Turning Right at Hollywood and Vine: The Perils of Coming Out Conservative in Tinseltown [Paperback]

Roger L. Simon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 8, 2011

An Academy Award–nominated screenwriter and a mystery novelist, Roger L. Simon is the only American writer to pull off the amazing trick of being profiled positively in both Mother Jones and National Review in one lifetime. The stunning story of his political odyssey is told in this memoir, where Simon recounts his migration from financier of the Black Panther Breakfast Program to pioneer blogosphere mogul beloved by the right as a 9/11 Democrat.

But Simon is beholden to neither right nor left in this tale of Hollywood chic run amuck, as he talks out of school about his adventures with, among many others, Richard Pryor, Warren Beatty, Timothy Leary, Richard Dreyfuss, Woody Allen, and Julian Semyonov, the Soviet Union’s version of Robert Ludlum and also a KGB colonel who tempted Simon to join the KGB himself. Among the topics covered along the way:

Is there a new blacklist in Hollywood, this one targeting conservatives?
Simon’s red-carpet tours of the People’s Republic of China, Cuba, and the Soviet Union with Hollywood screenwriters and famous mystery novelists.
Why Al Gore’s documentary on global warming didn’t deserve the Oscar on artistic grounds alone; and why the Academy’s voting system is so corrupt.

And, as they say, there is much, much more besides.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Years ago, I read Roger L. Simon's first mystery novel, The Big Fix, and I was delighted. Roger was a left liberal then and so was I. Now Roger's politics and mine have changed, but his gifts as a writer have only grown richer. Blacklisting Myself is a story of Hollywood and America, funny and perceptive at the same time. --Michael Barone, US News & World Report, American Enterprise Institute --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Rueful, thoughtful, refreshingly direct, and full of juicy inside stories, Roger L. Simon's memoir is the best and most intimate account of Hollywood's politics yet published. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books; Reprint edition (February 8, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594034818
• ISBN-13: 978-1594034817
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #794,055 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 86 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gulag February 16, 2009

By Jane Whitson

Format:Hardcover

If you, as I, are fascinated by how people begin the slow, often painful process of authentic life change after centering their lives on radical political and cultural positions we thought would never end--or we thought would end in some utopian fantasy world--then you won't want to miss Roger Simon's recently released "Blacklisting Myself."

Smart, clever, sophisticated, funny and radically honest, Roger has filled his book with recollections and vignettes from the wild and crazy days of the 60s and 70s when drugs, sex and rock and roll flowed freely over the land but turned out, as we all know, were not really free at all.

Going back with Roger as an erstwhile radical left screen/mystery writer residing in Hollywood after graduating from Dartmouth is an edifying and intersting trip. It's a long, long way from wanting to be "lionized as Fellini and idolized as Che" to being the current CEO of the conservative internet site known as Pajamas Media and sending Joe the Plumber to Gaza on a reporting assignment for PJTV recently.

Sure, he meant all his silly, lefty ideologies at the time, but a funny thing happened on the way to actualizing his radial fantasies: he began to re-examine his deeply held beliefs amidst a fascinating body of life experiences, and almost against his will started moving right: Though he'd rubbed elbows with Timothy Leary in a crackhouse, turned down a dinner engagement and business opportunities with Warren Beaty, had a flat tire in South Carolina while fomenting dissent during desegregation, spent time in both Communist China, Russia and Cuba, married three wives, was divorced from two and honed his skills as a mystery writer centered around his Moses Wine books, nothing could have prepared him, nor permanently kept him in his leftist myopia on that fateful day he sat in the courtroom watching the sensational O.J Simpson murder trail unfold.

It was there in the circus atmosphere of the greatest miscarriage of justice the world has ever watched live on TV that a whole new set of lights started to come on in Roger's head. Granted, only dimly at first, but the good news is they kept getting brighter as time has gone on.

How a man like Simon---who for decades had lived, breathed and had his being on the left fringe of politics and pop culture as the likes of Ward Churchill and Bill Ayers did and sadly still do---stopped, stared and slowly started changing direction and going right is a great read.

Indeed, with the kind of change you'll read about in this book, I can only wonder what's in store for Roger, in the words of Tim McGraw, "in his next thirty years." Will he end up writng screen plays about William Buckley? Try too oust Arnold as governor? Become an evangelical minister? (Ha! couldn't resist!) Who knows? Read this book, and stay tuned for the rest of the story.

If Roger can change from where he came from, then there's still hope for my left-leaning Obama-loving adult children. In fact, think I'll buy them each a copy just in case they're interested in reading how Roger Simon made a U-turn, and in Hollywood no less.

Why four stars instead of five? For one reason only: So he'll have something to strive for in his next thirty years! (On the Web, I write as Webutante.)

51 of 59 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't Put It Down February 4, 2009

By S. K. Chartwell

Format:Hardcover

I was expecting to like this book, as I've long been a fan of both Roger Simon's detective fiction and his incisive political/cultural blog. But I was nevertheless surprised at what a terrific read this book proved to be, from start to finish. It's a great memoir of life inside the belly of the movie business, told with the grace, humor, and bite (and telltale stories!) that one would expect from a first-rate writer. But more than that, this is a compelling account of one man's struggle with the dueling angels of liberal political orthodoxy and common sense. It's still on my bedside table; I re-read it every night. I hope that, as a true child of Hollywood, Simon is already at work on the sequel.

53 of 62 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Simon's walk through familier history has a refreshing take February 5, 2009

By Joe R. Hicks

Format:Hardcover

Roger L. Simon's writing is not only a refreshing look-back at the politics that informed the Sixties-era Hollywood film industry, but also the direction of American pop culture post-Vietnam and Watergate. His breezy, often humorous style walks us through his interactions with figures as diverse as Barbara Streisand, Woody Allen, Warren Beatty and Richard Pryor to Abbie Hoffman, Black Panther leader Elaine brown and Timothy Leary. As a former Marxist theoretician-turned-political conservative, I especially appreciate Simon's thoughtful description of his own re-evaluation of his left leanings that eventually shifted significantly to the right. Smart, funny, insightful ... "Blacklisting Myself" is a delight. > Joe R.Hicks