Dangerous Company : Dark Tales from Tinseltown

In Hollywood, reality always teeters on the verge of ction. Outlandish paydays encounter outsize egos; fading beauties ght desperately to retain an illusion of youth; moguls plot and feud while bitter enemies air-kiss over lunch at the Ivy. The stakes are higher than anywhere else, and the dreams are crazier. No one else can capture the insanity like Peter Bart, the editor-in-chief of the showbiz bible, Variety. Bart has presided over the follies and iniquities of the business for many years, observing the ups and downs of the players with detached, knowing amusement. As Cindy Adams recently proclaimed in the New York Post, 'If Peter doesn't know it, it never happened.' Dangerous Company resonates as though it came from some of Hollywood's best and juiciest behind-the-scenes gossip. A literary agent covers up a surreal screenwriting scandal in order to close on a commission. A studio lawyer tries to reconcile a director-producer rift using an unspeakable secret about their children as leverage. And a stranger brokers a suspicious deal that lands him facedown in his own pool. Fascinating and pitch-perfect, full of masterfully crafted twists, Dangerous Company reads like Nathanael West crossed with Roald Dahl. And just to keep us on our toes, Bart throws in a few clues that may lead us to believe that what we're reading is, well, maybe not ction after all.