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Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon — The Case Against Celebrity
Hollywood, Interrupted is a sometimes frightening, occasionally sad, and frequently hysterical odyssey into the darkest realms of showbiz pathology, the endless stream of meltdowns and flameouts, and the inexplicable behavior on the part of show business personalities. Charting celebrities from rehab to retox, to jails, cults, institutions, near-death experiences and the Democratic Party, Hollywood, Interrupted takes readers on a surreal field trip into the amoral belly of the entertainment industry. Each chapter ― covering topics including warped Hollywood child-rearing, bad medicine, hypocritical political maneuvering and the complicit media ― delivers a meticulously researched, interview-infused, attitude heavy dispatch which analyzes and deconstructs the myths created by the celebrities themselves. Celebrities somehow believe that it's their god-given right to inflict their pathology on the rest of us. Hollywood, Interrupted illustrates how these dysfunctional dilettantes are mad as hell... And we're not going to take it any more.
416 pages, Paperback
First published February 6, 2004
46 people are currently reading
379 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Breitbart
2 books67 followersAndrew J. Breitbart was an American publisher, commentator for the Washington Times, author, an occasional guest commentator on various news programs who has served as an editor for the Drudge Report website. He was a researcher for Arianna Huffington, and helped launch her website, The Huffington Post.
He ran his own news aggregation site, Breitbart.com, and five other websites: Breitbart.tv, Big Hollywood, Big Government, Big Journalism, and Big Peace.
He ran his own news aggregation site, Breitbart.com, and five other websites: Breitbart.tv, Big Hollywood, Big Government, Big Journalism, and Big Peace.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
June 3, 2015
With all due respect to Andrew Breitbart (RIP), this book is a mess. As near as I can tell, the overall point is that celebrities are out-of-touch and out-of-control, so therefore the general public ought to stop putting them on a pedestal and taking their opinions seriously. That's all well and good, except that several chapters don't fit in with this theme, resulting in a book that feels thrown together willy-nilly according to whatever information Breitbart just happened to have on file. Overall, I'm not sure the book succeeds at rising above the level of tabloid muckraking, especially since the authors don't balk at using allegations and unsubstantiated accusations (usually by people with personal axes to grind) to help bolster their argument. In addition, they blatantly refuse to give celebrities credit where it is due. For example, this book gives you the impression that Susan Sarandon became famous from doing nude scenes and that Roger Ebert is best known for BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. Perhaps the constant negativity is meant as smart-assed humor, but, if so, I fail to get the joke.
Not only does this book take a scatter-gun approach to celebrity, but it contains logical inconsistencies, as well. It doesn't make sense to me that the authors vilify Madonna but lionize Howard Stern. I also don't understand how you can lecture Hollywood on its lack of morals and then turn right around and praise the comedy of Andrew Dice Clay. The authors act like the Diceman was a victim of political correctness... All I can say is, if such is really the case, then perhaps there's something good to be said for political correctness after all. The authors act like stand-up comedy isn't any good unless it's shocking and un-PC. Personally speaking, while I greatly enjoy people like Sarah Silverman and Norm MacDonald, I'm just as grateful for guys like Ray Romano and Jim Gaffigan.
Another thing that annoyed me about this book is that it spends too much time focusing on the obvious. Like, "Hey, did you know that Michael Jackson had some weird issues with children? Or that Courtney Love is a psycho? Or that the Playboy Mansion isn't the wholesome, family-friendly establishment it's cracked up to be?" Seriously, who doesn't already know this? Do we really need entire chapters devoted to these topics?
Instead of a "case against celebrity" (whatever that means), perhaps this book should have been subtitled "a case against anyone--apart from shock-jock radio hosts and vulgar stand-up comics, that is--having anything to do with Hollywood and/or the entertainment industry." If that sounds like your kind of thing, then bon appetit. For me, the best part was the interview with Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Too bad the whole book wasn't more like that.
