What Just Happened? : Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line

A tale of what it is to make movies, this book explores, at close range, finicky directors, clueless executives, shameless marketers, famous actors, battered screenwriters, and hapless producers crossing paths in such calamitous ways that it's a miracle these films get made at all.

Forget everything you've heard about Hollywood. What Just Happened: Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line is the real deal. In Art Linson's true and uproarious tale of what it is to make movies, we get to explore, at close range, finicky directors, clueless executives, shameless marketers, famous actors, battered screenwriters, and hapless producers crossing paths in such calamitous ways that it's a miracle these films get made at all. Whether he's trying to persuade an executive that Gwyneth Paltrow has enough chin to carry the lead in a movie, forcing an enraged Alec Baldwin to shave off his mountain-man beard, discussing ankle hair loss with Dustin Hoffman, or sitting through an excruciating reading of a David Mamet script as Robert DeNiro toys with the notion of heading up the cast, Linson gives us a brutally honest, funny, and comprehensive tour through the horrors of Hollywood, from script to screen. If you love the movies or not, you won't be able to resist the stories behind them. You also won't be able to resist Linson, a born story-teller whose wicked sense of humor leaves nobody safe-not even himself.