The Twins of Tribeca [Paperback]

Rachel Pine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 14, 2006

Karen Jacobs has landed the job of a lifetime at New York’s hottest film studio, Glorious Pictures, which is headed by a pair of famously competitive and ambitious brothers, Phil and Tony Waxman. The young publicist quickly finds herself with an all-access pass to the tantrums, whims, follies, neuroses, and unimaginable egos of the celebrities who star in Glorious’s films -- but this comes as no surprise. It’s the absolute insanity inside the company that knocks her for a loop. Extremely competitive and cutthroat, the Glorious executives continuously search for ways to outdo, outscheme, and outmaneuver each other in their attempts to impress the Waxmans. In the tradition of The Devil Wears Prada, real-life movie publicist Rachel Pine’s razor-sharp satire captures perfectly the behind-the-scenes machinations of the film industry in all its glory.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

I wanted to love this book because I loved its conceit: a former junior staffer for Miramax Films writes a roman à clef about what it's like to work for a place suspiciously like Miramax Films—and then she sells the book to her former employer's book division, Miramax Books. I thought it would show that cheekiness, that verve, that insidery sense of the media business that lots of us love.Well, The Twins of TriBeCa is cheeky, all right, full of the kind of industry jokes I expected. The film company in question is called Glorious, after Gloria Waxman, mother of the two very difficult, competitive brothers called Tony and Phil Waxman (see parents Miriam + Max Weinstein = Miramax, run by the Weinstein brothers). The dog on the premises is a big mean animal called Harvey (after Harvey Weinstein). The famously reclusive actor who co-owns the space in which the Waxmans work is named Eddie De Silva (Robert De Niro), and the performer everyone is dying to have at their premiere is a celebrity currently known as The Person. So far, I guess, so good.The problem is that jokes like these are exactly as far as The Twins of TriBeCa goes. Oh, yes, there's a plot (about whether the heroine, who works first in publicity and then in marketing, will get together with the foot fetishist Page 6 journalist) and a subplot (about some mysterious leaks from the famously manipulative publicity department). But, as in other employee-revenge novels—I'm thinking The Devil Wears Prada, as ToT author Pine clearly was, too—the plot is not just thin, it's as anorectic as the characters it's based on. Pine's heroine, Karen—like the heroine in TDWP—is supposed to be a modern-day Candide, a stranger in a strange land, an observer whose naïveté inspires a kind of primitive insight. Instead, she comes off as a whiny, entitled brat. Sure, the Waxmans and their crew are impossible, but when Karen, at the end of the book, laments that working for them has made her forget to watch CNN and to discuss the news stories she used to think were so important, I was shocked. She did? Last we heard, at the beginning of the novel, she thought her job as a researcher at CNN was stultifying. In a better novel, this about-face would be an epiphany; here it just seems disingenuous. Karen's sense of entitlement is such that she'd bristle if she were asked to fetch coffee for the pope.Thanks to the success of The Devil Wears Prada, there remains a place for this kind of novel in the publishing landscape. And that's great, when it's done well—see 2002's The Nanny Diaries, which melded heart and humor with its social satire. Twins, on the other hand, is short on heart and predictable in its humor, altogether more gimmick than art. Agent, Katherine Boyle. 75,000 first printing. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Pine's debut novel follows Karen Jacobs, who quits her job at CNN to take a position as an assistant at Glorious Pictures, a major movie studio based in New York. But Karen isn't prepared for the bizarre behavior she finds in the publicity department at the studio: the senior assistant is jealous of her; her boss, Allegra, rarely talks above a whisper and makes urgent phone calls from the comfort of her bedroom; and connected interns don't have to come into work at all. Karen gets the chance to experience everything from the thrill of working at Glorious' Academy Awards party to the tirades of insecure executives in the publicity department. Readers who follow Hollywood gossip will recognize many of the thinly veiled films and celebs mentioned in the novel, including the mercurial, eccentric twins of the title who are easily recognizable as Miramax heads Harvey and Bob Weinstein. A definite piece of "gossip lit," Pine's first novel is a fun peek behind the scenes of a major Hollywood studio and the wackiness that ensues there. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Miramax (June 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401360009
• ISBN-13: 978-1401360009
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,929,289 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of fun...., September 29, 2005

By 

Chick-lit fan "A reader" (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Twins of Tribeca: A Novel (Audio CD)

Twins of Tribeca centers on Karen Jacobs, a bored fact-checker at CNN longing for a more interesting career. She gets it when she gets a job in the publicity department at Glorious, a motion picture company. The author, Rachel Pine, is a former publicist from Miramax, so it is extremely obvious who the inspiration for the Waxman borthers are. But the book is light a fun, and it's nice to see a chick-lit workplace book that doesn't take place in publishing! The movie business is something that is familiar to most anyone.