Not only does this book take a scatter-gun approach to celebrity, but it contains logical inconsistencies, as well. It doesn't make sense to me that the authors vilify Madonna but lionize Howard Stern. I also don't understand how you can lecture Hollywood on its lack of morals and then turn right around and praise the comedy of Andrew Dice Clay. The authors act like the Diceman was a victim of political correctness... All I can say is, if such is really the case, then perhaps there's something good to be said for political correctness after all. The authors act like stand-up comedy isn't any good unless it's shocking and un-PC. Personally speaking, while I greatly enjoy people like Sarah Silverman and Norm MacDonald, I'm just as grateful for guys like Ray Romano and Jim Gaffigan.
Another thing that annoyed me about this book is that it spends too much time focusing on the obvious. Like, "Hey, did you know that Michael Jackson had some weird issues with children? Or that Courtney Love is a psycho? Or that the Playboy Mansion isn't the wholesome, family-friendly establishment it's cracked up to be?" Seriously, who doesn't already know this? Do we really need entire chapters devoted to these topics?
Instead of a "case against celebrity" (whatever that means), perhaps this book should have been subtitled "a case against anyone--apart from shock-jock radio hosts and vulgar stand-up comics, that is--having anything to do with Hollywood and/or the entertainment industry." If that sounds like your kind of thing, then bon appetit. For me, the best part was the interview with Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Too bad the whole book wasn't more like that.
September 6, 2016
In an age where celebrity gossip is easily accessible through online blogs, news divisions devoted to the gossip beat and community forums, Hollywood, Interrupted feels woefully archaic and dated. Any "gold" that's to be mined is few and far between when the author isn't assaulting the reader with material pulled from websites.
To start with, the book is full of grammar errors, to the point of being distracting. Not a chapter goes by when there aren't punctuation, spelling or grammar inconsistencies - even the names of various parties are misspelled, often within the same chapter.
Likewise, the opening chapter, which details an email conversation between the co-authors, is drawn-out, boring and feels like they're thumbing their pompous noses up at the reader for not having the same access to information they do.
There are a couple of great chapters, like Heidi Fleiss' association with Robert Evans (which involved sending underage girls to his house), a celebrity snoop who was screwed over by Michael Jackson's management team and an AOL employee who had near-unlimited access to the private forum accounts of celebrities, but these chapters are lost within the shuffle of frankly boring sidestories involving celebrity cults (which comes off as softball given what the public was learning about Scientology et al., even at that time), celebrity nannies and the political affiliations of major stars.
It gets to a point where the political elements begin creeping their way into the narrative, to the point of distraction.
I would suggest skipping this book and spending a couple hours on Crazy Days and Nights - the material in this book isn't strong enough to warrant a purchase.
To start with, the book is full of grammar errors, to the point of being distracting. Not a chapter goes by when there aren't punctuation, spelling or grammar inconsistencies - even the names of various parties are misspelled, often within the same chapter.
Likewise, the opening chapter, which details an email conversation between the co-authors, is drawn-out, boring and feels like they're thumbing their pompous noses up at the reader for not having the same access to information they do.
There are a couple of great chapters, like Heidi Fleiss' association with Robert Evans (which involved sending underage girls to his house), a celebrity snoop who was screwed over by Michael Jackson's management team and an AOL employee who had near-unlimited access to the private forum accounts of celebrities, but these chapters are lost within the shuffle of frankly boring sidestories involving celebrity cults (which comes off as softball given what the public was learning about Scientology et al., even at that time), celebrity nannies and the political affiliations of major stars.
It gets to a point where the political elements begin creeping their way into the narrative, to the point of distraction.
I would suggest skipping this book and spending a couple hours on Crazy Days and Nights - the material in this book isn't strong enough to warrant a purchase.
June 29, 2011
Awesome book. Scathing eviscerations of most every arrogant celebrity in Tinseltown. Clear-cut, well-researched, meticulously quoted & detailed.
Breitbart catalogues the hypocrisy within the lives of those who would pontificate politically/socially to the American public while failing to adequately govern their own lives.
