Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon -- The Case Against Celebrity (Hardcover)

by Andrew Breitbart (Author), Mark Ebner (Author) "Why do Hollywood stars, the most attractive, admired, and highly compensated citizens of the world, have families more screwed up than even the notoriety-driven mongrels..." (more)
Key Phrases: insanity chic, pan men, ethics officers, Los Angeles, New York, Courtney Love (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Not since Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons have two journalists (Breitbart feeds stories to Internet scandalmonger Matt Drudge and Ebner wrote for Spy) gathered more mean-spirited gossip about celebrities they condemn as sick and depraved. This diatribe is so unrelentingly negative that it loses all power to persuade. Breitbart and Ebner cover a variety of subjects they stand against, among them celebrities voicing their political views, a woman's right to choose, single motherhood and celebrities adopting children. In a chapter devoted to anonymous nannies discussing disrespectful kids of anonymous movie stars, the authors suggest mandatory Norplant and vasectomies for Hollywood parents. Hugh Hefner can't win for being wild or conservative; the authors blast the "fossilized relic embalmed in nostalgia and Viagra" for watching a bestiality video 30 years ago, and then condemn him for his intolerance of illegal drugs. Peculiarly, the authors adore gay porn director Paul Barresi, who paid off the "she-males of the night" that Eddie Murphy frequented so they'd change their stories. But when Murphy's lawyers didn't compensate Barresi, he turned all his records over to the authors. Barresi went on to warn Michael Jackson that his latest videographer was also a gay porn director. But when Jackson wouldn't pay for the information, Barresi leaked the story to the tabloids. Instead of calling Barresi a blackmailer, the authors announce that "he has a code of ethics emphasizing loyalty and respect." Most of the gossip isn't new (e.g., Greg Allman was an uninterested father; Whitney Houston, Nick Nolte and Robert Downey Jr. have had drug problems), and without any illuminating backstories, this is a sour and joyless read.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"...a wildly... entertaining jeremiad against the entertainment industry...against the perverts, flakes, egomaniacs, junkies, bullies and criminals..." -- Rick McGinnis/Metro Toronto

"...the industry has never been without a scandal, as this jaw-dropping book reveals..." -- Hot Stars, 3 April 2004

"Shockingly delicious!" -- Star magazine

"The next best thing to a Los Angeles friend with a nose for juicy gossip." -- The Wall Street Journal

"has appeal and certainly it has shock value" -- The New York Post, Liz Smith, March 15th, 2004

"terrific book, both snappy and snappish...."  -- The Wall Street Journal

“Literary assassinations don’t come any more vitriolic than Hollywood Interrupted…fascinating stories and explosive revelations…” (Daily Record, 24 April 2004)

“… capitalises on our base interest in the more scandalous antics of the showbusiness elite…” (Birmingham Post, 17 April 2004)

“…makes for a riveting read.” (Hotdog, May 2004)

"...a wildly... entertaining jeremiad against the entertainment industry...against the perverts, flakes, egomaniacs, junkies, bullies and criminals..." (Rick McGinnis/Metro Toronto)

“…lifts the lid on some of Tinseltown’s weirdest and most notorious celebrities…” (Western Daily Press, 3 April 2004)

"...the industry has never been without a scandal, as this jaw-dropping book reveals..." (Hot Stars, 3 April 2004)

ANY ENTERTAINMENT hack worth his saltpeter understands that he is compromised - effectively neutered from word one . . . in toto, entertainment journalists are disgruntled; they are professionally castrated. And to top it off, these masochists are in turn, castigated and hated by the stars they've just fluffed up."
So write Andrew Breitbart and Mark Ebner in "Hollywood Interrupted." Hmmm . . . interesting point. As a lowly gossip columnist myself, I'd say the authors hit the nail on the head.
This book, which will land on the best-seller list next week, is an unabashedly right-wing, conservative one-note samba on celebrity culture. Is it the truth? Sure - from the authors' point of view, but with no balance. All stars are the devil here. I can't say I enjoyed this one; it's tone is often nasty and even petty - "the aging actress" . . . "the portly actor . . . " But as an antidote to much of what passes for entertainment coverage - or even this column - "Hollywood Interrupted" has appeal and certainly it has shock value. After a while, however, shocks lose impact. Chapter after chapter on those bad people in show biz! And it's not as if anybody's going to stop attending the movies, buying records or being fascinated with celebrity just because these writers are able to reveal clay feet under every heavenly Hollywood body. (The New York Post, Liz Smith, March 15^th)

Not since Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons have two journalists (Breitbart feeds stories to Internet scandalmonger Matt Drudge and Ebner wrote for Spy) gathered more mean-spirited gossip about celebrities they condemn as sick and depraved. (Publishers Weekly, February 2, 2004)

