Customer Reviews

Hello, He Lied -- and Other Tales from the Hollywood Trenches

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

While Lynda Obst certainly knows her way around Hollywood and has survived and even prospered in an arena where megalomaniacs, narcissists and pathological liars abound and indeed make the rules, her book is most useful in describing why good business makes for lousy art. Obst again proves the observation that 'Hollywood is high school with money'. Ambitious and driven (and obviously intelligent) though Obst may be, the deal-making she painstakingly describes is the art form, the pictures themselves mere adjuncts. Shopping witless scripts to a tiny group of hugely overpaid stars and directors insures a steady stream of 'product' and little beyond the most common entertainment and certainly rarely anything approaching art. Sheer persistence overcomes all. A project moves forward only when the right people are 'attached'. Risky, personal pictures do not fit into this equation and subsequently rarely get produced. Instead the motion picture audience receives a steady stream of generic diversions, soulless to the extreme, dull, predictable and adolescent, near perfect reflections of their creators.

As this book proves, Linda Obst is obviously intelligent and well-educated. She must have gotten A's on all of her term papers in school. Yet her technical skills as a writer expose her complete lack of emotional depth and put "Hello, He Lied" right up there with "The Kid Stays in the Picture" as two of the most self-serving autobiographical whine-a-thons ever written. At least Robert Evans had some interesting war stories to tell. Obst droning on about "One Fine Day" just gets tedious. This book also bears a strong resemblance to "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again," in that Obst lets her confessional veer into vagueness whenever details might cast her performance as a producer (or human being) in a bad light. This book's primary function seems to be to deflect blame. Most of the stories here have been told before, the ones that haven't aren't all that interesting and, as other reviewers have mentioned, there are better books on producing out there. Pass.

Under the guise of writing an insider's guide to Hollywood, Lynda Obst has written a self-serving book that illuminates nothing so much as her own ego.

Obst, producer of such drek as "Bad Girls" and "One Fine Day", purports to give us an insider's glimpse of a producer's life. But everything is filtered in such a way to display herself in the best possible light, rendering the rest of what she has to say of questionable value.

For example, whenever Obst describes firing somebody, an inevitable occurrence for a producer, she will shift responsibility onto that person, saying "So-and-so had to be let go because he wasn't lighting the picture properly". (I'm sure So-and-So thought he was doing just fine!) She can't take responsibility by saying "I fired So-and-So because I thought he was doing a lousy job"

As a producer who has never produced an exceptional picture, never ventured off the well-trod path, Obst, whose sole criteria is expediency, can't even begin to conceive of the courage of a Saul Zaentz, who could tell Twentieth Century Fox to take a flying leap rather than cast Demi Moore in "The English Patient". Zaentz's courage forced him to close down production - and won him an Oscar!

When Obst whines about how women are mistreated in Hollywood, it's important to remember that whereas it is true that women in general have historically been mistreated, Obst herself enjoyed preferential treatment owing to the connections of her (much older) literary-agent husband. Many an aspiring player would kill to receive the kind of access that she enjoyed owing to her connection.

For a far better book on what it's like to be a working producer, read Art Linson's "A Pound of Flesh"

I happened across Hello, He Lied in a used bookstore, and seeing as I'm obsessed with movies and movie-making, I thought I'd give it a shot. The book is smartly written, and very funny. I read it in two sittings.

The best thing about this book is that it is written for women by a woman. It has a lot of ideas and tips I haven't seen in other "how to make it in Hollywood"-type books. Most tend to ignore the sexism that still exists there. However, Linda Obst is honest and straightforward.

Read this book, whether you want to make it in Hollywood or if you're just a huge movie fan. It's a great read.

"Hello, He Lied" is a Hollywood book that bridges the gap to become a mainstream read. I originally picked it up to learn more about the reality of life in Hollywood, for women and otherwise, but I got an easy-to-read Hollywood book that tackles general business and life issues in an amusing way.

Obst tone is that of a Hollywood outsider with insider information. She has a sense of humor about the nature of her work, her business, and her industry associates. When she tells stories of her experience, she has a sarcastic wit that gives people hope that not everyone in Hollywood has lost touch with reality. In fact, her family life remains one of her utmost priorities.

In sum, her book was what I wanted it to be: A light-hearted, insightful look at producer's role with life and business gems a long the way.

This isn't a memoir so much as it is a guidebook for ambitious women (and men) in high powered businesses. There are useful tips on how to deal with other people, how to pitch deals successfully, how to partner with others.... But most of all there are great tips and illustrative stories on how to deal with stress, let go of failure and move on to "Next!" when it's time. Plus a great chapter on Chix in Flix that helped me better understand male/female dynamics in any high powered industry.

This really is an older sister's or a mentor's book, passing on the wisdom to the next generation. It's more selfless than self-serving, and anyone who doesn't get that is, well probably jealous of Ms. Obst's quite genuine success in life.

We used to have a saying during the halcyon days of the 60's, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem". Obst is clearly the latter. She cynically justifies and defends Hollywood's archaic and byzantine practices as if they were the result of some divine inevitability, rather than acknowledging the reality that they evolved by accident and that they serve no purpose.

I agree wholeheartedly with the Reader who found her account self-serving. Obst is never wrong about anything. She is truly a legend in her own mind!

That's too bad, because she has some valid points to make.

You would be far better off reading a book by a true movie maker, director Sidney Lumet. It's called "Making Movies".

Well written, entertaining and easy to read, this book is a fun exposition of Hollywood culture, politics and the personalities involved. Despite not really being in the Hollywood business, I found this informative and something I just had to finish. Highly recommended.

This poignant, funny, and accurate view of the industry is very well written. I was both amused and entertained by tons of anecdotal and personal stories from her broad experience at the top of the film industry food chain. Lynda is uniquely qualified to write a book like this, and she succeeds!

Ms. Obst has written a delightful book filled with many lessons about how to get complicated projects completed, something she's expert at accomplishing. This book has applications for most complex business projects, and also for building a career. Obst knows how to get over hurdles, deal with interference, hang in for the long haul, and keep the project moving along despite all the difficulties that come with big dollar, competitive deals.

It's one of the few excellent business books I've ever read (including the ones I had to read in business school). Even though it's centered on the movie business, the author has shared many nuggets that are relevant to all kinds of endeavors. Very high recommendation! Plus it's quite entertaining from start to finish.

P.S. The negative comments of some reviewers are a mystery to me. Complaints about "Hollywood movies" (whatever that stereotype means), and unsettling business practices are common enough feelings, but these feelings are not sufficient as critiques of Hello He Lied. If you truly want to learn more about how big deals are done, read this book.