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

Rating:
Summary: I Now See What all the Fuss Is About!
Review: As a title 'HOLLYWOOD INTERRUPTED: INSANITY CHIC IN BABYLON: THE CASE AGAINST CELEBRITY doesn't REMOTELY SUGGEST it is the latest 'dish' or 'dirt' on the current Hollywood set. So going into it, I didn't expect that. What I got was a unified field theory argumentation using an almost overkill of celebrity flameouts, as well as an anthropological look into our modern media monster. Think Alan Dershowitz meets Penn and Teller. The book is clearly the most comprehensive case ever presented against the excesses of celebrity culture, and the institutitions in LA that foster it -- from the celebrity insta-karma 'religions' to the nannies that raise their 'golden' latchkey kids to the wacky high school to the stars (and the stars' children). Was glad to see there was no Ashton Kutsher (sp?) gossip. That the book's mainstream media detractors (conflict of interest, anyone?) clearly wanted some (check the reviews demanding timely 'dirt'!) shows how they are part of the problem. There were some times I winced when the authors' right wing views shone through. Oh well. At least they were funny about their failrly obvious bias. I also thought the book could have used some funny pics to go along with the outrageous stories. There are none. One last thought: I bet the Scientologists come after these guys. Big time.

Rating:
Summary: Tracking this book to the top!
Review: Being that it's my job to keep track of book sales, it should be noted that Hollywood Interrupted made it to a number one ranking on this very service the week it was published. The authors didn't have to dream, the buyers voted with their credit cards. It is also interesting to note that the book made the New York Times extended bestseller list and has been doing consistently well on all inside tracking services. That being the case, I have read the book and found it to be groundbreaking in many respects. The backgrounds of the authors couldn't have been more different, and their perspective is fresh. Googling Mark Ebner brings up twenty plus pages of the leftiest of the left in journalism, and Breitbart's experience leads him RIGHT back to Drudge. These authors not only bring tongue in cheek humor to their diatribe on Hollywood, they also speak for the people on the left and the right who are sick to death of celebrity insanity coupled with the dearth of any good entertainment to be found. Unfortunately for the celebs in this book, their sordid backstories are more entertaining to read about than what they're putting on the screen or divulging in interviews designed to sell the very crap that they are guilty of creating. Who is at fault here? The authors point it out. The media, the stars themselves, their friendly doctor feelgoods, their crazy cults and their complete lack of concern for the unfortunate children they so selfishly bring into the world. And here is another tragic irony. I am in my own small way a part of the media elite that Brietbart and Ebner so thoughtfully desecrate. I only wish I had the balls they have. Until then I'll blame it on gynecology.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific!
Review: I have read almost everything about Hollywood, from Day of The Locust to Holywood Babylon, but this book speaks for the ages. Matching polemic with investigative chapters, it reads appealingly coherent and alternately amused, enlightened and saddened me to the core. It's a relentless read, but with a purpose to persuade the reader into looking at celebrity culture with at least a measure of skepticism. Some may come off this book with complete contempt for celebrity culture and the skewed media that covers it, and they, I, am certainly part of the misguided choir they are preaching to. My favorite chapters include the one on celebrity nannies, the truly warped Hollywod high school triptych and a sad, odd chapter on actors selling their creative souls to carnie hucksterism. The Courtney Love essay is simply tragic and the Michael Jackson stuff reads like a detective novel set in a macabre circus. Although the authors do come off a bit mean at times in their unforgiving assault on celebrty culture, I sense that they wrote with purpose and maybe even care about the institutions and characters they take to school. Maybe not. Either way, this is a terrific book from start to finish. I look forward to their next.

Rating:
Summary: Oxycontin Blues
Review: The authors bring a tongue in cheek tone to their assault on Hollywood, but they don't miss the inherent sadness of the city without a soul. The glamour and class as represented by Cary Grant in the Fifties has been usurped by the pathetic nature of Paris Hilton on sex videos and Courtney Love on oxycontin. The Hollywood system has set itself up to fail, and the only thing missing from the authors' careful examination of the bottom feeding trend in Tinseltown is taking to task the corporate decision makers for allowing the excrement to fly as "entertainment." I don't even turn my television on any more. Nor do I fork over cash at the cinema. The strange thing is that there's really no love lost. This book made me realize that I'm much better off celebrating my family, my life and my country than I am the sniveling celebrity inebriates and deviants who think they can enhance my cultural, spiritual and, God forbid, political viewpoint. Breitbart and Ebner clearly aren't psychiatrists, but they do know the smell of excrement when they step in it. They're welcome in my home any time, but I'd remind them to wipe their feet. Great book. I'm looking forward to the next.

Rating:
Summary: it is a biased, though fun read
Review: 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.