Rating: 
Summary: Good Stuff!
Review: I have accidentally followed on of the authors,Mark Ebner's career for a while just by being a media junkie and living in Los Angeles. I used to read him in Spy and thought he was a good writer, then caught him doing his thing as a commentator on E! Gossip Show. Flash forward to New Times a cool paper here in Los Angeles and a Mark Ebner cover story, one of many the paper ran during its four or five years. Topics he wrote about included the tragedy of pit bull fighting in LA (with his infiltrating a fight)and the suicide of a teenage MIT computer genius whose Scientology background left him ill-prepared for the real world. New Times folded, sadly after five years or so--but I always came across Ebner's name showing up in Rolling Stone, on the cover of Spin, in Details -- you don't get gigs like that if your writing sucks!-- and always enjoyed his stories. The one about the young KKK leader really sticks out in my mind. That's why when I recognized his name on the book jacket I picked up Hollywood Interrupted and I wasn't disappointed! Same balls to the wall style, same risk taking approach to subject matter. I am sure with his work, Ebner has made some enemies (one of his favorite topics was a certain zany religion) which explains the vitriolic comments here and why the book has been ignored on television, despite having good, fresh takes and new information on a variety of subjects. It's facsinating to see people react so angrily to a book, but no doubt that's because their sacred cows--be they Oprah or Sting or wacky religions orpolitics--get lambasted. "He said something mean about My Hero so I will get him by bashing his book." That kind of mentality is short sighted and narrow minded, but sometimes people get threatened when the wool is ripped from their eyes and react by attacking. His co-writer works for Matt Drudge, who is either loved or hated, and so no doubt he carries some of that baggage. Don't be a herd animal! Think for yourself and read this book! It's well written and thought provoking.
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking, funny. Liked it
Review: After reading the many reviews up here (and watching the numbers of reviews multiply!) I got curious about the polarization, so many folks on this board were extremely hostile in their comments, while others seemed to like to book for various reasons. So I read the book, or at least a couple chapters, Dr. Feel Good and Karma Chameleons, and they convinced me to invest in the hardback, and now I am very glad I made a decision based on my own mind and not a bunch of grumblers. The chapters were well written and insightful, as was the rest of the book, which I didn't put down all weekend. This book, like many bios is heavily researched and has plenty of footnotes because people like to sue, and by quoting their sources--a number of which are actual first time interviews, not just snips from articles--the authors completely support their ideas, like it or not, agree with it or not. I laughed out loud at every reference to Tom Cruise. The auhtors made very sure that the actor wouldn't sue them, in a very, very funny way! I found it interesting how the Los Angeles Times went after one doctor and only one doctor in the death of producer Don Simpson, like in the Winona Ryder case only one doctor out of all of the doctors she had was prosecuted. Hmmmm. That is media bias. And so is all the media ignoring this book because they are afraid of the truth. I suggest that people check this book out and really pay attention to what it has to say. It is very thought provoking and so I wonder why so many reviewers here are so down on it and warning people away from it. Not to go into a conspiracy but....
Rating: 
Summary: Recommend
Review: I work in the film biz, and part of my job is to pay attention to books that are selling, book that are controversial, and then read them and analyze them for my boss. Obviously, HOLLYWOOD INTERRUPTED falls into this catagory, as its place on the best seller lists and the highly divided thoughts on this board show, but my boss was uncomfortable with me reading at the office, so I had to read it at home -- same as with Ezsterhas' latest! WHY? Because this book tells some dirty little (and BIG)secrets abut big stars and about the inner workings of Hollywood, and because for Hollywood, it's very "unPC." Because this book takes an unpopular (for Hollywood, though not for the overall US) point of view, it's been ignored by the major media--though IMHO if it was a little-book-that-could from the same indie pub with a more Hollywood-friendly POV, then it'd be slobbered on by everybody! As a pro, who reads up to three books a day, I have to comment: I may not always agree with the writers, but I LOVE their tone of voice. Their deft depictions of Holywood, both the low and high life, were precise, pointed and at times poignant. And I loved playing "guess the blind items," and I'm not the only one. There's a huge buzz and some guessing games going on after work about who's who in these stories, and heaven help Courtney Love if either judge in her cases reads this before trial--she'll be swapping hygene tips with cellmate Martha Stewart! You can read this book as pop culture, you can read it as a polemic, but you should read it, especially for the character studies.
Rating: 
Summary: Dull Trash
Review: I should have looked at the book more carefull before I bought it. The two authors write for Spy and the Drudge Report. They'd never make it in mainstream journalism. Their writing simply isn't very good. This is a cut and past book of tabloid articles. What little passes for commentary isn't a bit persuasive, because the authors have poor rhetoric skills. This book was very disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: terribly written, unfunny, waste of time and money
Review: This book is written very, very badly. The similies, though original, are *horrible.* A sampling:
"[Vivien] Leigh's brush with the tree of madness came from an entirely different synaptic branch." (pg 72)
"But by the mid-1960's, sages and gurus were as plentiful as lice in a North-beach flophouse." (pg 110)
and, in reference to Angelina Jolie's decision to raise her Cambodian-born adopted son in Cambodia:
"Had the child been abandoned in a less PC and less exotic environment, like Appalachia, would Jolie be setting up a compound in the hills of West Virginia so Maddox could be close to his moonshine-distilling people?" *sighs* If you still think that reading hundreds of pages of this tripe won't be an insult to your intelligence, by all means go for it. But here's the caveat: this book is an almost incoherent sputtering of angry, sneering diatribes that often contradicts itself in its ludicrous effort to deface every possible celebrity who's ever been lauded with equally ludicrous praise by such entertainment media as "People" magazine or the "Entertainment Tonight" TV show. One doesn't get the feeling that the authors, Breitbard & Ebner, are introducing any remotely authentic insights or posing any sort of solution to an obvious societal problem, but that they're merely mud-raking voraciously from the other side... if you're a particularly jaded person who despises Hollywood and loves to wallow in loathing - no matter how ill-written - this just the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Idea isn't bad, but the execution stinks.
