In one of her most ambitious works, Joyce Carol Oates boldly reimagines the inner, poetic, and spiritual life of Norma Jeane Baker--the child, the woman, the fated celebrity, and idolized blonde the world came to know as Marilyn Monroe. In a voice startlingly intimate and rich, Norma Jeane tells her own story of an emblematic American artist--intensely conflicted and driven--who had lost her way. A powerful portrait of Hollywood's myth and an extraordinary...

In this riveting popular history, the creator of You Must Remember This probes the inner workings of Hollywood's glamorous golden age through the stories of some of the dozens of actresses pursued by Howard Hughes, to reveal how the millionaire mogul's obsessions with sex, power and publicity trapped, abused, or benefitted women who dreamt of screen stardom.

In recent months, the media has reported on scores of entertainment figures who used

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"The little-known story of screenwriter Salka Viertel, whose salons in 1930s and 40s Hollywood created a refuge for a multitude of famous figures who had escaped the horrors of World War ll. Hollywood was created by its "others"; that is, by women, Jews, and immigrants. Salka Viertel was all three and so much more. She was the screenwriter for five of Greta Garbo's movies and also her most intimate friend. At one point during the Irving Thalberg years,...

Michael Almereyda blazes a wild path through mid-20th-century Hollywood via the experiences of Hampton Fancher, a flamenco dancer, actor, and the unlikely producer and screenwriter of the landmark sci-fi classic Blade Runner. A consummate raconteur, Fancher recounts episodes from his remarkable life.

In Hollywood McGowan was continually on display, and stardom soon became a personal nightmare of constant exposure and sexualization. She escaped into the world of her mind, something she had done as a child, and into high-profile relationships. She was supposed to be silent and cooperative and to stay the path. Instead, she rebelled and asserted her true identity and voice. This is her raw, honest, and poignant memoir/manifesto: an exposé about...

Howard Hughes was a rich young man from Texas, heir to his father's fortune, when he decided he wanted to make movies. Age 21, he made the most expensive Hollywood film ever (at the time); and went on to break air-speed records, make another fortune in aircraft design, smash Charles Lindbergh's round-the-world flight record, and be romantically linked with almost all of Hollywood's famous beauties. Nevertheless, he died alone, sealed into a room he...

"From her idyllic childhood in the American Midwest to her Oscar-nominated performance in Sunset Boulevard (1950) and the social circles of New York and Los Angeles, actress Nancy Olson Livingston has lived abundantly. In her memoir, A Front Row Seat, Livingston treats readers to an intimate, charming chronicle of her life as an actress, wife, and mother, and her memories of many of the most notable figures and moments of her time. Livingston shares...

"Brian Michael Bendis was a hungry young cartoonist about to take his first step into the shark-filled swimming pool that is the American motion picture industry. The harsh lessons that he learned along the way-and the unforgettable people that he met-are set down for the ages in Fortune and Glory, his hilarious autobiographical account of Hollywood development hell. Written and illustrated by Bendis and colored by Matthew Wilson, Fortune and Glory...