Karen has no idea just how nuts her co-workers are when she starts, including a boss who has imaginary telephone calls with Oprah, a co-worker who is obsessed with a young Glorious starlet (clerarly modeled after Gwyneth Paltrow) and the other co-workers, who fight tooth and nail to impress the Waxmans and will do anything to look important and superior to their co-workers. Funny tidbits about the craziness of movie stars and celebrities are also included, including their crazy demands and diva behavior.

Very little of the book centers on Karen's personal life, it is mostly about her job. This isn't really a bad thing. And one refreshing thing about the book is that throughout, although it is apparent that everyone around her is bonkers, Karen never seems to complain endlessly about the job much either. It's an interesting inside look at a production company from an author who knows.

The writing is also pretty good, a lot better than other authors in the genre. It's fun to guess who all of the characters and movies are supposed to be- look at a list of the movies Miramax released in 1996 and you'll see VERY similar ones here- The English Patient, Sling Blade, The Crow 2, The Pallbearer, Everyone Says I Love You, etc.

Overall, this is a fun and enjoyable read, and the fact it doesn't have a very clear plot doesn't hurt the book too much, because it is too much fun for the reader to really care! Definately recommended. Also note, the audiobook is read by Ana Gasteyer from SNL and she does a great job!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unforgettable characters & laugh out loud situations with a hint of the scandalous, January 19, 2006

By 

J. Bender "J. Bender" (Jersey City, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Twins of Tribeca (Hardcover)

Twins of Tribeca was absolutely solid entertainment. I read alot of different types of books--non fiction, schmaltzy fiction, serious fiction, you name it. But TOT really stood out. It's absolutely hilarious, has a heroine whose truly likable, and has some quite unforgettable characters. The book is an expose, filled with what I'm sure are both half-truths and full-truths, about Miramax during the 1997-1999 period. These were the years when the English Patient put Miramax on the map and Gwyneth Paltrow became the Weinstein brothers' darling, culminating in her Shakespeare in Love Oscar. I'm not a movie buff but it's really fun to try to figure out which movies and actors are being alluded to in the book. I thought it was just the right bit of scandalously funny. But even if you don't know anything about movies, it's still a really entertaining book. The descriptions of our poor heroine's insane work life and the three colorful execs (Allegra, Marlene, and Vivian) are priceless. Some have accused this book as being standard chick lit. Yeah, it's probably much more likely a woman would enjoy this book (except for big movie buffs) but it's definitely not standard and I whole-heartedly recommend this to anyone looking for a good entertaining read.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As Addictively Sinful as a Box of Chocolates..., June 15, 2005

By 

Rian Montgomery "Rian Montgomery" (Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Twins of Tribeca (Hardcover)

There is nothing like a breathtakingly good book that simply will not let you put it down, regardless of what time you have to get up the next morning. Even better is when it is a debut novel. I found "Twins of Tribeca" by Rachel Pine to be such a novel. It was so good, so gossipy, so dishy, and so well-written that I simply had no choice but to finish the book in one read.

Bored with her job at CNN, Karen Jacobs (our main heroine) jumps at the chance to work in the publicity department for Glorious Productions. Despite having heard terrible rumors about the working conditions there, she manages to get hired on as a junior publicist - assistant to the infamous Allegra Orecchi.

Karen realizes pretty quickly that she may be in over her head. The elusive Allegra is rarely around, and when she is, she isn't the most pleasant person to deal with. Dagney, Allegra's other assistant, seems OK at first, but soon starts acting like she is jealous of Karen and is about to have a nervous breakdown. Then there is the whole backstabbing issue: it seems all the top people in the department hate each other and will stop at nothing to tear one another down. Karen realizes that she is in the middle of it all - which is not a good place to be.

While in the midst of juggling her 12-hour work days, Karen has to try not to get too cozy with a Page Six editor who could send all of her hard work tumbling down around her.

This book was an enormously interesting read. Filled with studio moguls, harried assistants, glitz, glamour, and backstabbing, I couldn't have asked for a better novel. It was a well-written, highly engaging story with a great main heroine and plenty of other intriguing characters. The book's setting goes from the Tribeca area in Manhattan to the red carpet and movie premieres in Hollywood- all without losing pace. There are also a lot of interesting details about the ins and outs of movie studios, publicity, and much more.

There is very little about Karen's personal life thrown into the story, as it is mostly centered around her job. But the author does a great job of tying everything up neatly at the end - with no lagging parts or stalling chapters, as other books of this nature have had. Best of all, the novel stays realistic throughout it all, regardless of the sometimes implausible situations.

Overall I highly, highly recommend this awesome debut to anyone who likes a great novel - chick lit or otherwise! Fans of "The Devil Wears Prada" will adore this book and also find a special treat within the pages.