Review: In competent hands this could have been a good book. Good Hollywood books make the top ten. These lousy authors can only dream about it. The authors claim they want to debunk the cult of celebrity. Instead they try to suggest they are superior to it in a moralistic and boring tone. Even worse, these two half-wits don't make a whole. They use old tabloid tattle as evidence then sneer and snarl. Dullsville.
I got the idea they are trying to tout this book as the antidote to the cult of celebrity. Instead they are part of the problem, not part of the solution. This book is a waste of time and money.
Rating:
Summary: A great read!
Review: Having never been to Hollywood, or California, I must admit that I have a very intense interest in the goings on of celebrities. Wisconsin isn't exactly the cultural hub of the world, and reading this book allowed me to pretend, however briefly, that I was a Los Angeles dweller. I could almost imagine standing in the bathroom stall with my ear pressed to the door trying to hear all the good gossip from the women reapplying their makeup. Hollywood Interupted is a very smart book, with loads of gossipy details that every tabloid junkie loves to hear! For instance I never knew that Kurt Cobain dropped off a letter to his record company saying he wanted to quit the band. I couldn't believe that! Could you imagine Nirvana without its morose, greasy haired lead singer? I also thought that the notion that us regular folk worship celebrities as our new religion is very interesting! Probably because its true! I would definitely recomend this book to everyone out there interested in the Hollywood lifestyle!
Rating:
Summary: Buyer Beware¿Right Wing Rhetoric
Review: If you're looking foran inane yet engaging celebrity gossip-buy another book, namely the granddaddy of them all, _Hollywood Babylon_. This book was nothing but right-wing editorializing-and BAD right-wing editorializing! Dan Quayle vs. Murphy Brown? Chapters titled "Reds" (oo...Sean Penn is a COMMIE!) and what right-wing commentary wouldn't be complete without the requisite "Left Wing" chapter?! COME ON! At least TRY to progress the euphemisms out of the 20th Century, people! It all kind of hit me by page 20, when, in their furious frenzy to "expose" those wacky Hollywood "commies" and "middle-American haters," the authors attempt to lay the blame for the offal that is "Sex and the City" on the ... "liberated gay male writers who are putting their politics into the mouth of babes." [Yeah, that Candace Bushnell. What a liberated gay male SHE is.] The "outraged" authors then go on to query, "Will our families, let alone the sexes, ever recover from the horror?" [p. 20] What horror? You have to PAY for HBO-if you don't want their programming, don't pay for the "horror" of it all. I have nothing against right-wing authors or their works of fiction and non-fiction, I just don't choose to read the stuff. However, it's not made clear on Amazon's site the true POV of this book. Had I known this book was nothing but a new and clever twist on liberal bashing, I'd have NEVER have purchased it. I wanted gossip-and all I got was a lecture.
Rating:
Summary: Two men making a quick dollar at the expense of others!
Review: Andrew Breitbart and Mark Ebner's come across with this book in one message: "Get rich quick!" If the idea of providing the reading public with a book about the almost satanic ways of celebrities was their goal, they failed miserably. Most of the information is not new and when you come across some previously unknown information, it is presented in such an impartial matter that you can't help but to think that they were forcing a slam on someone for their own benefits. I really believe that Breitbart and Ebner would have been more productive hawking nuclear power to the Sierra Club than attempting to educate the reading public about the secret lives of famous celebrities. If they wanted to spill the dirt on them, they needed to find new material and present it totally impartially. Their desperate attempt to let us in on these secrets comes across as a desperate attempt for them to make names for themselves. They provide us with such earth-stopping news like Nick Nolte and Robert Downey Jr. having drug problems. Now there is news that we never would have known if it hadn't been for this book. Even if half of the stuff here were true, they have made it unbelievable with their delivery and the chip that they carry on their shoulder through the entire book. The best example of this is when they describe gay porn director Paul Barresi's attempt to blackmail Michael Jackson "a code of ethics emphasizing loyalty and respect". Likewise, Mr. Breitbart and Mr. Ebner should be noted for displaying their "code of ethics emphasizing loyalty and respect" from their Hollywood connections and providing it to the reader.
Rating:
Summary: Scatty, Sneering, and a Snore
Review: The tone of this book is boring, because it is one long sneer. I haven't even heard of some of the "stars" in this book. As for the others, we've all read the Jolie stories and others. The authors reference stories that have been posted on the web and even quote a story previously published in People. The research is dismal. That would have been bad enough, but the writing isn't engaging. There is no depth to any of the stories, probably because there was no real research. As a result, the vignettes are dull. They cover old territory and add no life to the topic. This is particularly dull when they relay a tale about a "star" you've never heard of. They hop around from story to story, but just relaying facts with no extra flesh on the bones. Thank goodness I didn't buy the book. I read it at Borders. I noticed people picking it up from the table, perusing it, and putting it down. I recommend you do the same.
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