The Hollywood Book of Scandals : The Shocking, Often Disgraceful Deeds and Affairs of Over 100 American Movie and TV Idols | 
| Authors: James Robert Parish, James Parish
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $6.25
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Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 267782
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0071421890
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.43028092273
UPC: 639785415862
EAN: 9780071421898
ASIN: 0071421890
Publication Date: May 28, 2004
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Condition: BRAND NEW !! mint condition !! may have light warehouse shelfwear to cover...may have minor remainder mark on bottom edge
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Product Description
Popular cult author and show business insider James Parish exposes the scandals that rocked Tinseltown Nothing intrigues the public more than a good, juicy scandal. Add a famous Hollywood star or two to the mix and the nation is hooked. The Hollywood Book of Scandals provides the full account of 32 big, provocative scandals—complete with all the sexy, scintillating, and often shocking details. Written by veteran show business chronicler James Robert Parish, this book dishes the full dirt on: - Bob Crane’s mysterious death
- Elizabeth Taylor’s seduction of Eddie Fisher
- Robert Mitchum’s arrest for drug possession
- Judy Garland’s public meltdown
- Errol Flynn’s trial for statutory rape
- Winona Ryder’s shoplifting trial
More than 100 black-and-white celebrity photos offer readers a close-up look at the leading players in these sordid dramas.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 Those who like this book really like it, those who don't really hate it July 12, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
There's not much space, it seems, for in-betweens, but place me firmly in the "like" camp, especially since I've talked up this book favorably in reviews of several other Hollywood-gossip books here on Amazon. I will say I'm also in Parish's corner. I haven't read a _bad_ book from him yet, IMO. His "Hollywood Book Of..." series specializes in relatively short, punchy articles that are well-researched (certainly in comparison to some other books in this genre), evenhanded and crisply written. While the photos are not always anything special (his series on actresses features much better selections of pictures), they're also usually well-chosen and a lot less sensationalistic than, say, _Hollywood Babylon's_ selections.
Another reviewer questioned why Cary Grant's rooming with Randolph Scott should even be considered a scandal in 2007, which misses the point. It's not that it's not scandalous now, in 2007; the point is how it was regarded _back then_. If Parish doesn't make it clear in that particular instance, he generally does elsewhere in the book (for instance, in his analysis of the Fatty Arbuckle scandal, where it was clear both at the time and now that Arbuckle was a railroaded, innocent man; in fact, Parish explodes the myth of Virginia Rappe's innocence and demonstrates that key (false) testimony was given by a friend of Rappe's who had an axe of her own to grind).
No book is perfect, though, and my own quibble is that Parish covers some material that's already been gone over in other books in the present series, while leaving out other material that clearly deserves inclusion. Specifically, I'm thinking of his section on the Woody Allen-Mia Farrow breakup, which was already discussed at length in "The Hollywood Book of Breakups". The space devoted to that rehash could have been used, instead, to talk about - for instance - the David Begelman check-forgery scandal (where actor Robert Stack discovered his name signed to a check he didn't draw or cash, which was ultimately traced to then-studio head Begelman).
All in all, though, I have no hesitation in recommending this book.
 Poor book, badly disjointed, rehashing scandals most people already know about March 24, 2007
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I found this book to be very disjointed, badly organized, and even poorly written. The list of "scandals" is the same old list of tired stories, innuendo, and might-have-beens that every movie fan and scandal fan likely knows about already. Worse, some of the occurrences Parish lists aren't really even scandals - the fact that Robert Blake was tried for his wife's murder may be a scandal, but in 2007 is the fact that Cary Grant shared a house with a fellow male star even slightly scandalous? The only scandal is in those who judged him, one way or the other.
In addition, this book could have benefited from thorough copy editing and fact-checking. There are many minor and major factual errors and, in addition, many typos and grammatical errors.
I don't recommend this book.
 I read this book before because it was WRITTEN before... September 4, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
If you have read the Hollywood Babylon books, then there is really no need to read this one. It is a rehash of what was in those books.
The only reason you might want to read this one is to save yourself reading the other two or maybe you have no clue at all about these scandals and want to catch up.
I found the book hard to follow in general. Overall I can't tell if this was a repeat by intention or what. I like John Robert Parish too, so this is no slam on him. I just don't get the point, but he isn't the first guy to so something over.
The Hollywood Book of Scandals July 29, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The scandals themselves were interesting however I found the book hard to read. Some of the information was repetitive from chapter to chapter and it was not well written. I was looking for something that I could just pick up an read a story at a time and this was not the book for that.
Debbie Davis could only like this book. June 24, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Only a short bus rider like Debbie davis could love this book.This book is the second book in a row this parish character wrote and its boring an old news from the old tabloids.Unless you have lived under the dirt there is nothing new here. Just an obvious attempt to make money. This has been done much better by better writers like Bob Thomas and James bacon and Earl Wilson!!!!- Note- one reviwer wrote Don Johnston of Beach Boys wrote I write the songs. His name is Bruce dear.
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