An example is the producer & his wife who aggressively lobbied President Clinton for bills providing universal health coverage to small businesses. The power couple voiced outrage that "people can't get adequate health care because they don't have insurance." However, the sanctimonious calls for top-down reform were inconsistent with their failure to offer their own personal nine full-time household workers any kind of health insurance whatsoever, or even a living wage. This is only one of the many egregious examples of hypocrisy within the entertainment industry catalogued in the book.
One of Breitbart's contentions is that celebrities foist their limited views of world events onto the public as a means of intellectual compensation, since many have completed very limited formal education.
Some celebrities eviscerated include Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, and Hugh Hefner. I totally recommend this book. It also includes some illuminating interviews with the creators of "South Park".
Breitbart catalogues the hypocrisy within the lives of those who would pontificate politically/socially to the American public while failing to adequately govern their own lives.
An example is the producer & his wife who aggressively lobbied President Clinton for bills providing universal health coverage to small businesses. The power couple voiced outrage that "people can't get adequate health care because they don't have insurance." However, the sanctimonious calls for top-down reform were inconsistent with their failure to offer their own personal nine full-time household workers any kind of health insurance whatsoever, or even a living wage. This is only one of the many egregious examples of hypocrisy within the entertainment industry catalogued in the book.
One of Breitbart's contentions is that celebrities foist their limited views of world events onto the public as a means of intellectual compensation, since many have completed very limited formal education.
Some celebrities eviscerated include Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, and Hugh Hefner. I totally recommend this book. It also includes some illuminating interviews with the creators of "South Park".
November 15, 2011
I really liked the first third of this book, and then it turned into a weird almost Republican rant. Despite the authors, frequently, referring to the trashy side of the Hollywood elite, the book just as often uses tabloid worthy bad puns far too often to be taken seriously. Also, I'm not so sure whose morals and ethics they are basing a counter argument from. I'll tell you, it's not just Hollywood people that have screwed up marriage, don't care about their children and are hopelessly materialistic. Coming from Iowa, I knew plenty of people like that, they just weren't as popular as actors and actresses. Definitely, entertaining up until it becomes overly political and condescending.
August 7, 2014
Not since Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons have two journalists (Breitbart feeds stories to Internet scandalmonger Matt Drudge and Ebner wrote for Spy) gathered more mean-spirited gossip about celebrities they condemn as sick and depraved.
This diatribe is so unrelentingly negative that it loses all power to persuade. Breitbart and Ebner cover a variety of subjects they stand against, among them celebrities voicing their political views, a woman's right to choose, single motherhood and celebrities adopting children. In a chapter devoted to anonymous nannies discussing disrespectful kids of anonymous movie stars, the authors suggest mandatory Norplant and vasectomies for Hollywood parents.
Hugh Hefner can't win for being wild or conservative; the authors blast the "fossilized relic embalmed in nostalgia and Viagra" for watching a bestiality video 30 years ago, and then condemn him for his intolerance of illegal drugs.
Peculiarly, the authors adore gay porn director Paul Barresi, who paid off the "she-males of the night" that Eddie Murphy frequented so they'd change their stories. But when Murphy's lawyers didn't compensate Barresi, he turned all his records over to the authors. Barresi went on to warn Michael Jackson that his latest videographer was also a gay porn director. But when Jackson wouldn't pay for the information, Barresi leaked the story to the tabloids. Instead of calling Barresi a blackmailer, the authors announce that "he has a code of ethics emphasizing loyalty and respect."
Most of the gossip isn't new (e.g., Greg Allman was an uninterested father; Whitney Houston, Nick Nolte and Robert Downey Jr. have had drug problems), and without any illuminating backstories, this is a sour and joyless read.
This diatribe is so unrelentingly negative that it loses all power to persuade. Breitbart and Ebner cover a variety of subjects they stand against, among them celebrities voicing their political views, a woman's right to choose, single motherhood and celebrities adopting children. In a chapter devoted to anonymous nannies discussing disrespectful kids of anonymous movie stars, the authors suggest mandatory Norplant and vasectomies for Hollywood parents.
