Customer Reviews

The Sexiest Man Alive: A Biography of Warren Beatty

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

 

 

While this book doesn't exactly go deep into the mind of Warren Beatty, and probably castigates him too much for his sexual desires and the numberous paramours he has had, it's a great book about a truly enigmatic genius, who should go down as a much better actor, director, producer, and writer than he will ever be given credit for. While it details his difficult relationship with men, his sister, and the numerous women he has spent time with, it never gets to the core of Warren Beatty and what is truly on his mind. I have to give this book 5 stars because no one else has ever even come close, and this book makes a hell of a stab....Worth the time if you are a fan of Old Hollywood.

Ellis Amburn continues his reign of biographical terror. In the same vein as his hideous Elizabeth Taylor biography, he now has penned the basic outline of the bedroom life of Warren Beatty, a guy whose teenage years extended well into his fifties. (Or until people stopped taking him seriously -- whichever came first)

It traces the career of Barbra Streisand's old schoolmate, an emotionally-needy Don Juan who went to bed with just about any woman he came across, married or single, famous or not. He remained a heartthrob in Hollywood for many years, reappearing with a bang and a flash when critics had declared his career dead. He dated women like Diane Keaton, Madonna, Michelle Phillips, and finally settled on Annette Bening, whom he married.

This book is less about Beatty's life than his bedroom life. We get extensive chronicling of, if not every woman he ever slept with, then quite a few of them. Most of these affairs add nothing either to the book or to our understanding of Beatty. And, as he did in "The Most Beautiful Woman In The World," Amburn is not satisfied merely to present Beatty's sexcapades: he does so for just about everyone else in the book. Madonna, Lara Flynn Boyle, Roman Polanski, and dozens of other people have their randy bedroom lives outlined in this book, usually with plenty of detail. Why? No reason. It makes for more titillating reading, I suppose. (The description of videotaped sex games by Sharon Polanski, who was stabbed to death while pregnant, and the first-person description of seduction of a thirteen-year-old, crossed the line into insensitive, tasteless, even pornographic)

The actual writing style is plodding and repetitive. Like many bad biographers, Amburn feels the need to spread anecdotes about the main personality traits of his subjects throughout the book. He repeats constantly on the predatory attitudes of Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty, or the strained relationship between Beatty and his sister Shirley MacLaine, or Madonna's liking for other women.

Perhaps the most unforgivable aspect of this book is the lack of insight into Beatty's mind. There are a few half-hearted attempts to explain why he tries to bed all these women, to the point of threatening to rape one girl and stalking another, but it's skimming the surface. Near the end of the book, he inexplicably decides to grow up and be responsible -- but by that time, the readers may be so disgusted by him that they will no longer care.

If you're hunting for a compendium of every tabloid article ever written about Warren Beatty, this is the book for you. But for a serious biography, look elsewhere.

So characterizes Warren Beatty, if one interprets this excessively detailed exploration of his life. Beatty's sexual exploits ad infinitum, and those of his fellow Hollywood comrades, male and female, should be enough for anyone to rip out their cable, never watch TV or go to a movie again, and retreat into the cultured world of literature. The shallowness of the last 50 years of movie celebrity is appalling, and continues today. I expected a tad more in-depth analysis and less randy ramblings, so although the book was well-detailed with the most minute information, that doesn't mean it was well done or as meaningful as it could have been. It did, however, verify my long-held opinion that Beatty's 'talent' was horribly overrated, and I never could figure out the mystique. I bought the book hoping to find a clue, but was disappointed. Perhaps it's simply the subject that is ultimately disappointing, and no amount of literary talent or research could hide that...

I agree with other reviewers that the book is shallow, disjointed, rambling, and too dependent on magazine profiles.

I would like to add that it is weird of author Ellis Amburn to assert that Beatty started sleeping with Natalie Wood while she was still married to Robert Wagner and that said adultery is the real reason for the break-up of that marriage.

Amburn refutes the claim by Wood biographer Suzanne Finstad that Wood walked in on Wagner while he was in a compromising position with another man and that this event ended the marriage. Moreover, Amburn knows "for a fact" that Natalie Wood was bisexual and that she and Wagner had an agreement that either one could cheat with a homosexual partner, but not a heterosexual one. Therefore, Warren Beatty wrecked the marriage. Right. I hope Mr. Amburn stays away from Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Oh, and I wish Mr. Amburn had presented more of Warren Beatty's early childhood in Richmond, Virginia. Warren, born in 1937, and sister Shirley MacLaine, born in 1934, are the only movie stars from that small city. Supposedly the place was a totally segregated southern city that remained unusually calm and non-violent during the entire civil rights era. It's no Birmingham.

Nonetheless, maybe white boys in Richmond were forbidden to discuss sex and they were told that black people combined dirty sex with devil worship in their music? It would be interesting to know if Warren Beatty was socialized this way and if it shaped the brief career he had as a honky tonk pianist before he got his big break in Splendor In The Grass. Did it also shape his and Shirleys' ultraliberal politics and Warren's friendship with Ted Kennedy and Gary Hart? Her liaison with Bella Abzug?

(Shirley was politically active as far back as 1968 when she was a delegate to the notoriously violent Democratic convention in Chicago. To what extent did her experiences in Richmond motivate her to do such a thing? Does she feel genuine compassion for disfranchised people or does she prefer to spend her time with the supernatural? How much of those traits are in Warren? Does he enjoy the supernatural?)

This book ignores those issues. All it gives you is shallow name dropping and sex acts. Don't waste your time or money on it. The only good thing that could come out of this book is that it might motivate Warren Beatty to run for president in 2008. As part of his campaign platform he could say that people are so sick of hearing the shallow stories of his sex life and Bill Clinton's that they are ready to talk about the really important stuff for a change.

Rather than focus on the films Beatty has made over his fifty plus year career author Ellis Amburn chooses to focus on the women Warren has bedded. We're talking literal paragraphs of nothing but the names of Beatty's conquests. I only wish that that in-depth analysis extended to the actual films. I picked the book up hoping to learn more about the Beatty masterpiece 'Bugsy' but all I got was a page and a half of info. Even then it was mostly about how Beatty fell for co-star Annette Bening, married her and started a family. (Amburn claims this ended Bening's career yet she has gone on to be nominated for both Golden Globes and Oscars). The only film that gets more than a few paragraphs is 'Bonnie and Clyde', which Amburn is quick to point out signaled a new era in Hollywood. Many important figures from this revolution like Jack Nicholson, Robert Towne, Roman Polanski and Robert Evans are mentioned but again it's mostly about how these guys slept with the same women and went cruising together. The book barely covers 'Reds' but instead mentions sex comedies like 'Shampoo' and 'Town and Country', uneven efforts like 'Heaven Can Wait' and 'Bulworth' and even Beatty's biggest bomb 'Ishtar'. The fact is that even though Warren's filmography isn't as long as peers like Nicholson or Dustin Hoffman, nearly every film he has had a hand in creatively has been consecutively nominated for Oscars in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Actor. These are major accomplishments but obviously Amburn is more impressed by the fact that Warren has slept with some of the most desirable women in Hollywood. The book was informative when it came to Beatty's upbringing. It does a good job of exploring the repressed environment he was raised in and how that led to a sibling rivalry between Warren and big sister Shirley MaClaine. Amburn details how Beatty broke up more than a few marriages only to leave the women in severe emotional distress over his inability to commit. Finally, he wraps the book up detailing Beatty's other lifelong obsession: politics. It's an okay read but hardly an informative biography of "The Great Seducer" as film historian Richard Schickel calls him.

...because this one is better than most of them. There is more info on Beatty here than in any other bio (and photos i haven't seen anywhere else). I should complain that there are hundreds of quotes from other books and articles etc.? Um, no. I don't care where the info came from. The fact is, it's here, in this biography, where it belongs. If you have a problem with Beatty as a person, don't read a bio of him.

This is a poorly written, slapped together (from lots of old magazine articles) Hollywood bio that COMPLETELY fails to explain one of the more complex, artistically daring figures of the film business. Of course, any book about Warren Beatty is going to have a lot of sex in it, but Amburn is not gutsy (like the late Julia Phillips) or salacious (like Kitty Kelly); his recounting of Beatty's numerous liasons is just recycled National Enquirer stuff. What really sinks this pathetic book is Amburn's inability to suggest just what makes Beatty tick: why does he take so long to make a film? why are his best films (Bonnie and Clyde, Reds, Shampoo, Bullworth) all about dreamers who wind up dead or deserted? Don't look to this book for the answers. Most annoyingly, the author seems to have scores to settle, having managed (appearantly) to live on the edge of the film/literary world. He constantly disses Shirley MacLaine, largely because she didn't pick up a check when they had a publishing lunch decades ago! His opinions of Beatty's films are frequently off the mark: he brushes off Bonnie and Clyde as too violent, paying little attention to the film's artistry, and he totally misreads McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Even if he hates the movie (and he does), Amburn should note that many consider it a classic. Beatty has spent much of his public life trying to appear as an enigma; Amburn has been unable to pierce the veil of secrecy, largely through his inept writing. Avoid this piece of junk and rent Splendor in the Grass or Shampoo instead. You'll have a much more rewarding evening.

There's not a single thing in this book that digs even remotely into Warren Beatty's talent and gumption that have made him not one of the world's best actor but one of the greatest PRODUCERS the movies have ever seen. BONNIE & CLYDE, SHAMPOO, BUGSY, and REDS are landmarks. Instead, the book is about his sex life. Which, at this late date, is ancient history! Author Ellis Amburn spends plenty of time quoting vaguely identified "sources" and credits his research to time spent around famous people (from Shelley Winters to Christopher Isherwood). A badly written, name dropping collection of junk.

As a Warren Beatty fan I didnt dislike it enough to not finish it but I remember thinking .. Is it over yet? Not much new information and mostly quotes from other books or articles. There seemed to be a good bit of information on other celebs (also quoted from other sources).

I was left feeling as if I really didnt read a biography. In fact I left it at a friends house and I really feel no need to get it back.

My advice would be .....SKIP IT but if you really, I mean really, think you want to read this, wait for the paperback or get it at a flea market.

A Hollywood icon Warren Beatty is a true in all sense of the meaning of movie star. He has seamless been able to span several generations and has maintain a certain glimmer of sex appeal.
In Ellis Amburn's book The Sexiest Man Alive: a Biography of Warren Beatty, the author attempts to deconstruct the myth and explore the nitty-gritty truth behind the public persona.
The book starts off with an anonymous hook up between the flirty Beatty and a fleeting fan. He has all the right moves and says the right things to close the deal.
Bouncing from flower to flower, this happening playboy is able to capture the attention and hearts of many leading ladies, but he always has a certain aloof and evasive quality.
What makes this book fun is that it is like a reading the story behind the story of the tabloids and getting an insight into America's original playboy. His words from the movie Shampoo imitate his reality when the characters states, "I wanted to explore contemporary sexuality through the medium of a Don Juan. A Don Juan doesn't get that way out of a misogynist feeling or the idea that he's a latent homosexual who's seducing all these women because he really wants to seduce men, impotence, or the desire to degrade women. He just wants to fu˘k because he likes to fu˘k."
This book is a titillating insight into the world of a true player.