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    Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America
    Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America
    Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America
    Audiobook23 hours

    Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America

    Written by Peter Biskind

    Narrated by David Drummond

    3/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Famously a playboy, Warren Beatty has also been one of the most ambitious and successful stars in Hollywood. Several Beatty films have passed the test of time, from Bonnie and Clyde (which confirmed for him the importance of controlling the projects he was involved in) to Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait, Reds (for which he won the best director Oscar), Bugsy, and Bulworth. Few filmgoers realize that along with Orson Welles, Beatty is the only person ever nominated for four Academy Awards for a single film-and unlike Welles, Beatty did it twice, with Heaven Can Wait and Reds. Peter Biskind shows how Beatty used star power, commercial success, savvy, and charm to bend Hollywood moguls to his will, establishing an unprecedented level of independence while still working within the studio system.

    Beatty's private life has been the subject of gossip for decades, and Star confirms his status as Hollywood's leading man in the bedroom, describing his affairs with Joan Collins, Natalie Wood, Leslie Caron, Julie Christie, Michelle Phillips, Diane Keaton, and Madonna, among many others.

    Throughout his career, Beatty has demonstrated a fascination for politics. He was influential in the 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns of Gary Hart. It was said of Hart and Beatty that each wanted to be the other, and Biskind shows that there was considerable truth in that wry observation. As recently as a few years ago, Beatty was speaking out about California politics and contemplating a run for governor.

    Biskind explains how Beatty exercised unique control, often hiring screenwriters out of his own pocket (and frequently collaborating with them), producing, directing, and acting in his own films, becoming an auteur before anyone in Hollywood knew what the word meant. He was arguably one of the most successful and creative figures in Hollywood during the second half of the twentieth century, and in this fascinating biography, Warren Beatty comes to life-complete with excesses and achievements-as never before.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateFeb 15, 2010
    ISBN9781400185740
    Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America
    Author

    Peter Biskind

    PETER BISKIND is a cultural critic and film historian. He was editor in chief of American Film magazine from 1981 to 1986, and executive editor of Premiere magazine from 1986 to 1996. His writing has appeared in scores of national publications, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, The Nation, Newsweek, and The Washington Post, as well as film periodicals such as Sight and Sound and Film Quarterly. He is currently a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He has published eight books, including the bestsellers Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Down and Dirty Pictures, that have been translated into several languages. He is executive director of the annual Film-Columbia Festival held in the Hudson Valley.

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    Reviews for Star

    3/5

    16 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I'm a big fan of Hollywood bios, histories and making of books. Biskind is a great writer and because of Warren Beatty's donning the cap of writer, producer, actor and director for a few of his films this book is full of great stories of a Hollywood finding it's way after the collapse of the studio system and the birth of the indies in the 70s. Lots of stars and film folk gave interviews for the book and its up to you to decide whether Beatty is a pretty boy actor who lucked into some good films or a genuine visionary.

      Saying all that for all his of genius, Beatty comes across as a particularly horrible person in the book. If he hadn't stepped away from the public eye I think the bra strap twanging, serial shagger might have fallen foul of the #metoo movement of a few years back.
    • 1/5
      I actually gave up on this book. I had been told to read this by an author I enjoy, but soon realized ... I just don't care about Warren Beatty. Not in a bad way, but also not in a good way. He just happens to exist in the same universe I do, and I want to spend my reading time on other things. So I won't choose a star rating, as this book and I simply don't have anything in common together.