Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sloppy journalistic account of interesting topic..., November 29, 2000
Perhaps it's the English major in me, but I'm always on the lookout for typos or mistakes in the books I read. When I find one or two, I usually dismiss them, but when they appear with great consistency I begin to wonder how much faith the book company or editor had in whatever work I'm reading. Such is the case with Shut Up and Smile, a supposed journalistic account of the behind the scenes world of supermodels, a book as riddled with problems as it is rife with typos and formatting problems.First of all, the subject is very interesting, and Halperin does discuss some truly frightening aspects of the trade, a definite wake up call to those considering entering the business. But a lot of what he writes is inconsistent or seemingly random - a chapter on the 'bad' years of the mega-supermodels merely catalogs some well known incidents without delving any further. And while he reiterates constantly about certain problems, he again just touches them on the surface, providing only a few examples to back up, for example, his claims that many, many models are murdered each year. One of the strangest chapters is one about Stella McCartney, and whether she is famous for her own talent or by virtue of being Paul's daughter. Not uninteresting, mind you, but what on earth does it have to do with the dark side of supermodels? And for that matter, if the author went undercover to 'discover' the true world of modeling, how come he uses mostly anecdotal and not personal references? The only reason I gave this book three stars is because the topic is interesting - its presentation may be below par, but that doesn't change the importance or relevance of the subject. It's fascinating to learn about rampant criminal activity behind the scenes, drug use, virtual prostitution and so forth, and for that the book is worth reading. I suppose I just wish that he'd dug deeper, provided more insight or evidence or details, repeated less and proven his startling, and significant, claims. As an overview, it's a good introduction, but it only skims the surface. Its structural, language and editorial problems unfortunately undermine it's power yet it remains a fairly intriguing read.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Mildly entertaining trash, August 12, 2001
"Shut Up and Smile" attempts to cash in on the success of Michael Gross's superb history "Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women." However, it falls far short of the mark.For one thing, the book design is hideous and amateurish: the cover looks like it was put together in twenty minutes copying pictures from websites. Inside, there are plenty of misspelled words, which, though it does not take away from the quality of the book, disheartened me a lot. Names were often misspelled (Gisele Budchen, Kyle McClaughlin, Cheryl Crow.) I found it appalling that although Katharine Hepburn is listed as a coauthor, Halperin didn't even spell her first name right. Also, the chapters on Stella McCartney (how much did she pay him for that glowing profile?) and the late Gianni Versace seemed to have little to do with the rest of the book. Halperin totally overuses the word "supermodel", which is usually used to describe the greats of modeling (Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, etc) the greats of modeling and is even appropriate for other major models like Shalom Harlow and Gisele, but he uses supermodel as a replacement for model, which is just about any girl who happened to do some ads and runway. What was shocking in "Model" (drug use, sexual abuse, agency wars, etc) is made utter trash in "Shut Up and Smile." There are ubiquitous and lascivous descriptions of sex acts scattered throughout the book which I found to be in poor taste. However, since "Shut Up and Smile" was published several years after "Model", it has a lot of new information, like about Naomi Campbell's supposed suicide attempt and Kate Moss's struggles with addiction. And since it is more of an expose than a history, there are more extensive and shocking cases listed of models (often underage) who were killed, raped, abused and/or harrassed, which further convinces me that anyone who's less than razor sharp is eaten alive in the business; and how an industry verging into prostitution is already crossing the line. The subject of racism in the modern day fashion industry is also interesting. "Shut Up and Smile" is worth a read, to further convince yourself that you really don't want to be the "gorgeous" girl on the cover of Elle, but only after the much more in depth and serious "Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women."
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sloppy journalistic account of interesting topic..., November 29, 2000
Perhaps it's the English major in me, but I'm always on the lookout for typos or mistakes in the books I read. When I find one or two, I usually dismiss them, but when they appear with great consistency I begin to wonder how much faith the book company or editor had in whatever work I'm reading. Such is the case with Shut Up and Smile, a supposed journalistic account of the behind the scenes world of supermodels, a book as riddled with problems as it is rife with typos and formatting problems.First of all, the subject is very interesting, and Halperin does discuss some truly frightening aspects of the trade, a definite wake up call to those considering entering the business. But a lot of what he writes is inconsistent or seemingly random - a chapter on the 'bad' years of the mega-supermodels merely catalogs some well known incidents without delving any further. And while he reiterates constantly about certain problems, he again just touches them on the surface, providing only a few examples to back up, for example, his claims that many, many models are murdered each year. One of the strangest chapters is one about Stella McCartney, and whether she is famous for her own talent or by virtue of being Paul's daughter. Not uninteresting, mind you, but what on earth does it have to do with the dark side of supermodels? And for that matter, if the author went undercover to 'discover' the true world of modeling, how come he uses mostly anecdotal and not personal references? The only reason I gave this book three stars is because the topic is interesting - its presentation may be below par, but that doesn't change the importance or relevance of the subject. It's fascinating to learn about rampant criminal activity behind the scenes, drug use, virtual prostitution and so forth, and for that the book is worth reading. I suppose I just wish that he'd dug deeper, provided more insight or evidence or details, repeated less and proven his startling, and significant, claims. As an overview, it's a good introduction, but it only skims the surface. Its structural, language and editorial problems unfortunately undermine it's power yet it remains a fairly intriguing read.
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