Rating: 
Summary: SPARKLE, NEELY, SPARKLE: Petition FOX for a DVD release!
Review: If you're reading this review, then you're ovbviously a fan of the book "VALLEY OF THE DOLLS". Chances are, you're also a fan of the film. If you're not in a coma, then I'm sure that you, like me, desperately want this great film to be released on DVD. So let's all band together and take some action!Let's all write FOX STUDIOS and petition to have "VALLEY OF THE DOLLS" released as a DELUXE SPECIAL EDITION WIDESCREEN DVD with plenty of extras! Please simply print-out the following open letter on your computer, and mail it to FOX and DEMAND that we get this on DVD as soon as possible!!! Dear Fox Studios: I hereby declare that "Valley of the Dolls" is THE best motion picture of all-time, and I insist and demand that you release it on DVD in a DELUXE SPECIAL EDITION as soon as possible! "VALLEY OF THE DOLLS" deserves a DVD presentation that includes: *Original W I D E S C R E E N presentation!
*Deleted scenes and out-takes!
*Restored theatrical release with the unedited love scene with Sharon Tate!
*Interviews with cast members!
*Judy Garland's unused scenes and out-take scenes!
*Judy Garland's soundtrack version of "I'll Plant My Own Tree!"
*Original theatrical trailers from "VOD" and other Jacqueline Susann films!!
*Interviews with Jacqueline Susann!
*Photo galleries!
*Costume tests with Judy Garland and other cast members!
*Stereo 5.1 Surround-Sound!
*Digitally-enhanced and restored film print-transfer to DVD!
*Trivia information, such as how and why Marilyn Monroe's voice was used in the film! (They also used one of Marilyn Monroe's costumes from "There's No Business Like Show Business!)
*Any and all additional extras that you can possibly pack onto the DVD disc! Let's get going on this, it's already been too long for this fabulous film to be released on DVD! Sincerely,
(Your Name Here) I'm serious! The only way to get this FABULOUS movie on DVD at last is to let FOX know how much we want it! I hope you'll all take some action to make it happen.
In the meantime, remember to get up at 5 in the morning and "Sparkle, Neely, sparkle"!!!
Rating:
Summary: SPARKLE, NEELY, SPARKLE: Petition FOX for a DVD release!
Review: If you're reading this review, then you're ovbviously a fan of the book "VALLEY OF THE DOLLS". Chances are, you're also a fan of the film. If you're not in a coma, then I'm sure that you, like me, desperately want this great film to be released on DVD. So let's all band together and take some action! Let's all write FOX STUDIOS and petition to have "VALLEY OF THE DOLLS" released as a DELUXE SPECIAL EDITION WIDESCREEN DVD with plenty of extras! Please simply print-out the following open letter on your computer, and mail it to FOX and DEMAND that we get this on DVD as soon as possible!!! Dear Fox Studios: I hereby declare that "Valley of the Dolls" is THE best motion picture of all-time, and I insist and demand that you release it on DVD in a DELUXE SPECIAL EDITION as soon as possible! "VALLEY OF THE DOLLS" deserves a DVD presentation that includes: *Original W I D E S C R E E N presentation!
*Deleted scenes and out-takes!
*Restored theatrical release with the unedited love scene with Sharon Tate!
*Interviews with cast members!
*Judy Garland's unused scenes and out-take scenes!
*Judy Garland's soundtrack version of "I'll Plant My Own Tree!"
*Original theatrical trailers from "VOD" and other Jacqueline Susann films!!
*Interviews with Jacqueline Susann!
*Photo galleries!
*Costume tests with Judy Garland and other cast members!
*Stereo 5.1 Surround-Sound!
*Digitally-enhanced and restored film print-transfer to DVD!
*Trivia information, such as how and why Marilyn Monroe's voice was used in the film! (They also used one of Marilyn Monroe's costumes from "There's No Business Like Show Business!)
*Any and all additional extras that you can possibly pack onto the DVD disc! Let's get going on this, it's already been too long for this fabulous film to be released on DVD! Sincerely,
(Your Name Here) I'm serious! The only way to get this FABULOUS movie on DVD at last is to let FOX know how much we want it! I hope you'll all take some action to make it happen.
In the meantime, remember to get up at 5 in the morning and "Sparkle, Neely, sparkle"!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Quick, I need a better Doll!
Review: In 2002, can we really shock anybody anymore? This sequel tries to be as much trashy fun as the original and leaves the reader unimpressed. Nothing is shocking in this book. No twists come completely out of nowhere. Still to compare this book with the orginal is doing this book a great injustice. Still the "shadow" of Jacqueline Susann lingers and it is very hard not to compare the two works.
Neely is still my favorite ... character and I love all the chapters with her. The contemporary setting didn't brother me, but why didn't the author leave the book in the orginal time period and work through the sexual haze of the 70's and the sobering early 80's? Did she feel it wouldn't sell? I felt sorry for the character of Anne Wells and her quest for love and in the end the book left me wondering if we can ever find a faithful true love? Do we ever have a second chance at true love? Near the end, I though "Yes" but by the end I'm questioning that answer. ...
Rating:
Summary: Great beach read!
