love (oh dear), Winona Ryder, River Phoenix, Nick Nolte, and dozens of other celebrities both major and minor. "Hollywood, Interrupted" delves deep into the guiding tenets of West Coast political philosophers like Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, Janeane Garofalo, Alec Baldwin, Barbra Streisand (oh dear again), Rob Reiner, Rosie O'Donnell, and Oprah Winfrey. What emerges are portraits of people completely out of control, people living in their own fantasy world totally cut off from reality but with no idea how far out of bounds they actually are. The reader pays a visit to such celebrity institutions as Crossroads School, a fine, upstanding academy of learning packed to the rafters with the dope-addled offspring of the rich and famous. Just wait until you get a look at the curriculum in this madhouse! The book interviews nannies that worked for celebrities and other movers and shakers, describing the emotionally vacuous existence these people live every day. Not surprisingly, materialism is the god of Hollywood, a place where objects and whatever feels good take the place of anything the rest of us consider emotionally or spiritually healthy. Dr. Feelgoods sporting prescription pads, pseudo-religious cults, and sexual promiscuity are daily activities in the mental motel called Hollywood. Unfortunately, their own horrific behavior never stops some celebrities from standing up in front of a camera to tell us how to live our lives. It's unnecessary to go into specifics about the scurrilous activities of our social betters. Chances are you have heard about most of the bad behavior before. What the book attempts to do is move beyond the catalog of atrocities in order to figure out a way for the average citizen to break through the façade which protects these celluloid cretins. For far too long, the authors argue, the media systems have protected celebrities from themselves and from the fallout over the latest episodes of drug abuse, murder, or other similar crimes. Ebner and Breitbart claim that the Internet--with its myriad chat rooms, web pages, and bulletin boards-- offers an alternate media through which the citizens of this country can clear away the fog of propaganda pumped out by Los Angeles and New York. Celebrities and their personnel rely on good press to make money, make more money, and make even more money. Dumb statements from stars (and there is no dearth of stupid statements from the rich and famous) tend to cause a lot of problems when contract signing time comes around. In the old days, the authors assert, citizens had little means of conveying opinions instantaneously and in great numbers. A bad movie or a dumb comment can now find immediate release on the web. The recent imbroglio over the Dixie Chicks and the rapid disintegration of "Gigli," says the book, are examples of how the new media can checkmate Hollywood's nonsense. Readers looking for yet another salacious tome on Courtney Love's latest meltdown or Michael Jackson's continuing troubles should probably renew their subscriptions to the tabloids. Some of that stuff makes its way into "Hollywood, Interrupted," but not too much or too often. When the authors deign to throw in some seedy allegations, such as a discussion on Hugh Hefner's depravity or Michael Jackson's troubles with a pornographer, the book falters. Ebner and Breitbart are at their best when they take Hollywood to task on issues such as childcare, drugs, left wing propaganda, and political correctness. The only reason celebrities exist is because they live in a country that has so much wealth that it can weather their idiocy. Tough times in the future (more terrorist attacks, for example) could very well silence these clowns forever.
Rating:  Summary: A City of Fools Review: Breitbart and Ebner have produced an excellent tell-all book about the excesses and down-right insanity that rule Hollywood. From the drug induced haze that Courtney Love lives in to the throw-away children squeezed out by so-called celebrities. It's all here in a well written and documented book. The chapter on Hollywood Family Values will make you mad. The section on Hollywood Lefties and their outrageous political agendas should have you rushing to the poles to vote conservative. This book is a quick read. Although, Hollywood Interrupted is at times quite funny, it is very sad to think that these damaged people influence every aspect of American society.
Rating:  Summary: Weak, anti-intellectual pop drivel Review: Boy, there are so many more ways to waste your time than to read this drivel. Imagine the Star tabloid, except exceptionally mean-spirited, close-minded, reactionary, and humorless, and you have accurately pictured this "book." Instead of reading this horse-hockey, try picking up something that might actually challenge you intellectually. Your spirit and mood will be uplifted, something that is not possible if you read this collection of gossip and rumor, poorly researched and poorly written.
Rating:  Summary: Hollywood, Interrupted Review: Andrew and Mark have written an extremely funny, highly informational guide to the absurdity of Hollywood stars. I would highly recommend this book to everyone. Their frustration with the continual flow of garbage coming out of Hollywood is very refreshing. I truly hope that they continue with their message of the "true" Hollywood and that their uncovering of the ugly underbelly of Hollywood society is viewed by as many as possible. People need to know what is going on in Hollywood. Movies are the most pervasive medium with which American society is spread throughout the world. Buy this book, oh and let's send Sean Penn to France, Mars, or Fallujah.
Rating:  Summary: Hollywood, Interrrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon-- Review: A MUST read! Just proves that "everything that glitters isn't gold"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:  Summary: Page Turner!! Review: This book is very well researched. I live in Los Angeles and read alot of books about Hollywood and yet I'm learning something new with each turn of the page. Impressive. It's enlightening yet frightening to think that the truth truly is "stranger than fiction." Pick up a copy of this book now. Don't delay. Die hard fans of this city and it's inhabitants will not be disappointed.
Rating:  Summary: Hilarious! Review: There is plenty of humor in the book, but the "reviewers" accusing the authors of cut & pasting old stories to make a book by copy pasting their OWN negative reviews is totally hilarious. Either they have a serious grudge out for these writers or they are just following orders. At an rate even the naysayers ought to actually buy and read the book. If they can get beyond their knee jerked negativity they will find some illuminating stories in the book. They would find out what made the celebrity monsters in the first place. Nannies, wierd schools, desperate measures of the people barely on the inside. The behind the scenes reporting on the bigger celebs is fasinating stuff too. I got my local library to order Hollywood Interrupted!
Rating:  Summary: One Star - - If I was a Scientologist Review: Andrew Breitbart and Mark Ebner team-up to finally expose Hollywood nutcases as not just insignificant tabloid fodder, but the single most destructive force in present day society. The reader can finally see in print the damage that is inflicted upon society when Utopia runs amok! From using and treating children as designer objects to Scientology to utter sexual perversity, it is all here in its 394 pgs. of glory. This wouldn't be that outrageous if it were just a handful of people, but this is just the way of life in the chaotic world of celebrity. By putting a spotlight on this overexposed yet underanalyzed crowd and having the guts to point a fingers at untouchables, Breitbart & Ebner hold them accountable for their irresponsible behavior. When you are done reading this book in two days -- because you can't put it down -- you come to realize that Hollywood thinks this is normal behavior.
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