CELEBRITIES are skewered like shish kabobs in Andrew Breitbart and Mark Ebner's upcoming book, Hollywood Interrupted (Wiley). The veteran journalists air embarrassing anecdotes about everyone from egomaniacal producer Robert Evans to Tinseltown train wreck Courtney Love to fallen power agent Michael Ovitz. The authors disclose a previously unheard 1993 wiretap of Evans chatting with Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss in which Evans seems to be ordering up a 17-year-old girl he calls "the little one." A chapter titled "Heroine: Love Means Never to Have to Say You're Courtney" was so damning in its details of Love's many meltdowns that her agents at Vigliano & Associates demanded that it be cut from the book (it wasn't). The tome also recounts how, after being terrorized by Ovitz's spoiled b rat childre n, the power agent's nanny quit and was subsequently blacklisted from working in Hollywood households. (The New York Post, Page Six, February 5, 2004)

Celebrity excess is being skewered in a pointed new book about the alleged bad behavior of some of Tinseltown's bigger names.
Hollywood Interrupted is the work of writers *Mark Ebner* and *Andrew Breitbart.* While writing the book, the authors parted ways with their literary agent, *David Vigliano,* over a less-than-glowing chapter they penned on another of his clients, *Courtney Love.*
Some examples: *Barbra Streisand*'s ex, *Elliott Gould,* is criticized as an absent parent.
*Cher* gets praised as "a wonderful mother."
*Suzanne Hansen,* a nanny who worked for power agent *Michael Ovitz,* claims Ovitz and his wife, *Judy,* spent so little time together that they communicated via notes sent through the office mail of Ovitz's Creative Artists Agency, where Judy also worked.
The authors recommend mandatory sterilizations for aspiring celebrities. (Daily News, Rush & Molloy, February 5, 2004)

"The perfect Oscar-Night side dish...Andrew Breitbart and Mark Ebner's Hollywood, Interrupted is a terrific book, both snappy and snappish.... The next best thing to a Los Angeles friend with a nose for juicy gossip. (The Wall Street Journal

"A Hollywood horror-fest. Celebrities are skewered like shish kabobs in Andrew Breitbart and Mark Ebner's... Hollywood, Interrupted." (Page Six, New York Post)

"Entertainment journalism has become a stampede of a-list a**-kissing. The authors of this bracingly impudent expose, however, have declined to pucker up." (Penthouse, February 2004)

"In this juicy Hollywood exposé, a pair of investigative journalists talks to the hired help, including former butlers and nannies, to peer inside the bad behavior of stars like John Travolta, Liz Hurley and Winona Ryder. Shockingly delicious!" (Star magazine, March 1, 2004)

The entertainment industry ...takes a beating in [this] scathing collection of revelations about ... scores of luminous entertainment media personalities. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

"This is a fun book!" (Jon Stewart, The Daily Show)

The entertainment industry ...takes a beating in [this] scathing collection of revelations about ... scores of luminous entertainment med ia personalities. -- Fort Worth Star-Telegram

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 24, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471450510
• ISBN-13: 978-0471450511
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (133 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #344,470 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

101 of 118 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Consequence of their Free Speech, February 26, 2004

By	Cambel "cambel" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

I find it facinating thta Publishers Weekly wrote a bad reivew of this book...I wonder if that is because their bread and butter comes from articles kissing the behindes of the very people that this book takes to task for bad behavior?

Hollywood has been full of mean, childish hypocrites for as long as it's existed. The only reason that Lawyers, Politicians, and Used Car salesmen get a bad rap and actors don't is because none of those other folks get to constantly go on the tonight show to tell us how wonderful they are.

About time somebody writes a book that takes people to task, such as a certain Million dollar an episode actress harrassing an unpaid intern at her management company and bragging about it. This is just one of the tid-bits in this book. Hollywood can blame middle america all it wants but the real meanspirited childish homophobic etc.. behavior lies much closer to it's own doorstep.

89 of 110 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Send in the clowns!, April 8, 2004

By	Jeffrey Leach (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Hollywood. The home of swimming pools and movie stars, of silicone and botox, of power lunches and big money deals. It's a warm, sunny place inhabited by the nicest people you would ever want to meet. Everybody is a friend in Tinseltown, always willing to lend a helping hand to his or her fellow man (or woman) with no expectation of a favor in return. I get the warm and fuzzies just thinking about how wonderful life must be in Southern California, how much better a place like Los Angeles is than boring old Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota, or virtually any other lame state in the country. Heck, the people who live in Hollywood, the people we see on television every day in movies and television shows, are obviously a cut above the rest of us. How can this not be so? All you need to do is spend a few hours a day with the television set and you rapidly learn these glamorous creatures are more beautiful, smarter, savvier, and more fashionable than the yucks who live in fly over country. Moreover, celebrities possess a greater capacity for truly caring about humanity than the rest of us do. Media stars care so much about the travails of life that they don't hesitate to use their money and influence to instruct us in the finer arts of raising children, waging war, and a host of other bread and butter issues the general populace knows nothing about. Every day when I wake up the first thing I do is thank my lucky stars I have such dedicated souls looking after my life.

Yeah right.

