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My Last Movie Star: A Novel of Hollywood

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...and it turns out it goes down a little too smoothly. If you've ever wondered what it might be like to suddenly have the world's celebrity spotlight searching you relentlessly out, My Last Movie Star is a must read.

This book, about a cynical celebrity journalist who accidentally crosses over to become a celebrity in her own right, gives hilarious insight into the seductive but ephemeral allure of sudden fame.

My favorite sub-theme is the author's biting description of the self-important self-adulation of movieland's beautiful elite. The story's protagonist, Clementine James, ends up making some surprising choices when she is thrust into the glare of Hollywood's klieg lights.

One of the inventions that makes this book an original and a great read is the way the writer effortlessly weaves in appearances from the spirits of formerly-exalted-but-now-forgotten movie divas. You'll find out why Demi Moore named her unfortunate daughter Tallulah, among other tidbits.

MLMS will appeal to the serious movie buff, as well as anyone who has wondered about the ridiculous--and lucrative-- conniving that goes on behind the fame-making machine.

Hilarious. Entertaining. Soon to be made into a major motion picture, no doubt directed by Robert Altman, with Renee Zellweger cast as Clementine and Tim Robbins as the manipulative publisher Ed.

A thought-provoking (and laugh out loud funny) rumination on fame and what it means to actresses famous for their beauty as they grow older. Clementine Jones, recovering from a car wreck in which the young starlet she's interviewing disappeared, is visited by actresses as diverse as Dorothy Lamour, Myrna Loy and Tallulah Bankhead. Sherrill fills the book with quotes from these women's (sometimes self-indulgent) autobiographies, and peppers the novel with references to dozens of films, from well-known classics to bizarre, obscure films that aren't even rentable.

I loved the book, although the last chapter seemed a little odd considering Clementine and Allegra's history together. But the last paragraph more than compensates for any problems.

This book made me actually buy Dorothy Lamour's autobiography. I can think of no higher praise.

My Last Movie Star by Martha Sherrill is a clever, funny send-up of Hollywood that will suit those who've succumbed the glamour of Tinseltown, as well those cynics that view Hollywood Fame as a force wholly independent of the deserts of its victims.

Elements of the book read as truth. Sherrill presents an authentic insider's view of the star-making machinery that occasionally turns interesting, quirky personalities into genuine Hollywood Stars. The story line and characters are as real as anything you might find in the magazine racks at the grocery store checkout line. Lest the reader confuse Hollywood truth with reality, however, the book is punctuated with supernatural visits from Stars of the past, providing an effective and comical vehicle for examining the nature of Fame.

For those that revel in the fiction of the real Movie Star world, Sherrill is respectful of history, and pays homage to the oeuvres of forgotten Stars. For those who choose to laugh at the self-importance of Hollywood, the story is told through the jaded eyes of an outsider journalist that cuts through sycophantic phoniness like a laser. And provides plenty of belly laughs along the way!

Truth or fiction, Hollywood idol or idiot, My Last Movie Star will appeal to just about anyone the relishes a good story well-told.

Clementine James, journalist to the stars, embarks on her last celebrity interview with up-and-comer Allegra Coleman. After the interview, Clementine has plans to retire from movie star journalism and live with her stable, steady boyfriend Ned on his farm in Virginia.

But her plans go awry when Allegra crashes the car they're driving in - Clementine winds up in the hospital minus an eye, and Allegra disappears. Instead of going to Virginia to mend, Clementine becomes wrapped up in Allegra's disappearance and southern California culture, attending vigils and having one night stands with TV sitcom stars. Meanwhile, she's getting visits from yesterday's silver screen sirens - Myrna Loy, Loretta Young and Gloria Swanson, just to name a few.

Sherrill really seems to know this territory - stars and the culture of fame - and she writes very believably and farcically about it. Mostly, I found this to be an enjoyable read about the cult of celebrity, but after a while I grew tired of her "encounters" with dead movie stars; it was just kind of annoying quirk that didn't really move the story along. And if you're not familiar with old movies, you may have no idea who most of these women are. But the back of the book does include a cheeky "filmography" that offers a brief synopsis and critique of the movies mentioned throughout.

My Last Movie Star by Martha Sherrill is a clever, funny send-up of Hollywood that will suit those who've succumbed the glamour of Tinseltown, as well those cynics that view Hollywood Fame as a force wholly independent of the deserts of its victims.

Elements of the book read as truth. Sherrill presents an authentic insider's view of the star-making machinery that occasionally turns interesting, quirky personalities into genuine Hollywood Stars. The story line and characters are as real as anything you might find in the magazine racks at the grocery store checkout line. Lest the reader confuse Hollywood truth with reality, however, the book is punctuated with supernatural visits from Stars of the past, providing an effective and comical vehicle for examining the nature of Fame.

For those that revel in the fiction of the real Movie Star world, Sherrill is respectful of history, and pays homage to the oeuvres of forgotten Stars. For those who choose to laugh at the self-importance of Hollywood, the story is told through the jaded eyes of an outsider journalist that cuts through sycophantic phoniness like a laser. And provides plenty of belly laughs along the way!

Truth or fiction, Hollywood idol or ..., My Last Movie Star will appeal to just about anyone the relishes a good story well-told.

Beautifully written novel about fame and it's price. Clementine is sent on her final assignment for Flame magazine about the rise of current 'hot' actress Allegra Coleman. The car carrying the two women, which Allegra is driving, is involved in an accident. Clementine loses an eye and Allegra disappears. The resulting media frenzy that follows is deeply explored, Allegra is hotter than ever and Clementine, being the last human to see her alive, is suddenly thrust into the spotlight, eye patch and all.
Sherrill writes with such intelligence and insight on the evanescence of celebrity that I came to look at this Hollywood hyped world in a different way. Heavy quotes such as "Every star is born of a conspiracy of sorts." stick with me still.
The inclusion of ghosts of movie stars past is deftly executed and adds glamour and intrigue and got me interested in these women (Loretta Young, Tallulah Bankhead, Myrna Loy, Mae Busch) and their movies.
A finely crafted novel you won't regret spending time with.

I am a graduate student in New York who is trying desperatly to gain a better understanding on the works of the great 20th Century novelists: Virgina Woolf, James Joyce, E.M. Forrester, Ernest Hemingway and Vladimir Nabokov. Ms. Sherrill's latest book has saved my life from such stress and released me from the burdensome, academic cliche (i.e. snobbery) that dictates I must understand and apprectiate who came before todays best contemporariy writers in order to have a more mature apprecitaiton of what literature really is. Sherrill take us on a rip roaring, parody of a road trip where the journey is the destination. I may never think of literature in the same way.

Clemintine, the jaded celebrity journalist who loses an eye in an auto accident while profiling Allegra Coleman, her absoulutley last movie star (And when Allegra goes missing, Clementine herself briefly falls prey to the seduction of the kind of Hollywood fame she says detests) may perhaps be the most important fictional character since Holly Golightly.

Allegra, the spoiled, ethereal celebrity Clemintine is suppose to be profiling, and whose sudden disappears causes a near melt down in Hollywood, is a hip-hop...ghetto-fabulous Greta Garbo. And the world is desperate, desperate to find her.

The best reading though may be the visitions Clemintine experinces from starlets of yesteryear. These are mostly dead, alcoholic, used-up gone-to-hell-in-a-hand-basket old movie stars (Myrna Loy, Gloria Sanson, Dorothy Lamour, Marion Davies, Natalie Wood) who haunt Clemintine and at the same time inform her of the price of fame. This book is smart, silly, ridiculously funny, well thought out, insanely researched and the best read I've had since David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day.