Hollywood Animal
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4.3 • 8 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Joe Eszterhas had everything Hollywood could offer. A combination of insider and rebel, he saw and participated in the fights, the deals, the backstabbing, and all the sex and drugs. But here, in his candid and heartwrenching memoir, we see the rest of the story: the inspiring account of the child of Hungarian immigrants who, against all odds, grows up to live the American Dream. Hollywood Animal reveals the trajectory of Eszterhas's life in gripping detail, from his childhood in a refugee camp, to his battle with a devastating cancer. It shows how a struggling journalist became the most successful screenwriter of all time, and how a man who had access to the most beautiful women in Hollywood ultimately chose to live with the love of his life in a small town in Ohio. Above all, it is the story of a father and a son, and the turbulent relationship that was an unending cycle of heartbreak. Hollywood Animal is an enthralling, provocative memoir: a moving celebration of the human spirit.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Author/screenwriter Eszterhas introduces readers to the ultimate in Hollywood animal thinking when he quotes an unnamed Oscar-winning producer as saying,"the only time I'll root for anybody to be a success is if he or she has cancer, and I know for certain that the cancer is terminal." Eszterhas's book is unabashedly vulgar, a brutally revealing blend of sex and greed that goes much further than Peter Biskind's Down and Dirty Pictures (Forecasts, Jan. 5) in exposing Hollywood's dark side. Eszterhas refers to himself as"insufferable" for coveting success and money, but as the horrifying anecdotes unfold, he mounts a dynamic defense of screenwriters who have been treated like"discarded hookers... not invited to premieres of their own movies, cheated of residual payments." Salacious details mingle with explosions of temper, and Eszterhas isn't afraid to take potshots at William Goldman, Ron Bass, Robert Towne and other screenwriters he believes have compromised too heavily with the system. A particularly absorbing story centers on Sylvester Stallone, who starred in F.I.S.T. and then tried to take credit for Eszterhas's script. Even more shocking is producer Marty Ransohoff's relentless criticism of Glenn Close during the filming of Jagged Edge, which made the actress throw Ransohoff and his daughter (who was not involved in the movie) off the set. Just as readers begin to drown in an ocean of gossip, Eszterhas introduces two dramatic plots: his battle with throat cancer and the discovery that his father was an outspokenly anti-Semitic former Nazi. This electrifying section overshadows the Hollywood material and deserves a book of its own. It makes an argument readers will immediately pick up on: that animalistic behavior is just as savagely prevalent outside Hollywood studio gates.
