Hollywood Babylon Strikes Again!: More Exhibitions! More Sex! More Sin! More Scandals Unfit to Print [Hardcover]

Truthfully I'd like to give this book at least 4* because it is a great read for those lazy days of summer when there isn't too much to deal with except to kick back with a cold drink, spread on the sunscreen, dig your heels into the sand, and read trashy stuff.
Basically, you could look at my previous review of this book's prequel HOLLYWOOD BABYLON--IT'S BACK and get the essence of what this book is about with a few key exceptions.
Still gaycentric to an extreme, this book features far less nude pictures than the previous volume. There are plenty of beefcake pictures. The nudes are still there, but mostly female. Most notably the nude female is one woman---a Marilyn Monroe wanna-be named Liz Renay who appears to be some sort of porn queen/publicity grabber. Liz, who died in 2007, is quoted from her memoirs rating the celebs she bedded. It's not nice to speak ill of the dead, but this lady was a tad course and tasteless and had no problem evaluating and in many instances outing her 'co-stars'. Of course, the resulting discourse was hilarious but completely impossible to verify since all of her male pals are dead, too. The gaycentric theme carries on with outing Hollywood lesbians, bi-sexuals, etc. This book even implies that Walt Disney may have sexually molested child star Bobby Driscoll, that Charlton Heston was a bi-sexual lover of the young, Marlon Brando had sex with his son Christian and daughter Cheyenne, and inumerable Hollywood celebrities were gay prostitutes or bi-sexual prostitutes.
Darwin Porter is undoubtedly one gifted writer which is exactly why I've read so many of his books. I enjoy them, but I also remain a tad sceptical because there are a lot of assertions made that cannot be proven or verified because everybody outed in this book is dead. Interestingly enough, at least two living actors who have had stirred some gay/bi gossip weren't outed. This book appears to be a mix of fact/urban legend/gossip and possibly wishful thinking. One aspect bothers me in particular. One of the few noted references for information in this book is the author David Bret. Bret writes a lot of trashy books which are very poorly done and rife with unsubstantiated assertions.
It is possible that I missed some inaccuracies in the previous book, but this one seemed to have a lot of them. There is no Bel Mar Race Track, but there is a Del Mar Race Track. Natalie Wood's nameplate on her wall crypt at Westwood Memorial Park is hard to find because she is not in a wall crypt; she has a grave there. Dates are incorrect. There were a lot of errors. Were Porter and his co-author in such a frenzy to get this book out that they passed on a personal review of their proof?
In the end, this really is a fun/lurid read. My advice is to go into this with an open mind, but don't take it as gospel. Some of it is true, but some of it probably isn't.

Having read the first edition of Hollywood Babylon by Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince, I couldn't wait for the second edition. It's back. Here it is in all its tawdry glory, exposing the secret underbelly of Hollywood that was hidden from the public for so many years. These writers leave few rocks not turned over as they open the long closed closet doors of Tinseltown. We learn more down-and-dirty tales from that Babylon in the West. Each page is a revelation, and the candid photographs are icing on the cake. When is the next edition coming out of this delectable candy box--tied up with a scarlet ribbon--of poisonous bonbons?
A subtitle for this wonderful book could be called Hollywood Armageddon.

Even though the book is non-fiction, I can't imagine any place more imbued with fantasy than Hollywood. It's a place filled with the fantastic. To the average person, like moi, Hollywood is the epitome of the unreal.

As a teenager, I actually had the predecessor to this new series by Blood Moon Productions. My mother gave it to me for the holidays which is a good reason my mind is in the gutter! I passed it onto a friend when they couldn't stop looking at it.

At BEA, I stopped to speak with Danforth Prince who is as I imagine PT Barnum was. Seriously entertaining, always controversial and able to sell ice at the North Pole. Because I recognized it, he gave me a copy and told me a bit of the story of how it came about and the interesting reaction of the author of the first series.

If you thought Las Vegas was Sin City this book makes it clear that Hollywood would make Las Vegas blush like a convent-raised virgin on her wedding night to Billy Idol. Actually, this book might accomplish this on its own. Hell, it makes me blush half the time, aforementioned gutter not withstanding. The third sentence is pretty representative of the rest of the book; it doesn't go all Jane Austen on us after the first page.

Here is what I know about this book:

* You won't read it cover to cover as if it were fiction. You will want to spread the fun over a period of time.
* In a group of people at least one of them will become obsessed with it. The same went for the "original." When I went into the press room for a break from the BEA hub bub I sat with a couple of journalists from Philadelphia and Denver. I believe it was a woman from Denver from whom I had to wrest the book. It lead to stories that the different journalists had heard about TV and Movie stars and almost stars.I think we talked about it for over an hour.
* You do not want to bring this book to school with you; the nuns will take it and you will go to hell. Wait, if you're in school you shouldn't be reading this blog at all, much less this book!
* If you are having a dull party, leaving this book out will be like giving a group of pubescent campers naughty Mad Libs. But, watch out!--it may also walk out the door!