Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon -- The Case Against Celebrity
 
 

Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon -- The Case Against Celebrity [Hardcover]

Andrew Breitbart , Mark Ebner
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (114 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 30.99
Price: CDN$ 24.79 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 25. Details
You Save: CDN$ 6.20 (20%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Usually ships within 2 to 5 weeks.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Hardcover CDN $24.79  
Paperback CDN $20.79  

Product Details


Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Literary assassinations don’t come any more vitriolic than Hollywood Interrupted…fascinating stories and explosive revelations…” (Daily Record, 24 April 2004)

“… capitalises on our base interest in the more scandalous antics of the showbusiness elite…” (Birmingham Post, 17 April 2004)

“…makes for a riveting read.” (Hotdog, May 2004)

"...a wildly... entertaining jeremiad against the entertainment industry...against the perverts, flakes, egomaniacs, junkies, bullies and criminals..." (Rick McGinnis/Metro Toronto)

“…lifts the lid on some of Tinseltown’s weirdest and most notorious celebrities…” (Western Daily Press, 3 April 2004)

"...the industry has never been without a scandal, as this jaw-dropping book reveals..." (Hot Stars, 3 April 2004)

ANY ENTERTAINMENT hack worth his saltpeter understands that he is compromised - effectively neutered from word one . . . in toto, entertainment journalists are disgruntled; they are professionally castrated. And to top it off, these masochists are in turn, castigated and hated by the stars they've just fluffed up."
So write Andrew Breitbart and Mark Ebner in "Hollywood Interrupted." Hmmm . . . interesting point. As a lowly gossip columnist myself, I'd say the authors hit the nail on the head.
This book, which will land on the best-seller list next week, is an unabashedly right-wing, conservative one-note samba on celebrity culture. Is it the truth? Sure - from the authors' point of view, but with no balance. All stars are the devil here. I can't say I enjoyed this one; it's tone is often nasty and even petty - "the aging actress" . . . "the portly actor . . . " But as an antidote to much of what passes for entertainment coverage - or even this column - "Hollywood Interrupted" has appeal and certainly it has shock value. After a while, however, shocks lose impact. Chapter after chapter on those bad people in show biz! And it's not as if anybody's going to stop attending the movies, buying records or being fascinated with celebrity just because these writers are able to reveal clay feet under every heavenly Hollywood body. (The New York Post, Liz Smith, March 15th)

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. (Publishers Weekly, February 2, 2004)

CELEBRITIES are skewered like shish kabobs in Andrew Breitbart and Mark Ebner's upcoming book, Hollywood Interrupted (Wiley). The veteran journalists air embarrassing anecdotes about everyone from egomaniacal producer Robert Evans to Tinseltown train wreck Courtney Love to fallen power agent Michael Ovitz. The authors disclose a previously unheard 1993 wiretap of Evans chatting with Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss in which Evans seems to be ordering up a 17-year-old girl he calls "the little one." A chapter titled "Heroine: Love Means Never to Have to Say You're Courtney" was so damning in its details of Love's many meltdowns that her agents at Vigliano & Associates demanded that it be cut from the book (it wasn't). The tome also recounts how, after being terrorized by Ovitz's spoiled b rat childre n, the power agent's nanny quit and was subsequently blacklisted from working in Hollywood households. (The New York Post, Page Six, February 5, 2004)

Celebrity excess is being skewered in a pointed new book about the alleged bad behavior of some of Tinseltown's bigger names.
Hollywood Interrupted is the work of writers *Mark Ebner* and *Andrew Breitbart.* While writing the book, the authors parted ways with their literary agent, *David Vigliano,* over a less-than-glowing chapter they penned on another of his clients, *Courtney Love.*
Some examples: *Barbra Streisand*'s ex, *Elliott Gould,* is criticized as an absent parent.
*Cher* gets praised as "a wonderful mother."
*Suzanne Hansen,* a nanny who worked for power agent *Michael Ovitz,* claims Ovitz and his wife, *Judy,* spent so little time together that they communicated via notes sent through the office mail of Ovitz's Creative Artists Agency, where Judy also worked.
The authors recommend mandatory sterilizations for aspiring celebrities. (Daily News, Rush & Molloy, February 5, 2004)

"The perfect Oscar-Night side dish...Andrew Breitbart and Mark Ebner's Hollywood, Interrupted is a terrific book, both snappy and snappish.... The next best thing to a Los Angeles friend with a nose for juicy gossip. (The Wall Street Journal

"A Hollywood horror-fest. Celebrities are skewered like shish kabobs in Andrew Breitbart and Mark Ebner's... Hollywood, Interrupted." (Page Six, New York Post)

