Cowgirl Jane Press

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CELEBRITIES SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT ABOUT HOLLYWOOD.

It’s Not All Fun and Games Breaking Into the Biz

and Making it in the City of Angels.

Is Hollywood the happiest place on earth, next to Disneyland, or the most miserable? Is the road trip down the yellow brick road to fame and fortune worth the heartache and hard work, or is it a bust?  Even among those who have made it opinions vary.

There are certainly perks that come with the job.  “Fame means when your computer modem is broken, the repair guy comes out to your house a little faster,” says Sandra Bullock.  But as Bette Midler points out, “The worst part of success is to try to find someone who is happy for you.”

Indeed the money is good.  Marlon Brando explains, “The only reason I’m in Hollywood is that I don’t have the moral courage to refuse the money.”  However, there’s a loss of privacy.  “You don’t pick your nose, you know,” notes George Clooney, “Or, if you do, you do it under a desk somewhere.”

Still, it’s fun making movies.  “I think that movie sets, when they’re good, are a lot like sandboxes,” conveys Christopher Walken.  Charlie Sheen, too, depicts a movie set as “a playground for the imagination.” As far as living there?  Carrie Fisher believes, ”You can’t find true affection in Hollywood because everyone does the fake affection so well.”

Hollywood or Bust: Movie Stars Dish on Following their Dreams, Making it Big, and Surviving in Tinseltown lets readers make up their own minds. Author Susan Marg culled over five hundred quips, quotes, and off-the-cuff remarks of actors, directors, writers, and others involved in making movies from magazines, interviews, biographies, autobiographies, and, in this day and age, the Internet.  All told the quotes convey what insiders think about themselves, their lives, their fame, their careers, each other, and the town itself.

“It’s like overhearing a conversation at Starbucks,” Marg notes.

Hollywood or Bust, ISBN 978-0-578-11882-6, is a 182-page paperback book consisting of seven chapters and twenty original photographs.  Topics cover dreams of success to attending the Oscars.  It lists for $14.95.

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Susan Marg is the author of Las Vegas Weddings: A Brief History, Celebrity Gossip, Everything Elvis, and the Complete Chapel Guide, published by HarperCollins.  Since she has moved her field of focus from the City of Lights to the City of Angels, her interest in popular culture has only intensified.