Celebutantes [Paperback]

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

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 2009

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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"New York has 'Bergdorf Blondes,' 'Sex and the City' and 'The Nanny Diaries.' And now L.A. has 'Celebutantes'..." -- Los Angeles Times

 

“Witty and revealing... a walk-up to that blessed event: the Oscars.  You’ll feel like you were there.” –People (3.5 stars)

"A frothy serving of chick lit... delectable." --Entertainment Weekly (A Summer Reading Must Paperback)

 

"A fast-paced satire of Hollywood's awards season in all its crazy glory." -- New York Daily News

 

"A witty and humorous read that takes a revealing look at what really goes on inside the lives of young Hollywood." -- Star Magazine

“Gawker.com meets Glamour in this insider’s look at Oscar week penned by L.A. junior royalty….There’s up-to-the-minute star chatter and fashion name-checking throughout.” –Publishers Weekly

“A featherweight Tinseltown send-up with a surprisingly well-balanced heroine.” –Kirkus

“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 Hollywood, Academy Awards week is a bigger deal than Christmas week is elsewhere.   I've been attending for over thirty years, and the excitement and craziness has never abated.  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

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; First Edition edition (February 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312362307
• ISBN-13: 978-0312362300
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #345,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

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

By 

C.D.M. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Celebutantes (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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Arrrrgh....this book is disappointing!, May 21, 2009

By 

chicagoannie (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Celebutantes (Paperback)

I bought this book at Target one night after work knowing that I would be calling in sick to work the next day (I really am sick). Two weeks ago I visited LA for the first time & had read "You'll Never Nanny in this Town Again," on the plane ride back to the midwest. THAT was a great read after getting a brief glimpse into the glamorous Hollywood lifestyle. I was hoping Celebutantes would be an easy, fun read too, but, although I'm an avid reader(just finished City of Thieves), unfortunately I'm at page 55 & am deciding this in not the page-turner I was hoping for, & for some reason the characters are confusing to me. I'm not sure if these girls really have Hollywood ties or have made all these scenarios up, and unfortunately I don't care even though I was in the mood for this type of book. I've never read the Nanny Diaries but I'm thinking it will at lest be a better written, light, frivolous read....
Note to the writers: an index about your characters would be helpful. You mix so many real actors with names I've never heard of & I have no idea if they're real people or not, or who they're supposed to be. Perhaps your California friends get it but I don't live there so I'm confused, & I'm sure many non-Californians who try to read your book are too!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What was the point?, March 25, 2008

By 

KJ (a twenty something) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Celebutantes (Hardcover)

I typically enjoy the fun, glitzy, witty chick-lit, but this book was unbearable and painful to get through. So many times I wanted to just STOP reading it altogether. It just didn't do anything for me. The characters were boring and unrelatable. The name dropping was silly... I would rather read a copy of Us Weekly.