Celebutantes [Hardcover]

Amanda Goldberg (Author), Ruthanna Khalighi Hopper (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 5, 2008

Prepare to enter a world of what fashion designer Michael Kors has called “stylish intrigue, glamorous machinations, and such juicy fun.”  Take a wild ride with Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Hopper, who have culled their insider’s purview to peel back Oscar’s legendary curtain and reveal what really goes on under the sheets of Young Hollywood. Do Happy Hollywood Endings really exist, or does everyone end up on the cutting room floor sooner or later?  It’s a shocking, entertaining race to the end of the red carpet…

Twenty-six-year-old Lola Santisi, daughter of an Academy Award-winning mega-director and a former cover model, is Hollywood Royalty without a kingdom—or even a condo—to call her own.  This “Actorholic,” who also suffers from “Career Deficit Disorder,” is looking for more from life than what her famous last name has offered, namely her mother’s last-season Chanel hand-me-downs and the lurking shadow of her father’s fame. In her latest gig as a Hollywood ambassador, Lola’s stepping out of her Louboutins and into fashion’s ultimate combat boots to engage in LA's cruelest blood sport: convincing celebrities to wear an unknown designer's gowns to the Oscars.

Providing advice, emotional support, and even a new mantra or two are her BFF (Best Friend Forever) Kate Woods, an obsessively ambitious talent agent desperate to go from unter to über, and her BAF (Best Actress Forever) Cricket Curtis, a struggling up-and-comer trying to surpass her role as a coma victim on Grey’s Anatomy and overcome one rejection after another to become the next Cameron Diaz or Nicole Kidman, or the next anybody.  Together, they dodge fashion roadkill while navigating General Motors’ Annual Fashion Show, the Gagosian dinner at Mr. Chow, and more.  Ultimately, the week culminates at the über-exclusive Vanity Fair Oscar party, where the allotted time slot on your invitation marks how far in or out you really are.  But who will be left standing with job, heart, and stilettos still intact at the after-after-Oscar party?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gawker.com meets Glamour in this insider's look at Oscar week penned by L.A. junior royalty: Goldberg, producer Leonard Goldberg's daughter, has worked for Todd Oldham; Khalighi Hopper, daughter of Dennis Hopper and Daria Halprin, produced and starred in the indie film Americano. After a disastrous turn acting and bedding her superhunk co-star, Lola Santisi, 26 and the daughter of famed director Paul Santisi, swears off actors and acting for good. But Lola agrees to be the Hollywood ambassador for Best Gay Forever designer Julian Tennant, to help get a major actress to wear one of his dresses at the Oscars. Lola woos an array of glitterari, each more self-absorbed than the next in the runup to Graydon Carter's famed Vanity Fair bash, and competes against the ruthless Prada ambassador Adrienne Hunt for the plum actor bods. There's up-to-the-minute star chatter and fashion name-checking throughout; wonderfully dead-on moments as Lola negotiates underlings to get on set; and a possibly fatal relapse of actor fever. The shallowness is more severe than Angelina's neckline, but that's the point, and it quickly becomes imperative to discover just who is going to wear Julian Tennant to the Oscars. (Feb.)
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Review

“A terrifying comedy of Hollywood royalty: Celebutantes proves that A-list vanities are still the preserve of the very beautiful, the very brave, or the very, very silly.” –Plum Sykes, author of The Debutante Divorcee

“In Celebutantes, two daughters of Hollywood, Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Hopper, take us through the Oscar rituals of that mad and magical week with all the inside knowledge that they have grown up knowing.  They are remarkably adroit and witty story tellers.  Beneath the utter sophistication and gloriously natural name-dropping, there beats a very warm heart.” –Dominick Dunne

“Stylish intrigue, glamorous machinations and such juicy fun.  No one but Hollywood insiders like Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Hopper could tell the tale so perfectly.” –Michael Kors

“A hilarious ride through the bumpy Hollywood Hills, complete with a trillion genius nuggets of true insider dish and a silver screen ending.” –Jill Kargman, author of Momzillas

“Fashion, film stars and great fun—a young insider's view of Hollywood!” -Anjelica Huston

"Celebutantes is a witty, incisive, under-the-sheets look at the chaos that is Oscar week.  I loved it." –Jackie Collins

“An irreverent satire on Hollywood celebrity, delivered with a keen eye for the absurd, Celebutantes is a wise and witty page-turner.” –Arianna Huffington

“Nothing is stranger than reality and the reality of Hollywood and our celebrity obsessed culture is brilliantly captured in Celebutantes.  Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Hopper, both Hollywood insiders, use their wicked sense of humor and keen insight to craft a piercingly intelligent, funny and at times tragic satire of modern-day Hollywood. The authors simultaneously elevate the lives of the beautiful and the famous while also pointing out the emptiness and absurdity of contemporary values.” –Tom Ford

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (February 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312362293
• ISBN-13: 978-0312362294
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,070,295 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars You've read this book. . . . April 12, 2008

By C.D.M.

Format:Hardcover

If you've read "The Devil Wears Prada," "Bergdorf Blonds," "The Nanny Diaries," "The Second Assistant," or any book of that kind then you've essentially read this book, only it was probably better because those books I actually finished. I love a good beach read book, but this is so badly written that I had to keep telling myself "just read five more pages and see." On page 56 a drugged-out, aging British rock star starts shaving her bikini area using a disposable razor and a cup of Diet Coke . . . what the??? The final paragraph on that page literally starts with the words "Could it get any worse than this?". . . this is where I decided that I really didn't care to find out.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The best kind of fluff May 6, 2011

By MM Rouse

Format:Audio CD

Listening to the audiobook was truly a guilty pleasure. I would have been very embarrassed to turn it on in the car if my other passenger wasn't a very understanding Labrador, but I loved, loved, loved it! It made the time fly by and was read aloud so skillfully that I just went and bought the sequel!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars she's no Hilton sister.... June 29, 2008

By T. Schaeffer

Format:Hardcover

Lola comes from a very famous family, her father a hot-shot director, her brother a sought after music producer. She, however, at twenty-five is still trying to find her niche, something that will make her famous in her own right, not just a daughter of.

She has tried many careers, after graduating from high school she went to art school for a year and created some interesting pieces, but she just couldn't stay committed to it. She also tried fashion design, but was not able to come up with anything superb enough to warrant a full fledged career. Part of the trouble is partly because she has an addiction, one that not many know about, but to her can be just as devastating as any illegal substance. Lola is an Actorholic. This means that every boyfriend she has had to the present has been an actor, all of which having broken her heart into a trillion pieces, but she just can't get enough!

He longest and most devastating was with SMITH (read it and you will figure out why there is a need for caps) a veritable nobody whom, (thanks to the leading lady having to go to rehab) she did a movie with and consequently fell for. Everything with them was great until the reviews came out and brutally ripped apart Lola's performance, after which he breaks up with her because who in there right mind would want to be seen as such a failure? What a loser he is.

After some pretty literal soul searching she decides to make one last valiant effort in the working world by becoming a PR person for her BAF (best gay forever) Julian and try and get a few high ranking celebs to wear some dresses he has designed to get his name out there come Oscar night. Coming from a famous family, however, does not guarantee success, as she runs into one problem after another. Never has Hollywood seemed like such a zoo!

I enjoyed this book, Lola is funny and accident prone and you can't help but root for her throughout the book. This title is a definite pick up, though panned by some other reviewers it has potential and is the perfect partner for your towel in that beach bag!