A longtime industry insider and acclaimed Hollywood historian goes behind the scenes to tell the stories of 15 of the most spectacular movie megaflops of the past 50 years, such as Cleopatra, The Cotton Club, and Waterworld. He recounts, in every gory detail, how enormous hubris, unbridled ambition, artistic hauteur, and bad business sense on the parts of Tinsel Town wheeler-dealers and superstars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Clint Eastwood, and Francis Ford Coppola, conspired to engender som...

This book traces the extraordinary life and career of Mel Brooks, who has ridden a wave of show business success perhaps unsurpassed by anyone of his generation. Offering many insights into the wacky world of Brooks and his many collaborators, as well as an intimate look into his successful marriage to the brilliant and beautiful actress Anne Bancroft, It's Good to Be the King might just be the most delightful, engaging, and entertaining biography you'll ever read.

Savor the inside scoop on over-the-top superstars"I'm not a paranoid, deranged millionaire. . . . I'm a billionaire!""Acting is an empty and useless profession.""Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere else.""I'm interested in being provocative and pushing people's buttons."Which screen icons gave us the quotes above? How do stars get away with self-indulgent, unrestrained behaviors-or do they? In The Hollywood Book of Extravagance, longtime...

A memoir of basketball, dedication, and longevity from Boston Celtics legend Robert Parish Growing up in the heart of Louisiana, Robert Parish and his three younger siblings played baseball, football, and tennis— but never basketball. Still, by seventh grade, Parish stood 6'6" and couldn't escape the attention of Coleman Kidd, the junior high basketball coach who saw potential before Parish could see it in himself. And though he was the worst player on the team that first season— handed th...

"Half of all marriages end in divorce--and then there are the really unhappy ones."--Joan RiversDo you suppose that the person who first said "Life is stranger than fiction" might have had Hollywood marriages in mind? Why watch a romantic film starring a leading man and a leading lady when their real-life romances are so much more interesting? It seems that a celebrity's latest film can have a considerably longer life span in the theater than his or her marriage du jour....

Jason Biggs started doing commercials at age five, and made appearances on Broadway and TV. But it was his role in the movie "American Pie" that made him hot property in Hollywood. Readers learn where Biggs' career is headed, what he does with his spare time, what kinds of girls he digs, and more. 8 pages of color photos.

"The voices here confirm what I've always suspected: everyone is part of one large continuum, and the approaches and insights recounted here can help any parent, any educator, any person deal with any child—or, for that matter, any other person—more effectively and with more compassion. I only wish I'd encountered earlier this cadre of experienced and caring individuals whose humor and resourcefulness represent clearly how best to love and nurture a child."—Cynthia Nitz Ris, J.D., Ph.D...