Customer Reviews

The Hollywood Book of Scandals : The Shocking, Often Disgraceful Deeds and Affairs of Over 100 American Movie and TV Idols

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

If you love celebrity gossip and the dark side of Hollywood you will definitely want to get this book. It covers all the infamous Hollywood scandals including the suicide of Jean Harlow's husband and the murder of Lana Turner's gangster boyfriend. Some of the stories seem to be based more on rumors than on facts but it's still a lot of fun to read!

If you are interested in the lives and scandals of Hollywood legends this book is for you this book goes from the very early days of Hollywood to the resent scandals of some of todays top stars.

Here are just a few of the things that are covered in the book
1.The Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle scandal of the death of Virginia Rapp
2.The shocking death of director William Desmond Taylor
3.The Clara Bow courtroom drama
4.the rape charge against Errol Flynn
5.The secret love child of Clark Gable and Loretta Young
6.Joan Crawford-demon mother extraordinaire
7.The Ingrid Bergman-Roberto Rossellini affair
8.the Elizabeth Taylor-Debbie Reynolds-Eddie Fisher triangle
9.the affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
10.The Death of Nicole Brown Simpson
11.The Murder trial of Robert Blake

And many many more stories that will keep you reading for a long time

Nothing particularly new or earth shaking. A good primer if you are new or care. I had hopes of discovering somthing new!

I found this book to be very disjointed, badly organized, and even poorly written. The list of "scandals" is the same old list of tired stories, innuendo, and might-have-beens that every movie fan and scandal fan likely knows about already. Worse, some of the occurrences Parish lists aren't really even scandals - the fact that Robert Blake was tried for his wife's murder may be a scandal, but in 2007 is the fact that Cary Grant shared a house with a fellow male star even slightly scandalous? The only scandal is in those who judged him, one way or the other.

In addition, this book could have benefited from thorough copy editing and fact-checking. There are many minor and major factual errors and, in addition, many typos and grammatical errors.

I don't recommend this book.

"The Hollywood Book of Scandals : The Shocking, Often Disgraceful Deeds and Affairs of Over 100 American Movie and TV Idols" goes over some of the more famous brain farts of the Hollywood elite. Unfortunately, most, if not all of the material here has been gone over again and again, both in print and on the large and small screens. Ultimately, the book comes across as a slighty more coherent, somewhat less sleazy version of Kenneth Anger's "Hollywood Babylon" books (the cover even bears a certain resemblence to Anger's first volume). Some readers may be uncomfortable with Parish's seeming fixation on the sexual orientations of most of his subjects. All told, this book is best recommended to those with little previous knowledge of Hollywood's less pleasant side. For the rest, it's the "same old-same old" (as my grandmother would say).

Do movie stars get into more trouble than mere mortals, or is there just something in the Hollywood air that sparks scandal? James Robert Parish offers gripping evidence of both in "The Hollywood Book of Scandals," which is his most involving and formidable book in years. Chronicling the sins of the glamorous (Lana Turner, Liz 'n' Dick, Winona Ryder, Rob Lowe) as well as those of the creepy (O.J. Simpson, Heidi Fleiss, Roman Polanski, Bob Crane), Parish selects 32 cases that are, as he writes, "representative, intriguing episodes of different types of scandals from among the many that have dotted Hollywood's long history." His choices offer a spicy smorgasbord. Parish -- who had background in both law and entertainment long before the two fields merged -- writes with authority and panache. Although he covers some familiar territory in the public agonies of Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Robert Blake and other supermarket checkout mainstays, he more importantly delves into such dark corners as the Hollywood influence of organized crime, the Rabid Right, sexual politics of all persuasions, and other sidebars to fame that seldom make their way into books intended for general readership. For years the bellwether for salacious writing about Tinseltown was Kenneth Anger's "Hollywood Babylon." James Robert Parish's extremely well-researched, highly readable "The Hollywood Book of Scandals" offers a splendid, more reputable, update to Anger's glorious bitch-fest. Parish not only shows how the mighty have fallen, but how some of the fallen are still mighty.
(Nat Segaloff is the author of "The Everything Tall Tales, Legends and Outrageous Lies Book" and has produced "Biography" episodes for A&E.

Veteran celebrity biographer James Robert Parish has written a real page-turner filled with new information about Hollywood's old and recent scandals. His book begins with the controversy surrounding Rudolph Valentino's love life and ends with up-to-the-minute reportage on Winona Ryder's kleptomania. Highly recommended. A must read.

James Robert Parish has given we who love scandals and Show biz a book that will hold a prominent space on my shelves. As a writer for the theatre I am always interested in "backstage" stories and Parish doesn't disappoint. This is one of those books that I will constantly refer to in my research and just for the sheer fun of knowing who did what, when and to whom. A really fun read and as with all of Parish's books meticulously researched and lovingly wrought. Anyone interested in Hollywood or show biz in general should own this book.

I am always happy when Mr. James Robert Parish writes a new book. Another book about Hollywood, but this one will keep you reading from page one until you finish without putting it down. As a leading authority on the entertainment business, Mr. Parish's new book covers stars from the 1920's to the present, young and old. Stars that you would never think could get into such shocking trouble are written about in this book. Everyone interested in Hollywood and the movie industry should read this book and find out what kind of trouble the stars can get into. Be it sex, murder, shoplifting etc., this book covers it all. It could change the way you think about one of these idols. I changed my thinking about a couple of them who I have admired in the past.

Can't wait until Mr. Parish comes out with his next book.

The scandals themselves were interesting however I found the book hard to read. Some of the information was repetitive from chapter to chapter and it was not well written. I was looking for something that I could just pick up an read a story at a time and this was not the book for that.