Hugh Hefner can't win for being wild or conservative; the authors blast the "fossilized relic embalmed in nostalgia and Viagra" for watching a bestiality video 30 years ago, and then condemn him for his intolerance of illegal drugs.
Peculiarly, the authors adore gay porn director Paul Barresi, who paid off the "she-males of the night" that Eddie Murphy frequented so they'd change their stories. But when Murphy's lawyers didn't compensate Barresi, he turned all his records over to the authors. Barresi went on to warn Michael Jackson that his latest videographer was also a gay porn director. But when Jackson wouldn't pay for the information, Barresi leaked the story to the tabloids. Instead of calling Barresi a blackmailer, the authors announce that "he has a code of ethics emphasizing loyalty and respect."
Most of the gossip isn't new (e.g., Greg Allman was an uninterested father; Whitney Houston, Nick Nolte and Robert Downey Jr. have had drug problems), and without any illuminating backstories, this is a sour and joyless read.
December 13, 2008
In a sense this is like an updated version of Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger except where Anger painted a sinister, evil picture of a Hollywood that chewed its "stars" up and spit them out, the authors of this book paints a humorous picture of the Hollywood sets dysfunctionality and kookery as well as portraying them as coddled and pampered as opposed to being exploited and used. Ivory tower trendy leftist political causes, kooky new age religious practices, weird sexual habits, substance abuse, dysfunctional family and marital relations, its all here. I was also surprised and happy to see that they talked to zinester/blogger The J Man, whose stuff I have read for years, when they researched this book. Overall this is a very funny book that mocks a segment of society that in most cases absolutely deserves it.
July 8, 2012
The story is dated but Breitbart tells the tale like no other. You think Hollywood is corrupted? You need to read this!
February 14, 2025
Heel erg bedenkelijk maar zeker niet saai, en best "boeiend" om te zien dat ze twintig jaar geleden krak dezelfde reactionaire rommel schreven als vandaag
March 11, 2013
This book articulated what I feel about so many celebrities who think I care about their shallow, incoherent, hypocritical political beliefs. Hollywood types are so self absorbed and live in such a shell of enabling sycophants that they believe that all of America cares about what they think. I don't know about anyone else but I don't care. I wish they all would just shut up and act.
February 9, 2015
As others have mentioned, I didn't think I could be more disgusted with the scourge that is hollywood (hollyweird). An entertaining read, for sure, and humorous. I am filled with dread that people in positions of power are listening to, and using these entitled people with no perspective to create policy that affects us all.
November 24, 2009
I didn't think I could have a lower opinion of Hollywood . . . but I can. Ugh. Good, funny book but major ick factor from the story told.
March 9, 2012
Though the book is already out of date, it was a compelling read nonetheless. Tragic (in every way), but compelling.
February 7, 2014
Love this kind of stuff. Ribald though it is, it still feels well-researched. You can feel every piece of pavement that got pounded.
January 31, 2015
After reading this book, I don't think I can ever sit through another Hollywood movie starring any of the moronic hypocrites cited in this work.
March 21, 2016
This is a good review of Hollywood but it's out of date.
May 6, 2017
Some great, original writing by both the late Breitbart and current Mark Ebner. This book was written in '04, published in '05 and still very prescient.
July 28, 2015
I had a long trip ahead of me, and wanted a "brain mush" book of gossip to make the trip seem shorter. I hadn't heard of either author going in, but the book reads as though Rush Limbaugh wrote Hollywood Babylon. I expected a gossip book and got a mean-spirited, disjointed rant about how and why celebrities are idiots.
I already know most celebrities are bozos, and as this book's about a decade old I learned nothing new. The authors, purportedly journalists, seemed to accept the word of an AOL aficionado when she said had records of online dalliances with A-listers, and there's a whole chapter about bit actors reduced to selling cookware. It didn't fit - a bit actor isn't really a celeb, rather somebody who didn't quite get there.
I'll stick to Jackie Collins on the trips going forward.