"Entertainment journalism has become a stampede of a-list a**-kissing. The authors of this bracingly impudent expose, however, have declined to pucker up." (Penthouse, February 2004)

"In this juicy Hollywood exposé, a pair of investigative journalists talks to the hired help, including former butlers and nannies, to peer inside the bad behavior of stars like John Travolta, Liz Hurley and Winona Ryder. Shockingly delicious!" (Star magazine, March 1, 2004)

The entertainment industry ...takes a beating in [this] scathing collection of revelations about ... scores of luminous entertainment media personalities. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

"This is a fun book!" (Jon Stewart, The Daily Show)


Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
Why do Hollywood stars, the most attractive, admired, and highly compensated citizens of the world, have families more screwed up than even the notoriety-driven mongrels loitering around the green room at the Jerry Springer show? Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 

 

Customer Reviews

114 Reviews
5 star:
 (54)
4 star:
 (17)
3 star:
 (7)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (33)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.5 out of 5 stars (114 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars it is a biased, though fun read, July 16 2004
This review is from: Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon -- The Case Against Celebrity (Hardcover)
This book aims to discredit Hollywood. Chapter by chapter it analyses lives of stars and their dispicable habits, such as neglecting children, doing drugs, voicing unsolicited political opinions. Things we all know or suspect anyways... However occasionally the authors go too far. According to them the most brilliant show to ever hit the TV screen, and to be imitated for its independence of thought and perspective is South Park! Yes, it can be a fun show, but if every show was as unopologetically offensive, most parents would not bother to buy a TV.

According to the authors Hollywood is feeding us all the morals. Do not forget however, that Hollywood is a business. If some director goes on and makes a movie for TV where he expressess his, arguably twisted values on family -- most people still watch something else. Yet when it comes to summer blockbusters, the moral values are usually pretty bland, and Hollywood aims to give the viewer what they ask for -- action, love scenes etc. If we as a society truely wanted something else, the theatre/opera/musical/comedy companies wouldn't straggle so hard.

Overall the book has more pathos than substance. It takes a few cases and extrapolates them to infinity. Such as taking one disfunctional school (where really, not only Hollywood students go) and talking about all kid's education in general. Or quoting one previously published book for most of the nanny discussion chapter.

The bottom line is, if you like reading some tabloids, track some stars but know to take things with a grain of salt -- the book will be an entertaining read. Just don't assume that everything you read is true, or that this is a final stamp on the way the world works. It's just a bit, and it is someone's opinion.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


5.0 out of 5 stars Hollywood dies on the Vine, July 13 2004
This review is from: Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon -- The Case Against Celebrity (Hardcover)
This is a great book that not only says what we New Yorkers have been thinking about Hollywood all the time, it spells our thoughts out in delicious detail. I have yet to read a greater indictment of celebrity culture, and can only look forward to what's next from Breitbart and Ebner.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


3.0 out of 5 stars If You See a Celebrity in the Road. . ., Jun 22 2004
This review is from: Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon -- The Case Against Celebrity (Hardcover)
Since its inception, Hollywood seems to have been largely composed of sociopaths, cutthroats, narcissists, and other forms of canaille. Today is no different, the important difference being that Hollywood used to know how to consistently make good movies. Now it rarely even seems able to do that. While the authors offer a few good reasons for the decline of Hollywood as the country's "dream factory," this isn't their primary concern. Their primary concern is, of course, trashing celebrities.

This book largely consists of gossip, gossip, more gossip, and little more than that, albeit much or most of the gossip is unfortunately probably true. It perhaps should be read by anyone before plunking down another dollar at their local movie theater, so that they may understand that their hard-earned cash is going into the coffers of an elitist clique of sub-humans.

That said, there is much wrong with this book, including:

1) While lambasting the political correctness endemic to Hollywood, it shamelessly panders to the preconceptions of the Right;

2) While approaching the material with a moralistic, frequently hysterical, holier-than-thou tone, the authors come off like small-town sitting room grannies smacking their lips and relishing every salacious detail of gossip. In other words, they come off as moral hypocrites.

3) Finally, the book is ultimately a light-weight work, severely lacking in sociological insight or, for that matter, profound understanding of the art of movie-making and the history of film.

In short, this book is largely an orgy of unregenerate gossip. If, however, it helps to put a few dents into the tinsel facade of the Cult of Celbrity, then it surely has been worth it. But it sure as heck ain't pretty.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
 Go to Amazon.com to see all 141 reviews  3.4 out of 5 stars 
 
 
Most recent customer reviews











Only search this product's reviews



Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category


Look for similar items by subject


Feedback


Amazon.ca Privacy Statement Amazon.ca Shipping Information Amazon.ca Returns & Exchanges