Hello, He Lied -- and Other Tales from the Hollywood Trenches (Paperback)

by Lynda Obst (Author) "Old male producer from Warner Brothers, and in the other corner was me, a short female producer from 20th Century Fox in my early forties..." (more)
Key Phrases: development hell, directing debut, studio head, New York, Peter Guber, Hot Zone (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Hollywood producer Lynda Obst (Flashdance, Sleepless in Seattle) recounts her own battles in Hollywood's trenches--from her beginnings as a journalist to her current role as the maker and breaker of careers. Like other "classic" Hollywood books--Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger and You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again by Julia Phillips--Hello, He Lied is saturated with sleaze and proves, once again, that most of Tinseltown's stars are seriously lacking in the upstairs department. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
In her first book, movie producer and former New York Times Magazine editor Obst creates a peculiarly Hollywood kind of hybrid, a memoir/survival guide that describes what it's really like to get a movie made while still managing to say something nice?or at least benevolently neutral?about everybody in power. Obst left a dream job at the good gray Times to become a "development girl" (scouting material and overseeing script writes) for hyper-ambitious studio head Peter Guber. From Guber she learned that success means never going to a meeting (or doing anything) without a strategy. Her strategy here is to portray herself at work, describing how she has learned to handle tough situations and tough people. Thus, supermogul David Geffen, who once mused during a meeting that she should consider collagen shots, is praised for his personal manager-like interest in his employees' lives. Obst distills her experience into a coda for survival. She knows not to buck major trends ("Ride the Horse in the Direction Its Going," reads one chapter title). She knows when to put projects on the back burner ("Putting It on the Roof"). Above all, she understands the "Tao of Power," as explained in a chapter that reads like a contemporary Hollywood version of The Art of War: "The secret that all powerful people know is that no one else gives you power.... With power, there is no permission to be granted. Permission must be seized." At times, the writing is awkward: "The latent energy that makes imploding friendships so dangerous is the fact they are playlets of this familial struggle." But there are gems in the gravel. Obst's rundown of the difference between an arty "fuzzy girl" as opposed to an Armani-wearing "crisp girl" is worth the price of admission. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (September 2, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767900413
• ISBN-13: 978-0767900416
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #283,514 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Removes any doubt as to why Hollywood movies are so lousy., October 30, 1997

By	Richard Thurston (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hello, He Lied: And Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches (Hardcover)

While Lynda Obst certainly knows her way around Hollywood and has survived and even prospered in an arena where megalomaniacs, narcissists and pathological liars abound and indeed make the rules, her book is most useful in describing why good business makes for lousy art. Obst again proves the observation that 'Hollywood is high school with money'. Ambitious and driven (and obviously intelligent) though Obst may be, the deal-making she painstakingly describes is the art form, the pictures themselves mere adjuncts. Shopping witless scripts to a tiny group of hugely overpaid stars and directors insures a steady stream of 'product' and little beyond the most common entertainment and certainly rarely anything approaching art. Sheer persistence overcomes all. A project moves forward only when the right people are 'attached'. Risky, personal pictures do not fit into this equation and subsequently rarely get produced. Instead the motion picture audience receives a steady stream of generic diversions, soulless to the extreme, dull, predictable and adolescent, near perfect reflections of their creators.

21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Industry knowledge minus self knowledge equals this book., July 11, 1999

By A Customer

As this book proves, Linda Obst is obviously intelligent and well-educated. She must have gotten A's on all of her term papers in school. Yet her technical skills as a writer expose her complete lack of emotional depth and put "Hello, He Lied" right up there with "The Kid Stays in the Picture" as two of the most self-serving autobiographical whine-a-thons ever written. At least Robert Evans had some interesting war stories to tell. Obst droning on about "One Fine Day" just gets tedious. This book also bears a strong resemblance to "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again," in that Obst lets her confessional veer into vagueness whenever details might cast her performance as a producer (or human being) in a bad light. This book's primary function seems to be to deflect blame. Most of the stories here have been told before, the ones that haven't aren't all that interesting and, as other reviewers have mentioned, there are better books on producing out there. Pass.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ... Or How to Make It in Hollywood as a Woman, October 24, 2001

By	Ashlie Crooks "enlightenedkitty" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I happened across Hello, He Lied in a used bookstore, and seeing as I'm obsessed with movies and movie-making, I thought I'd give it a shot. The book is smartly written, and very funny. I read it in two sittings.

The best thing about this book is that it is written for women by a woman. It has a lot of ideas and tips I haven't seen in other "how to make it in Hollywood"-type books. Most tend to ignore the sexism that still exists there. However, Linda Obst is honest and straightforward.

Read this book, whether you want to make it in Hollywood or if you're just a huge movie fan. It's a great read.