Writing about Hollywood from the London Review of Books

Realists in Hollywood are like the two thieves at the Crucifixion: a nice warm-up for the conscience, but not the actual Messiah. What people want is fabulousness. It can come dangling various causes like amazing earrings, but what the audience loves is a superhuman figment.

The very good actors in Hollywood don’t have basic selves, in the normal sense: they have public relations, and they have a conception of otherness that neutralises their truth while exploiting it. As you’ll discover in this collection, Hollywood is a state of mind, and it follows like global warming from the habits and conditions of the planet.

Difference is: you can love it. Some of these writers do, some definitely don’t, but none of them have any intention of ignoring it.

Featuring: Gabriele Annan, Betsy Blair, Angela Carter, Jenny Diski, Stephen Frears, David Hare, Andrew O’Hagan, pictured above, Michael Rogin, David Thomson, Bee Wilson and Michael Wood.

Save 20% when you buy all 10 LRB Collections together: just use the code COLLECT10 at checkout.