Citizen Hollywood

To most Americans, Hollywood activism consists of self-obsessed movie stars promoting their pet causes, whether defending marijuana legalization or Second Amendment rights. There's some truth in that stereotype, and in this book you'll find the close personal friends of Fidel Castro, the wannabe cowboys, and the ever-ubiquitous Barbra Streisand. But Citizen Hollywood makes a far more serious case--that Hollywood's influence in Washington runs deeper and affects the country's government more than most of us imagine. Celebrity activism exerts a subtle power over the American political process, and that pressure is nothing new. Through money, networking, and image making, the movie industry has shaped the way that politics works for nearly a century. It has helped to forge a culture that is obsessed with celebrity and spectacle. In return, politicians have become part of the fabric of Hollywood society and cater to the wishes of their new-found friends and fund-raisers. Using original archival research and exclusive interviews with stars, directors, producers, and politicians from both parties, Timothy Stanley's Citizen Hollywood shows that the only way to understand the image-obsessed, volatile politics of modern America is to understand the hidden history of Hollywood's influence on Washington.

Have you ever wanted to climb into a time machine and visit Hollywood during its heyday? Hollywood, 1939: When Tinseltown begins to woo wunderkind Orson Welles, he stashes himself at the Chateau Marmont until he's ready to make his splashy entrance. But gossip columnist Kathryn Massey knows he's there. Kathryn has been on the outs with Hollywood since her ill-fated move to Life, but now that she's back at the Hollywood Reporter, she's desperate to find the Next Big Thing. Scooping Welles' secret retreat would put her back on the map, but by the time she hears rumors about his dangerous new movie, she's fallen prey to his charms. She needs to repair her reputation, find out if Welles will take on the tycoon, and extricate herself from an affair with a man whose kisses make her melt like milk chocolate. Hollywood writers are only as good as their last screen credit, but Marcus Adler is still scrambling for his first. His Strange Cargo will star Clark Gable after Gone with the Wind wraps, but Machiavellian studio politics mean Marcus' name might not make it to the screen. It's time to play No More Mr. Nice Guy. Opportunity knocks when his boss challenges the writing department to outdo "The Adventures of Robin Hood," and Marcus is confident--until the love of his life bursts back onto the scene. How can he write another word until he knows for once and for all whether he and Ramon Navarro will be together? And to make matters worse, it seems like someone in town is trying to sabotage him. Everyone knows if you haven't made it in Hollywood by the time you're thirty, it's curtains . . . and Gwendolyn Brick is starting to panic. She's considering moving to a naval base in the Philippines with her baby brother, but she wants to give Hollywood one last go before she gives up. When she saves Twentieth Century Fox honcho Daryl F. Zanuck from an appalling fate at a poker game that goes awry, he rewards her with a chance at a role in a major movie. Gwendolyn needs to win before her ship sets sail. When William Randolph Hearst realizes Citizen Kane is based on him, he won't be happy--and when Hearst isn't happy, nobody's safe. Marcus, Kathryn, and Gwendolyn need to go for broke, and the clock is ticking. Citizen Hollywood is the third in Martin Turnbull's series of historical novels set during Hollywood's golden age. Hollywood's Garden of Allah novels: Book 1: "The Garden on Sunset" Book 2: "The Trouble with Scarlett" Book 3: "Citizen Hollywood" Book 4: "Searchlights and Shadows" Book 5: "Reds in the Beds" Book 6: "Twisted Boulevard" Book 7: "Tinseltown Confidential" Book 8: "City of Myths" Book 9: "Closing Credits" Martin Turnbull's Garden of Allah novels have been optioned for the screen by film & television producer, Tabrez Noorani.

Going beyond a biography, this text uses the life of blacklisted Hollywood writer and director Abraham Lincoln Polonsky to help us understand the relationship between art and politics in American culture and to uncover the effects of US anticommunism and anti-Semitism.

Steven Spielberg is the director or producer of over one third of the thirty highest grossing films of all time, yet most film scholars dismiss him as little more than a modern P. T. Barnum--a technically gifted and intellectually shallow showman who substitutes spectacle for substance. To date, no book has attempted to analyze the components of his worldview, the issues which animate his most significant works, the roots of his immense acceptance, and the influence his vast spectrum of imaginative products exerts on the public consciousness. In Citizen Spielberg, Lester D. Friedman fills that void with a systematic analysis of the various genres in which the director has worked, including science fiction (E.T.), adventure (Raiders trilogy), race films (The Color Purple, Amistad), and war films (Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List). Friedman concludes that Spielberg’s films present a sustained artistic vision combined with a technical flair matched by few other filmmakers, and makes a compelling case for Spielberg to be considered as a major film artist.

From Academy Award-winning film director Neil Jordan comes an artful reimagining of an extraordinary friendship spanning the revolutionary tumult of the eighteenth century. South Carolina, 1781: the American Revolution. An enslaved man escaping to his freedom saves the life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, a British army officer and the younger son of one of Ireland's grandest families. The tale that unfolds is narrated by Tony Small, the formerly enslaved man who becomes Fitzgerald's companion—and best friend. While details of Lord Edward's life are well documented, little is known of Tony Small, who is at the heart of this moving novel. In this gripping narrative, his character considers the ironies of empire, captivity, and freedom, mapping Lord Edward's journey from being a loyal subject of the British Empire to becoming a leader of the disastrous Irish rebellion of 1798. This powerful new work of fiction brings Neil Jordan's inimitable storytelling ability to the revolutions that shaped the eighteenth century—in America, France, and, finally, in Ireland.

This collection of essays pays tribute to Andrew Sarris, the most influential film critic in American film history. A noted film personality, Sarris occupies a unique position, walking the line between popular journalism and more academic scholarship. He began his career in the 1950s with a passion for film and an eloquent style of prose that led him to become a prominent voice in the film world. As a writer and editor for the Village Voice at its prime, Sarris reached and educated a whole generation of readers, and became respected by academics and critics all over the world. The thirty-eight essays assembled here and arranged according to major themes demonstrate the amazing impact Sarris has had on every aspect of the film world: fellow critics, filmmakers, readers, and American popular culture. Contributors include noted critics Leonard Maltin and Molly Haskell, film scholars David Bordwell and James Naremore, and directors Martin Scorsese, Robert Benton, and John Sayles.

"A Thomas Dunne book." d manipulation, and other tactics --A

In this first critical and cultural biography of blacklisted filmmaker Abraham Polonsky, the authors present an accomplished consideration of a survivor of America's cultural cold war and a superb study of the Hollywood left. 18 photos.