"Hollywood, Interrupted," written La-La Land watchers Mark Ebner and Andrew Breitbart, attempts to reveal what often goes on in Hollyweird behind the megawatt smiles and popping flashbulbs. The picture painted in this sometimes gossipy, sometimes tabloidish, but usually serious book is not a pretty one. It is also not a picture anyone remotely familiar with the garbage culture of Tinseltown should be surprised to read about. The two authors cite the usual sick suspects in their compelling examination of why celebrity culture simply must go away for good. Chapters examine the weird behaviors of Michael Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Roman Polanski, Courtney Love (oh dear), Winona Ryder, River Phoenix, Nick Nolte, and dozens of other celebrities both major and minor. "Hollywood, Interrupted" delves deep into the guiding tenets of West Coast political philosophers like Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, Janeane Garofalo, Alec Baldwin, Barbra Streisand (oh dear again), Rob Reiner, Rosie O'Donnell, and Oprah Winfrey. What emerges are portraits of people completely out of control, people living in their own fantasy world totally cut off from reality but with no idea how far out of bounds they actually are.

The reader pays a visit to such celebrity institutions as Crossroads School, a fine, upstanding academy of learning packed to the rafters with the dope-addled offspring of the rich and famous. Just wait until you get a look at the curriculum in this madhouse! The book interviews nannies that worked for celebrities and other movers and shakers, describing the emotionally vacuous existence these people live every day. Not surprisingly, materialism is the god of Hollywood, a place where objects and whatever feels good take the place of anything the rest of us consider emotionally or spiritually healthy. Dr. Feelgoods sporting prescription pads, pseudo-religious cults, and sexual promiscuity are daily activities in the mental motel called Hollywood. Unfortunately, their own horrific behavior never stops some celebrities from standing up in front of a camera to tell us how to live our lives.

It's unnecessary to go into specifics about the scurrilous activities of our social betters. Chances are you have heard about most of the bad behavior before. What the book attempts to do is move beyond the catalog of atrocities in order to figure out a way for the average citizen to break through the façade which protects these celluloid cretins. For far too long, the authors argue, the media systems have protected celebrities from themselves and from the fallout over the latest episodes of drug abuse, murder, or other similar crimes. Ebner and Breitbart claim that the Internet--with its myriad chat rooms, web pages, and bulletin boards-- offers an alternate media through which the citizens of this country can clear away the fog of propaganda pumped out by Los Angeles and New York. Celebrities and their personnel rely on good press to make money, make more money, and make even more money. Dumb statements from stars (and there is no dearth of stupid statements from the rich and famous) tend to cause a lot of problems when contract signing time comes around. In the old days, the authors assert, citizens had little means of conveying opinions instantaneously and in great numbers. A bad movie or a dumb comment can now find immediate release on the web. The recent imbroglio over the Dixie Chicks and the rapid disintegration of "Gigli," says the book, are examples of how the new media can checkmate Hollywood's nonsense.

Readers looking for yet another salacious tome on Courtney Love's latest meltdown or Michael Jackson's continuing troubles should probably renew their subscriptions to the tabloids. Some of that stuff makes its way into "Hollywood, Interrupted," but not too much or too often. When the authors deign to throw in some seedy allegations, such as a discussion on Hugh Hefner's depravity or Michael Jackson's troubles with a pornographer, the book falters. Ebner and Breitbart are at their best when they take Hollywood to task on issues such as childcare, drugs, left wing propaganda, and political correctness. The only reason celebrities exist is because they live in a country that has so much wealth that it can weather their idiocy. Tough times in the future (more terrorist attacks, for example) could very well silence these clowns forever.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Recommend, March 9, 2004

By	D. Reed (Culver City, CA) - See all my reviews

I work in the film biz, and part of my job is to pay attention to books that are selling, book that are controversial, and then read them and analyze them for my boss. Obviously, HOLLYWOOD INTERRUPTED falls into this catagory, as its place on the best seller lists and the highly divided thoughts on this board show, but my boss was uncomfortable with me reading at the office, so I had to read it at home -- same as with Ezsterhas' latest! WHY? Because this book tells some dirty little (and BIG)secrets abut big stars and about the inner workings of Hollywood, and because for Hollywood, it's very "unPC." Because this book takes an unpopular (for Hollywood, though not for the overall US) point of view, it's been ignored by the major media--though IMHO if it was a little-book-that-could from the same indie pub with a more Hollywood-friendly POV, then it'd be slobbered on by everybody!

As a pro, who reads up to three books a day, I have to comment: I may not always agree with the writers, but I LOVE their tone of voice. Their deft depictions of Holywood, both the low and high life, were precise, pointed and at times poignant. And I loved playing "guess the blind items," and I'm not the only one. There's a huge buzz and some guessing games going on after work about who's who in these stories, and heaven help Courtney Love if either judge in her cases reads this before trial--she'll be swapping hygene tips with cellmate Martha Stewart!

You can read this book as pop culture, you can read it as a polemic, but you should read it, especially for the character studies.