I already know most celebrities are bozos, and as this book's about a decade old I learned nothing new. The authors, purportedly journalists, seemed to accept the word of an AOL aficionado when she said had records of online dalliances with A-listers, and there's a whole chapter about bit actors reduced to selling cookware. It didn't fit - a bit actor isn't really a celeb, rather somebody who didn't quite get there.
I'll stick to Jackie Collins on the trips going forward.
September 4, 2018
I decided to read this book after realizing that Breitbart had called out John Podesta as a pedo years before his emails exposed him.
This book does have some good insights, such as the section on nannies, which I found useful. Much of the analysis in the book is sound, and the conclusions drawn from it reasonably accurate.
The book falls down in the second half, particularly when the authors defend post-9/11 George W. Bush from Hollywood liberals' criticisms. The authors' GWB stuff certainly did not age well.
The book is ok and had some good nuggets, but much of it comes off as dated post-9/11 political hackery. Wouldn't recommend it as a high-priority read.
This book does have some good insights, such as the section on nannies, which I found useful. Much of the analysis in the book is sound, and the conclusions drawn from it reasonably accurate.
The book falls down in the second half, particularly when the authors defend post-9/11 George W. Bush from Hollywood liberals' criticisms. The authors' GWB stuff certainly did not age well.
The book is ok and had some good nuggets, but much of it comes off as dated post-9/11 political hackery. Wouldn't recommend it as a high-priority read.
February 15, 2016
Awful. It's my fault that I did not see the back cover blurbs otherwise I would not have picked it up once I saw a blurb from Ann C-word Coulter. I don't mind reading dirt on the rich and famous and I don't mind authors throwing some of their beliefs in their writings. It's a free world. However this book's writing is choppy and it comes off as a stream of right wing consciousness. Fans of Fox News would love this book. To others, it is just a book of stale gossip and bad writing with a heavy dose of right wing ramblings.
June 23, 2016
Published in 2004, the book is outdated - many of the celebrities "exposed" are dead or have "fulfilled" the expectations of the writers. At first the book was entertaining - then it got mean. I ended up skim reading the last half, especially the parts about AOL (!) and cyber cafes. While much of this information is probably true, unlike the Enquirer, the content never justified the authors' apparent disgust with everything Hollywood. And what was with the constant reference to "the heterosexual Tom Cruise"????!!!! (Never just Tom Cruise.)
February 13, 2018
A very patchy book - with a very clear overall message: the moral posturing of the celebrity set is pure and simple hypocrisy. Hear, hear! There is no consistent tone to the book, ranging from salacious gossip to thoughtful critique to hopeful call for resistance—probably this relates to the dual authorship—and that reduced the enjoyment factor. I did have a guilty pleasure in some of the zingers that pepper the writing, some of them well aimed and richly deserved. I do think though that the book is simply unkind in places. Not quite as good as I thought it was going to be....
August 24, 2009
This book was clearly more fun for the authors to write than for me to read, but I still enjoyed it. I don't think about celebrity too much, but HA did persuade me that it is worth thinking about, at least a little bit. It was quite conservative in tone, but sensibly so, and offered good arguments for why we should detest the solipsism, liberalism, and righteousness of Hollywood. An easy read, though the authors are too enamored of alliteration.
October 24, 2013
After only three hours alone in the basement laboratory I have finally created a phrase that perfectly combines both convenience and ceremony:
"Have a great day, and don't forget to check out our Website."
By the way, "our Website" is simply a daily advice column written by a man pretending to be a woman. Here is today's piece of advice:
Do not tease the person who is trying to sneak you into a casino.
"Have a great day, and don't forget to check out our Website."
By the way, "our Website" is simply a daily advice column written by a man pretending to be a woman. Here is today's piece of advice:
Do not tease the person who is trying to sneak you into a casino.
January 12, 2013
There were a few interesting chapters, and they do make some very good points about the culture of celebrity - but for the most part I was bored while reading, and some chapters got either skimmed or skipped. Can't say I really recommend the book.
