Traces the remarkable life of the head of post-World War II Paris' most exclusive finishing school, tracing her origins as an impoverished Jewish girl from the city of Angers and discussing the controversies that made her one of the world's most wanted women.

This book reveals the sinister true story of the Mafia in Hollywood. Crammed with legends, myths, murders, madness, mayhem, superstar tantrums, super-sexed starlets, power brokers and politics, it is an ambitious account of Hollywood’s hidden history, from the rogue cops who took on the Mob on the streets of Los Angeles to the stars who became stars because Mafia Godfathers said they would. In The Dark Heart of Hollywood, seasoned crime and entertainment writer Douglas Thompson reveals how all is masterminded by the money-obsessed Mafia, for whom everything and everyone is simply a commodity. The intense saga charges across America: from Hollywood bedrooms to the Oval Office, from California’s twenty-first century computer capital to the cocaine-connection HQs stretching from the Sunset Strip to Marseilles, Milan, Moscow, Tokyo and Beijing. In this magnificent and highly compelling volume, Hollywood is unveiled as Tinseltown without the tinsel.

An attorney, erotic arts activist, and sexual theorist argues that the American culture's much-touted sexual hedonism is in fact mere bravado. Ince shows that though 30 years have elapsed since the "sexual revolution," negative attitudes are still prevalent toward nudity, masturbation, homosexuality, and many other sexual subjects.

As wild and sexy and over-the-top as the decade it brings to life, "Moneywood"is the inside story of Hollywood producers in the 1980s. The purse strings were not controlled by adults, but by pop culture cowboys who couldn't balance their own checkbooks but could fast talk the talent. This is a meaty expos of the real hit men of Hollywood's last go-go decade.

When the world first learned of Pam Anderson and Tommy Lee’s impromptu wedding, when Sarah Jessica Parker had an explosive falling-out with her Sex and the City castmates, or when Ruth Madoff discovered the truth of Bernie’s marital infidelity

Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling are virtually unknown outside of Hollywood and little-remembered even there, but as General Manager and Head of Publicity for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, they lorded over all the stars in Hollywood's golden age from the 1920s through the 1940s--including legends like Garbo, Dietrich, Gable and Garland. When MGM stars found themselves in trouble, it was Eddie and Howard who took care of them--solved their problems, hid their crimes, and kept their secrets. They were "the Fixers." At a time when image meant everything and the stars were worth millions to the studios that owned them, Mannix and Strickling were the most important men at MGM. Through a complex web of contacts in every arena, from reporters and doctors to corrupt police and district attorneys, they covered up some of the most notorious crimes and scandals in Hollywood history, keeping stars out of jail and, more importantly, their names out of the papers. They handled problems as diverse as the murder of Paul Bern (husband of MGM's biggest star, Jean Harlow), the studio-directed drug addictions of Judy Garland, the murder of Ted Healy (creator of The Three Stooges) at the hands of Wallace Beery, and arranging for an unmarried Loretta Young to adopt her own child--a child fathered by a married Clark Gable. Through exhaustive research and interviews with contemporaries, this is the never-before-told story of Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling. The dual biography describes how a mob-related New Jersey laborer and the quiet son of a grocer became the most powerful men at the biggest studio in the world.

The perfect book for anyone with a Netflix account and a library card. "A real live cultural argument. Fun and funny, yes, but also surprising, moving, and thoughtful." - NPR "Smart, sharp, and hilarious, Slaughterhouse 90210 is the perfect pick-me-up and never-put-me-down book." - Jami Attenberg, bestselling author of The Middlesteins Slaughterhouse 90210 pairs literature's greatest lines with pop culture's best moments. In 2009, Maris Kreizman wanted to combine her fierce love for pop culture with a lifelong passion for reading, and so the blog Slaughterhouse 90210 was born. By matching poignant passages from literature with popular moments from television, film, and real life, Maris' work instantly caught the attention (and adoration) of thousands. And it's easy to see why. Slaughterhouse 90210 is subversively brilliant, finding the depth in the shallows of reality television, and the levity in Lahiri. A picture of Taylor Swift is paired with Joan Didion's quote, "Above all, she is the girl who 'feels things'. The girl ever wounded, ever young." Tony Soprano tenderly hugs his teenage son, accompanied by a line from Middlemarch about, "The patches of hardness and tenderness [that] lie side by side in men's dispositions." The images and quotes complement and deepen one another in surprising, profound, and tender ways. With over 150 color photographs from some of popular culture's most iconic moments, Kreizman shows why comparing Walter White to Faust makes sense in our celebrity obsessed, tv crazed society.

Dark History of Hollywood is the story of sex and excess, murder and suicide, ambition and betrayal, and how money can make almost everyone compromise. Intensively researched and superbly entertaining, the book reveals that the stories behind the silver screen are at least as gripping as many of those on it.

Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, Tommy Chamberlain always dreamed of one day becoming a professional working actor; inspired by such eclectic fare as The Poseidon Adventure and The Birds. When he turned eighteen, he moved to Hollywood, California with $150 dollars, and a determination to succeed in his life-long ambition. Arriving in Hollywood, Tommy eventually found work as a runway model and as the host of the Los Angeles cable access show, Future Is Now. It wasn’t long before Tommy found himself living life in a fast lant that bounced him between dead-end jobs, disco melodramas, seasoned actors, prostitutes, and finally his first real brushes with fame; before experiencing heartbreak, devastation, drug abuse and rebirth. Joe Matonis Tommy Chamberlain is one of those personalities that make an impression on you. One of those people that makes you look at your own war-stories of misspent youth and reconsider them to be what they really are – less interesting than Tommy Chamberlain in the early 90s. Part of you wishes you could have been there to see it all. The other part of you is grateful to have been a thousand miles away. John D.