Review: In the true style of the original, this sequel is a deliciously wicked read! Ms. Lawrence really took on a challenge by finishing Susann's unfinished manuscript, written just before her death. For readers not familiar with the first or those who forgot, it doesn't matter. Lawrence has updated the characters to fit the times, of course taking some very big liberties with age, etc. No matter, it works! This time, the story revolves around Anne and Neely, both trying to weather turbulent personal matters, age (they make 33-34 out to be ancient) and careers. Money and greed, of course, bring the two together after they split in the first novel. Alas, all is not neat and tidy! The story just oozes with sex, drugs, cat fights, ex-husbands, and skeletons coming out of the closet just to mention a few. Once again, we are reminded that Susann paved the way for today's greats like Jackie Collins. Congrats to Ms. Lawrence for bringing "Shadows" to life.
Rating: 
Summary: In the Shadow of a Giant
Review: It's hard to follow up such a classic novel like Valley of the Dolls. Rae Lawrence keeps in the spirit of the original, though "takes liberties" with age, time and place. It's an entertaining read and follows the path of Anne Wells and Neely O'Hara as they go through their thirties (wink, wink) in the eighties and nineties. Marriages are broken and remade, the children left over from the original grow to be as dysfunctional as their parents and just as entertaining. And no one has forgotten the power of those wonderful, wonderful dolls. However, this sequel seems to be bastardized by the recent cult of wannabe Jacqueline Susann writers... The characters spend too much time navel-gazing in the Hamptons and not enough rising and falling as in the original. And with the "liberties taken," it's easy to feel slighted as characters reminisce of the late seventies and early eighties. Overall it's decent, but check the book out from the library or buy it used...
Rating: 
Summary: a very pale shadow indeed
Review: Jacqueline Susann wasn't Milton, but she told a good story. She also set us up at the end of "Valley of the Dolls" (New Year's Eve 1964, If I remember correctly) for a great sequel. Unfortunately, this wasn't it. The prospect of Neely and Anne leaving their marks on the women's movement and the sexual revolution could have been fascinating and fun,(Think Neely in a group therapy session or Anne burning her maidenform in front of Gillian Cosmetics) but Rae Lawrence opts to move our girls to the vapid 90's, where she subsitutes plot and character for boring name-dropping, which makes this book about as exciting as a back issue of Town & Country. There's a whole new cast of inance characters, all of whom I think would make Jackie wince. They are all so similar and one-dimensional that before long you can't tell one Waspy boyfriend of Anne's from another. And loads of bratty children, all of whom are annoying in their own right. The ending is particularly idiotic. I won't give away the plot (such as it is) but suffice to say that where they end up is just about as stupid as where they began. I bought this book as a light read on a cross country rail trip, and it was a strugle to finish. Do yourself a favor and re-read the original. This one just doesn't cut it.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing like the orginal
Review: Like a lot of the other reviewers I was looking forward to this book because the first one was so good, but I was VERY disappointed. The thing that really bothered me was that it started in the 1980's and acted like they were the same age when we left them in the first book, in the 1960's. It made no sense. It might have been better if it picked up in the 1960's. This book really lost all the fun of the first. The glamour of the "Hollywood" lifestyle that existed in those times was the heart of the first book. Bringing the storyline into the modern age made it like any other Jackie Collins novel. It lost all of the Jacquline Susann Magic. I would have rather wondered what happened in the future than think of it the way Shadow of the Dolls portrays it. Bottomo line: If you are in the mood for more Jacqueline Susann, buy the other books that she actually wrote.
Rating:
Summary: Jackie's "Shadow"? Hardly
Review: Neither Barbara Seaman's bio of Jacqueline Susann, "Lovely Me", nor that of Ms. Susann's husband Irving Mansfield hint at there being any further, leftover material - why else was her first effort done in the early 1950's, "Yargo", dredged up in 1979? Nearly 30 years after Susann's death, Rae Lawrence without question casts a "Shadow" over its predecessor. Allegedly created using a "recently discovered outline", it would seem that Jackie Susann was as prescient as Nostradamos, predicting Xanax,the altered shape of Valium (it didn't always have a "V" carved out in the center), the PC, the need for safe sex, and more! There exist photographs of Jacqueline Susann working on outlines for her books - *She chalked various "trees" of people and events on large blackboards*, which makes the "recently discovered outline" claim highly questionable. In spite of all that, Ms. Lawrence does seem to have studied the Susann style and emulates it rather well throughout the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun Afternoon
Review: Of course it isn't Jackie...probably no one will ever even come close...but it was a kick just the same. Like visiting old friends with whom you've completely lost touch... Ms. Lawrence has managed to remain very true to the tone and style of the original, even with the liberties taken with the time frame.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Guilty Pleasure
Review: OK. I confess. I didn't just read this, I bought it. In hardcover. But I bought it used, admit that much in my defense. Reading this makes you feel like the ghosts of your college literature professors are standing over you shaking their bony fingers. But that's the point of it. It's like going to a family gathering and talking to your aunt who's been married five times and is eagerly looking to find number six. You feel your grandmother's eyes burning into the back of your head but you just can't stop listening. This book could have been called TWO WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL. Oh, don't worry, Neeley and Anne are still around at the end of the story, ready to go on bedding down and putting up with unworthy men in their neverending quest for Mr. Wrong. The reason this didn't get a fifth star is that I'd like to have seen more characters from the first book return. Helen Lawson is dead, and that wonderful old battleaxe was my favorite character in the first one. Miraculously, although decades have passed the characters haven't aged all that much. And, of course, nobody is wrinkled. Bartender, Botox for everybody. So put on your dark glasses and go get a copy of it. If you're reading it in public, put a dust jacket for SWANN'S WAY on it to fool your artsy friends. And enjoy.
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