January 4, 2015
Very misleading as in the beginning, it was all about hollywood gossip and yet it turned into some weird ass right-wing mumbling. I had my suspicion when I read Ann Coulter's positive review on the jacket's cover.
October 6, 2019
Imagine how lame Julia Phillips' "lunch in this town" would have been if she hadn't named the characters? Well, this is worse. Gossip about the unknown of unmentioned folk is not gossip, it's nonsense. Just like this book. A true waste of time.
April 17, 2022
I would have rated this higher but it was a bit preachy and moralistic. And for a "pull no punches" type of book it failed to name names.
July 15, 2021
If you want to maintain illusions about a favorite celebrity, don’t read this book.
The beginning, chronicling the decadence of Hollywood stars, was amazing and disheartening. Most books of this sort focus on the obvious targets; but the authors here also hit on just how out of touch everyone is compared to what ought to be considered normal. Even Harrison Ford praises the brutal rapist of a 13-year-old. Even Greta van Susteren benefited from Scientology pyramid investments that cheated the rank and file out of their savings, participating in a news blackout on the Slatkin/Scientology ponzi scheme. (Two years after this 2004 book was published, the victims may have been repaid at 41-42 cents on the dollar.)
After a booming beginning, however, it sort of settles down into a general rant about Hollywood’s uneasy dalliance with pornography, advertising scams, and bad parenting. It’s all true, and probably important, but if it was new in 2004 it’s pretty boring now.
The end, however, gets into American On-Line and its proto-Facebook service, which is fascinating. Celebrities were often given free accounts as part of Oscar bags and so forth; and they apparently really used them. On the AOL side, low-paid minions had full access to user account information, and at least one made use of this information to contact people and become e-friends. It’s a detailed example of the privacy issues inherent in online communities, issues we still for the most part ignore today.
Some of the assumptions about readers is interesting; one subchapter is titled “Alt.Family.Hollywood”, but I don’t think the word “Usenet” is ever used anywhere in the book. I don’t remember Usenet being such common knowledge that its discussion group title format could be used as a title joke.
I have a handful of obscure books about the drug experience. One of them is Shaman Woman, Mainline Lady. It was a bit of a surprise to see it mentioned here; apparently, the editors (it’s mostly a collection of old essays), Cynthia Palmer and Michael Horowitz, are Winona Ryder’s parents. The topic comes up because Ryder was fresh off of her shoplifting arrest while this was being written.
Despite all of the bad lifestyle choices highlighted in this book, I only caught two actual dead pool predictions. The authors had Whitney Houston dead by 2009. It isn’t hard to see why she was highlighted for this honor; she was bragging about dealing with her drug addition on her own, and announcing that she wouldn’t do crack because it’s cheap.
Whatever those statistics were, Houston only beat them by three years.
When talking about how the Internet has unleashed “celebrity death pools” where the hoi polloi make money predicting celebrity deaths, the authors claim that predicting Michael Jackson’s imminent death wouldn’t net anyone any money “given his current situation”. This was an open-ended prediction, but if they’d put the same five-year limit on it that they’d given Houston, they would have just hit the mark.
This is an odd book; by its nature, using examples relevant to people of the time (although it does delve lightly into some of the more famous older stars, mostly as an example of how Hollywood fixers used to be able to keep a lid on destructive celebrity behavior), it’s going to be dated. The most interesting part to me was the very dated section on AOL and its lack of privacy.
I consider myself fairly cynical; even I was disappointed at how widespread the destructive behavior and disdain for fans is even among stars I thought were relatively well-balanced. The basic premise of this book, that celebrities make poor role models, is both obvious and destined to be ignored. Both celebrities and people in general are very adept at holding obviously contradictory beliefs—recognizing the destructive nature of celebrity on the one hand, and craving access on the other. A book like this is doomed to failure because by its nature it ultimately must feed the myth of celebrity.
