The Manhattan Beach Project: A Novel

by Peter Lefcourt

Barely four years after winning an Oscar, Charlie has sunk into the ranks of Hollywood bottom-feeders - reduced to living in his nephew's pool house, kiting checks and taking the bus to his weekly Debtors Anonymous meeting, where he meets a mysterious ex-CIA agent who proposes to resuscitate Charlie's foundering career - in the beyond surreal world of reality TV.
Charlie puts his tap shoes on to sell a show about a ruthless Uzbek warlord and his family ("think The Osbournes meets The Sopranos") to a rogue division of ABC, known as ABCD, which operates out of a skunkworks in Manhattan Beach, California, and whose mandate is to develop, under top secret cover like that for the Manhattan Project, extreme reality TV shows to bolster the network's ratings.
Warlord becomes a breakout hit and results not only in causing one of America's largest entertainment conglomerates to go into full damage-control mode but also in shifting the balance of power in Central Asia and in proving that in show business it's not over till the mouse sings.

Genres: Humor

340 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Peter Lefcourt is a refugee from the trenches of Hollywood, where he has distinguished himself as a writer and producer of film and television. Among his credits are "Cagney and Lacey," for which he won an Emmy Award; "Monte Carlo," in which he managed to keep Joan Collins in the same wardrobe for 35 pages; the relentlessly sentimental "Danielle Steel's Fine Things," and the underrated and hurried "The Women of Windsor," the most sordid, and thankfully last, miniseries about the British Royal Family.

He began writing novels in the late 1980's, after being declared "marginally unemployable" in the entertainment business by his then agent. In 1991 Lefcourt published The Deal -- an act of supreme hubris that effectively bit the hand that fed him and produced, in that inverse and masochistic logic of Hollywood, a fresh demand for his screenwriting services. It remains a cult favorite in Hollywood, was one of the ten books that John Gotti reportedly ordered from jail, and was adapted into a movie -- starring William H. Macy, Meg Ryan and L.L. Cool Jay -- that premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Subsequently, he has divided his time between screenplays and novels, publishing The Dreyfus Affair in 1992, his darkly comic look at homophobia in baseball as a historical analog to anti-Semitism in fin de siecle France, which The Walt Disney Company has optioned twice and let lapse twice in fits of anxiety about what it says about the national pastime and, by extension, Disneyland. He is hopeful that a major(or even minor) motion picture will be made from it in his lifetime. The book continues to sell well in trade paperback -- it's in its fifteenth printing, and, as such, acts as a small but steady cottage industry for its author, who, at this point, would almost rather keep optioning it than have it actually made. But not really.

In 1994, he published Di And I, a heavily fictionalized version of his love affair with the late Princess of Wales. Princess Diana's own stepgodmother, Barbara Cartland, who was herself no slouch when it came to publishing torrid books, declared Di And I "ghastly and unnecessary," which pushed the British edition briefly onto the best-seller lists. Di And I was optioned by Fine Line Pictures, in 1996, and was quietly abandoned after Diana's untimely death the following year. Someday it may reach the screen -- when poor Diana is no longer seen as an historical icon but merely as the misunderstood and tragic figure that she was, devoured by her own popularity.

Abbreviating Ernie, his next novel, was inspired by his brief brush with notoriety after the appearance of Di And I. At the time he was harassed by the British tabloids and spent seven excruciating minutes on "Entertainment Tonight." He was subsequently and fittingly bumped out of People Magazine by O.J. Simpson's white Bronco media event of June, 1994. In a paroxysm of misplaced guilt, the editors of "People," to make amends, declared it a "Beach Read," which helped put the book ephemerally on the Best Seller lists during the summer of 1994. Anecdotally, however, the author spent a lot of time combing the beaches that summer without seeing a single person reading his book.

Lefcourt's research on a movie for HBO about the 1995 Bob Packwood canard was the germ for his next novel, The Woody. He began to see that the former senator's battle with the Senate Ethics Committee was a dramatization of the total confusion in America regarding appropriate sexual behavior for politicians. Packwood became the sacrificial lamb -- taking the pipe for an entire generation of men. Basically, he got his dick caught in the zeitgeist. After President Clinton got his caught in a younger zeitgeist, nearly costing him his job, The Woody became all the more topical. It asks the question: What is the relationship between a politician's sexual competence and his popularity in the polls? If Packwood had been as smooth as Clinton, he would be the majority lead

Reviews

[Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This fast-paced satire of reality television in the time of endless wars in the Middle East is on the mark with many of its characters and situations. At times it will make a reader laugh out loud. Unfortunately, it feels like a book very much of its time. In the 2020s the humor falls a bit flat. A fun read but a bit toothless now. Three and a half stars.

