NICOLE LAPORTE is a former reporter for Variety, where she covered the Hollywood movie industry for several years. She wrote "The Rules of Hollywood" column for the Los Angeles Times Magazine and has written for The New Yorker, the New York Times, the New York Observer, W Magazine, and theDaily Beast.
"Want to know how business really works in LaLa Land? Read this
book"
--Liz Smith, wowOwow.com "LaPorte's lenghty narrative is the
definitive history of the studio, an achievement of dispassionate
reporting in the genre of corporate decline-and-fall...Hollywood,
with its penchant for sunny publicity and an obsession for secrecy,
is a notoriously difficult business in which to uncover the
truth...Most reporters are not up to the task. LaPorte is... The
Men Who Would Be King will be required reading for anyone
interested in the story of DreamWorks."
--L.A. Times
"A thrilling ride... The bumbling and infighting are just too good,
and sad, to resist... We're privy to some serious dirt. LaPorte has
clearly done her homework... The sheer scope and depth of The Men
Who Would Be King impresses. No hissy fit escapes LaPorte's gaze.
Every time Geffen has a meltdown or A-list stars like Russell Crowe
throw trantrums, LaPorte is there to capture it."
--Boston Globe
"Daily Beast contributor and former Variety reporter LaPorte
penetrates the mysterious inner workings of DreamWorks. . . .
LaPorte marshals an awesome body of research to vividly depict
DreamWorks' confused identity, the personality conflicts and ego
clashes that raged behind the company's friendly, low-key exterior
. . . Behind-the-scenes glimpses at the productions of such
signature DreamWorks films as American Beauty and Gladiator are
wonderfully diverting Hollywood dirt, but the heart of the story is
simple human ambition. Stories of Katzenberg's toxic and litigious
relationship with former boss and Disney honcho Michael Eisner,
Geffen's mission to destroy agent Michael Ovitz and the rivalry
between DreamWorks Animation and Disney's Pixar are fascinating for
their insights into the ways petty personal issues are expressed in
multibillion-dollar transactions. In Hollywood, it seems, business
is always personal. A gripping account of money, ambition and the
movies . . . same as it ever was."
--Kirkus
"Nicole LaPorte has found a big story--this is the great part--that
is even bigger than first appears, the story of DreamWorks being
the story of modern Hollywood, which is the dream life of the
world. She has climbed into the engine room with pen and notebook
and been careful to record the details and dirt, then turned all
that into music, the result being a gutsy saga filled with larger
than life characters and incident. Read this book only if you want
to know what makes our country, as Leonard Cohen sang, the cradle
of the best and the worst."
--Rich Cohen, author of Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster
Dreams and Lake Effect
"Power, grandiosity, arrogance, and incomprehensible ego. It's
Hollywood, of course, and Nicole LaPorte's exhaustive non-fiction
narrative of DreamWorks and the bizarre triumvirate of Spielberg,
Geffen, and Katzenberg is stunning. The book reads like a novel and
the reporting is impeccable. If you pick up one book about
Hollywood, make it this one."
--Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights and former
coproducer of NYPD Blue
"Here is the brilliant, brutal, misguided, narcissistic history of
DreamWorks in all its glory, with David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg,
and Steven Spielberg working unscripted, without handlers or
publicists dimming the lights to a rosy glow. Nicole LaPorte has
written a lively, cunning studio history that should be required
reading for all students of modern Hollywood."
--Mimi Swartz, author of Power Failure: The Inside Story of the
Collapse of Enron
"This book has all the right elements: deep-dish research, attitude
to burn, page-turning readability, and a great subject. It belongs
up there with the classics of Hollywood reportage."
--Peter Biskind, author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the
Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'n' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood and Star:
How Warren Beatty Seduced America
"Nicole LaPorte may never be able to eat lunch in Hollywood again,
but her potential loss is our gain: The Men Who Would Be King is a
riveting and honest portrayal of three of the most powerful men in
the entertainment industry. I couldn't put it down and neither will
you."
--William Cohan, author of House of Cards
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