Hollywood Undercover: Revealing the Sordid Secrets of Tinseltown

by Ian Halperin, Max Wallace

Ian Halperin is no stranger to undercover investigations. He posed as a model in 2001 to expose the fashion industry, his resulting in the exposé Shut Up and Smile . In Hollywood Undercover , he gives us a unique and scandalous glimpse behind the scenes of the movie business. This time he poses as an aspiring actor and soon finds himself with an agent, a job offer (admittedly in a hardcore porn film) and ultimately a part in The Aviator , directed by Martin Scorcese. In the interim, he is surprised to uncover anti-Semitism in Hollywood; infiltrates the Church of Scientology, whose celebrity stable includes Tom Cruise and John Travolta; and meets numerous A-listers, including Brad Pitt, Barbra Streisand, and Leonardo DiCaprio, who give him the inside track on what life in Hollywood is really like.

Genres: Nonfiction

221 pages, Hardcover

First published September 6, 2007

About the author

Ian Halperin is a Canadian investigative journalist and writer whose 2009 book, Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson, which was a number one best seller on the New York Times list on July 24, 2009. He is the author or coauthor of nine books, including Celine Dion: Behind the Fairytale, Fire and Rain: The James Taylor Story and Hollywood Undercover. He coauthored Who Killed Kurt Cobain? and Love and Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain with Max Wallace. Halperin has contributed to 60 Minutes II and is a regular correspondent for Court TV.

Reviews

[Emma Kaufmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite his only acting experience to date having been cast as a flying monkey in the Wizard of Oz in an elementary school play. Ian Halperin decides to take the hypocrisy of Hollywood by the horns. Masquerading as a gay actor he manages to bullshit his way all the way to starring in a film directed by Martin Scorcese. There is tons of sleaze here but I did know some of the scandals involving Scientology already. But all in all this was wet your pants hilarious and essential reading for anyone who wants to know if the casting couch is still a major factor in landing a role ....

[Samantha · Rating 1 out of 5]

For a book that claims to drop names it has a terrible habit of leaving out the most interesting [a list celebrities]. The book comes across arrogant, unfocused and ultimately unlikeable.

[Carole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ian Halperin is commisioned to film a documentary by Canadian TV about aspiring Canadian actors trying to make it in Hollywood. But while interviewing many luckless actors he realises how cliched it all is, so he decides to do something different - he will go undercover as a gay actor called 'His Highness Halperin, the King of the Jews', and try to make it into the movies himself. Some of his adventures include a poker game with the 'Queers of the Round Table', a short affair with the ill-fated Anna Nicole Smith, hearing sordid secrets of the stars, a course at the Scientology Church where they attempt to turn gays straight, and many more.

My Thoughts:
I'm not really sure why I picked up this library book as it is definitely not my usual genre, but I thought I'd try something different.

Ian Halperin comes across as a likeable enough person though a little egocentric. I thought there were too many coincidencs, for instance, he met so many Hollywood stars who wanted to tell him all their secrets. This is a typical passage from the book where he's at a party and meets the 50's starlet Debbie Reynolds who starred in Singin' in the Rain -

'Every man I ever dated in Hollywood turned out to be gay', she revealed. She had actually famously been married to Eddie Fisher - father of her daughter Carrie, aka Princess Leia - whom she stole away from her old friend Elizabeth Taylor, causing one of Hollywood's all-time greatest scandals. I didn't have the guts to ask her if that applied to Fisher as well.

Also, all the people he met who were working in Hollywood were only too happy to start telling him secrets about this or about that actor (no names were mentioned in the book, unless they were deceased), who was gay, took drugs, had an affair with them, etc etc. Even one elderly woman walked up to him one day and told him all about her affair with Charlie Chaplin. I felt it was maybe a bit too exaggerated.

Maybe I'm doubting Ian Halperin too much, I don't know, it was just the way I felt. Another story that I found hard to swallow was the story from when he lived in London in the 1980's, he had been busking and was sitting on a bench when an elderly lady came by and started talking to him. It turned out that she was Ava Gardner, and he was invited to her apartment where she proceeded to tell him stories about Frank Sinatra. Again, it just seemed too unbelievable.