The beginning, chronicling the decadence of Hollywood stars, was amazing and disheartening. Most books of this sort focus on the obvious targets; but the authors here also hit on just how out of touch everyone is compared to what ought to be considered normal. Even Harrison Ford praises the brutal rapist of a 13-year-old. Even Greta van Susteren benefited from Scientology pyramid investments that cheated the rank and file out of their savings, participating in a news blackout on the Slatkin/Scientology ponzi scheme. (Two years after this 2004 book was published, the victims may have been repaid at 41-42 cents on the dollar.)
After a booming beginning, however, it sort of settles down into a general rant about Hollywood’s uneasy dalliance with pornography, advertising scams, and bad parenting. It’s all true, and probably important, but if it was new in 2004 it’s pretty boring now.
Massive ego and narcissism may be the primary ingredients for achieving and maintaining Hollywood success, but they are also the number one cause of the grandiose foibles in their storied, disastrous personal lives. The full-time job of parenting requires absolute selflessness. In contrast, the full-time job of celebrity requires absolute selfishness. The two by definition do not naturally coexist.
The end, however, gets into American On-Line and its proto-Facebook service, which is fascinating. Celebrities were often given free accounts as part of Oscar bags and so forth; and they apparently really used them. On the AOL side, low-paid minions had full access to user account information, and at least one made use of this information to contact people and become e-friends. It’s a detailed example of the privacy issues inherent in online communities, issues we still for the most part ignore today.
Some of the assumptions about readers is interesting; one subchapter is titled “Alt.Family.Hollywood”, but I don’t think the word “Usenet” is ever used anywhere in the book. I don’t remember Usenet being such common knowledge that its discussion group title format could be used as a title joke.
I have a handful of obscure books about the drug experience. One of them is Shaman Woman, Mainline Lady. It was a bit of a surprise to see it mentioned here; apparently, the editors (it’s mostly a collection of old essays), Cynthia Palmer and Michael Horowitz, are Winona Ryder’s parents. The topic comes up because Ryder was fresh off of her shoplifting arrest while this was being written.
Despite all of the bad lifestyle choices highlighted in this book, I only caught two actual dead pool predictions. The authors had Whitney Houston dead by 2009. It isn’t hard to see why she was highlighted for this honor; she was bragging about dealing with her drug addition on her own, and announcing that she wouldn’t do crack because it’s cheap.
If Whitney doesn’t realize that the “control” she sings of is her own worst enemy, statistics have her in a box in less than five years.
Whatever those statistics were, Houston only beat them by three years.
When talking about how the Internet has unleashed “celebrity death pools” where the hoi polloi make money predicting celebrity deaths, the authors claim that predicting Michael Jackson’s imminent death wouldn’t net anyone any money “given his current situation”. This was an open-ended prediction, but if they’d put the same five-year limit on it that they’d given Houston, they would have just hit the mark.
This is an odd book; by its nature, using examples relevant to people of the time (although it does delve lightly into some of the more famous older stars, mostly as an example of how Hollywood fixers used to be able to keep a lid on destructive celebrity behavior), it’s going to be dated. The most interesting part to me was the very dated section on AOL and its lack of privacy.
I consider myself fairly cynical; even I was disappointed at how widespread the destructive behavior and disdain for fans is even among stars I thought were relatively well-balanced. The basic premise of this book, that celebrities make poor role models, is both obvious and destined to be ignored. Both celebrities and people in general are very adept at holding obviously contradictory beliefs—recognizing the destructive nature of celebrity on the one hand, and craving access on the other. A book like this is doomed to failure because by its nature it ultimately must feed the myth of celebrity.
As long as overpaid stars continue to hold their demographic in contempt by demeaning their middle-class lifestyles and politics, or presenting themselves as unaccountable role models, the audience will continue to derive a sick satisfaction from watching their inevitable public downfalls.
December 2, 2019
Conservative but illuminating study of the corrosive effects of celebrity & the way that the public believes much of the stars’ PR.
A particularly nasty but super gossipy chapter examines Courtney Love’s short tenure as a movie actress.
A particularly nasty but super gossipy chapter examines Courtney Love’s short tenure as a movie actress.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews