Customer Reviews

Tabloid Prodigy: Dishing the Dirt, Getting the Gossip, and Selling My Soul in the Cutthroat World of Hollywood Reporting

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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The author tells the honest and often hysterical truth about tabloid journalism making you feel as if you are on the adventures with her. She is honest about the messiness of life; of selling your soul and the search for redemption. The Tabloid Prodigy is a funny and yet poignant read.

Many people are attracted to this book because of the celebrity factor. I was drawn to this book to read about the inner struggles of a young woman trying to to identify who she was between her conservative upbringing and the allure of Hollywood. Anyone who has walked the road of trying to figure themselves out can identify with the author. I will admit learning about the tactics tabloid reporters use to get their stories was quite entertaining as well. This is a great read not to be missed!

You aren't supposed to be able to reconcile Hollywood amorality and a tabloid writer's conscience, but Ms. Kast has done exactly that. She manages to entertain with typical tabloid-style titillating stories, but couches them all inside her own personal journey to a life of higher personal responsibility. A book set in Hollywood that is both entertaining and genuinely thought provoking? They said it couldn't be done...

Tabloid prodigy is a poignant tale of the author's journey into self-realization. This well written read is full of excitement and humor while giving the reader a full-frontal view of the seedy underbelly of tabloid journalism.

Terrific book. Unusual subject matter, highly entertaining, and thought provoking all at the same time. I couldn't put it down.

This is a facinating book. It lets readers into the world of the tabloid journalist, how they work and how they will do anything to get the story.
I see celebrities and journalists in a new light now.
Marlise is very funny and a joy to follow. I would recommend this book to anyone!!

For someone who is not interested in tabloids, I found myself emerged in the life of this writer, as though viewing her life through her eyes.
Tabloid Prodigy is full of non-stop adventures. It was as though I had tapped into her personal journal.

Dirty laundry sells, period. The problems today extend much further than the gossip TV shows and the lifestyles of the rich and famous on newsstands. The challenges are now with our most precious asset, the future of America. More reports today linking social media to teen violence and bullying are side effects of paparazzi and celebrity attention to details that no longer dignify any privacy. The "Tabloid Culture" has a direct impact on children's ability to learn. Mobile devices have become mainstream distraction for the youth, celebrity propaganda encourages awareness and exaggerated criticism within "social clicks" and elitism that now has a far greater reaching capability with Facebook and Twitter. These media outlets, including text messages, provide a new age of bullying and torment for students that lack the maturity to engage these tools with any productive intention. People like to negative gossip, it's a wicked flaw in human nature. Examine the suicide of Pheobe Prince, it all relates. I hope more people read this book and realize the addictive and profound negative social impact of tabloid propaganda. This book shows you the inside scoop of the tabloid industry and how dirty the business can get.

Very cool and interesting perspective from inside the paparazzi industry. I wanted to learn more about the demand for celebrity gossip and it's impact on American culture. Tabloid Prodigy gives you the true inside scoop of how the media's demand intentionally attracts readers using embellished headline that rival for front page placement.
Kudos to Marlise for exposing the truth about the industry that we can't help notice at every grocery check-out line.

Marlise landed her first real job after college at 'The Globe' as a tabloid reporter, and ultimately became a very successful one. In this book she provides a fascinating and entertaining insider-view of not only the squalid things she'd do to "get the story" and keep her job, but also the sometimes surprising approach the tabloids take to churning out papers millions of people secretly gobble up each week.

Along the way, she does indeed dish some dirt about the celebrities and stories she chased. Though the book was written only a couple of years ago, her stint as a tabloid reporter was in the mid-1990's. I was worried that would make her tale dated - but it really didn't. It just brought the gossip of the time - Will Smith marrying Jada, Lewinski-gate, Jon Benet, The not-so-much a "millionaire", Rick who picked a wife and got married on Fox TV, etc. Really, though, this book isn't so much about the gossip itself - but her adventures in pursuit of the gossip and her finding her legs in the "real world".

A couple of favorite lines:
"If you take a job with 'The Globe', you won't be climbing the corporate ladder, you'll be climbing the corporate foot stool." - Her mother.
"We are a tabloid magazine - we want scandal." - Her boss

Bottom Line: An entertaining, behind-the-scenes look for anyone who has ever wondered where those headlines really come from while standing in the grocery store line.