This absorbing tome looks into the lives, loves and break-ups of both old and new, very familiar names in movies and on television: Woody vs. Mia; Aniston vs. Pitt; DeMaggio vs. Monroe; Cruise vs. Kidman; Hughes vs Peters; Eastwood vs Locke; and so on, going all the way back to the days of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Sr., while stopping to revisit the likes of Madonna vs. Sean Penn and Sonny vs. Cher along the way. There are also chapters on Petter [sic] Lindstrom's bitter split with Ingrid Bergman over lover and film director, Roberto Rosellini; Ted Danson's bizarrely appearing in blackface during his involvement with Whoopi Goldberg; the bad marriage of Cary Grant and Barbara Hutton; and dozens more. Throughout its pages, the book documents one basic Hollywood truism: that relationships in La La Land are often based more on career advancement than "love." It is amusing how people who break up relationships via affairs justify their infidelity. Anne Heche, who discarded Ellen DeGeneres as she had Steve Martin before her, seemed to blame DeGeneres for her affair because Ellen didn't trust her, but considering that Heche had an affair with a cameraman while everyone was filming a documentary about Ellen, it seems DeGeneres' fears were thoroughly justified!
Verdict: Excellent look at the bizarre nature of Hollywood relationships and the disasters they often incur. ***1/2.
I need to pick up this one, I need something to read by the pool this summer! As a former writer and editor for the tabloids, this is right up my pleasure-reading alley!!
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It must have been wild working for the tabloids! You'll probably be familiar already with most of the stories in the book, but Parish does a very good job of bringing them all back to life.
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