[Len · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun little read and just what I needed after the heavy non-fiction I had just finished. No National Book awards here, but a crazy story and a few laugh out loud moments.

[Val · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very funny, rapidly paced, well written satire much like a Carl Hiasson novel but with more likable characters.

[Sandra Hibbard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book about a young woman growing up from the 30's to 40's. Her father is semi'mafia. She has a sickly sister. The young woman becomes a diver during WWII. She struggles with her identity. There are smart twists and interesting characters. The story was engaging but there were some parts that dragged on. I listened to the audio book. The author could probably cut about two or three hours out of the 15 hour book.

[Hella Comat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spoof of reality shows - down-and-out producer goes to Uzbekistan to film a reality show based on a warlord, his family, and entourage. Things go badly when the producer and his interpreter decide to spice things up by 'translating' what the characters are saying with their own invented dialog.

[Mark Edward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny and relevant since i work in reality television. But in the end not very deep, more of a page-turning yuk-fest.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

read about 10 -12 pages and it was annoying

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a gift and it is the first novel I have read by Peter Lefcourt. It is a quick, fun read that pans the entertainment industry, foreign affairs and the short term public memory.

Charlie, a has-been Hollywood producer just four years out from winning an Oscar, is now in debt and living in his nephews pool house when he is approached by a stranger and offered an opportunity to produce a reality show. Charlie connects with a hush-hush division of a tv network and secures enough funds, in euros no less, to get production of "Warlord," a reality show about a real-life Uzbekistan criminal set in Central Asia, in the works. Billed as "The Sopranos meets the Osbournes" network execs have don't ask, don't tell coded conversations about the reality of the violence and the degree of criminal activity all the while salivating over preliminary test audience results. Add a rogue Peace Corps volunteer, a Polish film crew, a dramatically inclined mistress, a corner-office seeking ladder climber, along with a medley of agents, lawyers, accountants and the like and soon the reality show is a circus with automatic weapons.

It is an absurd tale that I enjoyed while I was reading it but, much like the ill-fated reality show, I doubt I'll remember this book for too long.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charlie is a washed out Hollywood producer sinking into debt with no way out. Then a mysterious man shows up at his Debtor's Anonymous meeting with an offer he can't refuse. Soon Charlie is deeply mired in a reality show about an Uzbek warlord, madly dodging bullets and tweaking subtitles, trying to stay alive and to keep his crazy show alive. Eventually it will all fall apart, the only question is when.

Hilarious! The Manhattan Beach Project is the perfect parody of the reality show craze. Peter Lefcourt has no mercy for anyone connected to the show or any aspect of this insane world. Yet his characters are so likable just because they are so flawed. I was cheering for Charlie even as I was groaning at each indiscretion and phony setup.

Tom Weiner is the reader for this audio and he does a superb job. His deep, gravely voice adds just the right touch of irony. I highly recommend this audio book if you need a good laugh!

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is hilarious. A dried up Hollywood guy goes to Turkmenistan to shoot a reality TV show called "Warlord." You know, kind of like The Osbournes, only the head of the family is... a warlord. But to up the ratings, the producers start taking liberties while translating the subtitles... with possibly fatal consequences if their main character ever figures it out. Meanwhile, they have to fend off the Turkmenistan army, the CIA and the Taliban... it's crazy, but funny and clever, not just gratuitously wacky and stupid.

[Lea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got into this book as I was reading it. This is well written suspense and action with funny commentary on the entertainment industry. This book fails the Bechdel test. The female characters are shallow and belittled.

I was given this book at the library in the "blind date with a book" program. I probably won't read any more Lefcourt, but I will totally let the library set me up again sometime!

[Gerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story continues where the character and the plot of The Deal: A Novel of Hollywood left off.

I really wonder whether Sacha Baron Cohen read this book before he wrote his movie Borat. The plots aren't similar but the places and characters are similarly satirized.

[Sharon Glassman · Rating 5 out of 5]

ragingly, scathingly funny. an afternoon of bliss with a cup of tea and a TV guide to remember you while it's satirical, this portrait of LA and TV is far from fictional...

[Jamie · Rating 1 out of 5]

this could have been easily 100 pages shorter if everything was not repeated 50 times. the writing could almost be ok, but it wasn't.

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read. It was a nice send-up of the television industry and reality TV.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laugh out loud funny.

[Mnsheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. We lived in Tashkent Uzbekistan and could totally relate to some of the scenes.

[Jayne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not nearly as good as the Dreyfus Affair by this author. DAffair is about baseball, pr and sex!