Here's another couple of excerpts regarding George Clooney -

"The one celeb I seemed to keep bumping into, no matter where I went, was Clooney, who appeared to be omnipresent. I had first encountered George outside the Formosa Cafe on Santa Monica Boulevard back in 1998. He looked fit, was wearing Converse running shoes and was with two gorgous model-types. He was in a great mood.
'George, I like your Chuck Taylors,' I said. 'I guess it gets the women.'
'Probably does,' he responded. 'I thought it was my hair, but you have made me re-think.'

The next time I bumped into him I was back in Montreal and he was directing and shooting Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. I saw him several times that summer - at a health club, at a bar, at a coffee shop and walking downtown. Everywhere I went George seemed to be there. I started to wonder if we were stalking each other."


But, having said all this, I did enjoy the book, it was well-written, fast flowing and kept my interest throughout, it was never boring. It is a book for people who enjoy magazines like Heat with lots of gossip. There was so much name-dropping involved!

There were some colour photos in the middle of the book corroborating some of his stories and there were also links on You Tube as well.

[Amyanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was mildly interesting- to the extent that it compelled me to keep reading just in case it actually fulfilled the promise of it's title. Far from "revealing the sordid secrets of tinseltown", author Canadian Ian halperin, or as he irritatingly and arrogantly refers to himself as through out the book 'His Highness Halperin', merely plods lazily around the fringes.
He learns nothing particularly new, seemingly puts in zero effort into researching or creating an interesting documentary, informs us flippantly of his trysts with women, screams about republicans, Mel Gibson and vague anti-Semitism, stands on street corners petitioning people for little more reason then to fill up screen time&page count.....and so on.
In chapter 8 I was incredibly annoyed (the phrase 'get over yourself' literally came out of my mouth) and sick of his self-important rubbish and at the end of the book I realised he'd accomplished nothing at all. Quite the let down.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this a really interesting book, more than I thought it would be. (the photos included in the middle had me thinking it would be a bit of a cheesy piece of work)
The guy makes some very worrying observations about the way Hollywood works, and the piece on the two directors spruiking their film, one white, one black is a sign we are not as advanced as we like to believe.
I like the YouTube links placed throughout the book, although after looking up one I was a bit disappointed, expecting more from the piece.
All in all, a good book, one that any actor aspiring to make it big in Hollywood should read.

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious toilet read material. I bought this book at a used book store going out of business. The stakes could not have been any lower. With expectations now decidely in the can, my read was quite pleasant. Halperin takes the reader on a wild goose chase through Hollywood with the scheming gall of an eleven year old as "His Highness Halperin."

Its a dumb read, but a fun read if one can manage to be tickled by the sheer absurdity of celebrity gossip. With references to my home of Montreal, that certainly added a bit to my delight. Halperin also has a bit of a comedic tone to his writing. There were a few passages I cackled with laughter.

Fun and absurd!

[Carrie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m onto page 116 and the book’s irritating me so much I feel the need to tell someone. This “book” is not a Hollywood expose. It’s a book that exposes Ian Halperin’s narcissism, his liberal devotion to demeaning any thought system that differs from his own pious perfection, and the fact that he lives in a moral vacuum where every woman must be beddable and every star intrigued by him. Yeah, he’s so irresistible! Says he successfully managed to infiltrate the world of modelling. Which begs the question what on earth was being modelled or are people really that vacuous and eager to agree for their own narcissistic validation that they believe what this little pickled onion looking, snake oil man is telling them? Awful book - considering actually burning it rather than donating it to a charity shop. Feel like nobody needs to be exposed to this weapon of intellectual destruction.

Edit: Just finished the book and it was the hardest thing to sit down and finish but I did it. I gritted my teeth and bit down on my distaste of the self-serving little weasel who is fraudulently panning off a book about “sordid secrets in Hollywood” but is actually just the equivalent of me attending a film premiere at Grauman’s and saying that I have rubbed shoulders with Tom Cruise and Nicholas Cage; or of me salivating at the thought of becoming part of the glitterati. Not funny, not clever, offensive, fraudulent, inane. Awful book - do not recommend!!

[Dale Stonehouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Hollywod dirt and insight into the film industry's seamy side.