Afbeelding van de auteur.

Peter Lefcourt

Auteur van The Dreyfus Affair: A Love Story

11+ Werken 740 Leden 23 Besprekingen

Over de Auteur

Peter Lefcourt is a screenwriter and the author of numerous novels including The Woody and The Dreyfus Affair. He lives in Los Angeles Laura J. Shapiro is a writer and producer living in Santa Monica

Werken van Peter Lefcourt

The Dreyfus Affair: A Love Story (1992) 309 exemplaren
The First Time I Got Paid for It (2000) 116 exemplaren
The Woody (1998) 70 exemplaren
The DEal (1991) 64 exemplaren
Di and I (1994) 52 exemplaren
The Manhattan Beach Project (2005) 41 exemplaren
Eleven Karens: A Novel (2003) 30 exemplaren
Abbreviating Ernie (1997) 30 exemplaren
Purgatory Gardens: A Novel (2015) 15 exemplaren
Danielle Steel's Fine Things [1990 TV movie] — Screenwriter — 7 exemplaren
An American Family (2012) 6 exemplaren

Gerelateerde werken

Man of My Dreams: Provocative Writing on Men Loving Men (1996) — Medewerker — 75 exemplaren

Tagged

Algemene kennis

Geboortedatum
1941
Geslacht
male
Nationaliteit
USA
Woonplaatsen
Santa Monica, California, USA

Leden

Besprekingen

Both the title and the subtitle of “The First Time I Got Paid for It: Writers' Tales from the Hollywood Trenches” (2000) are suggestive and ambiguous. The subtitle informs us that neither the title nor the cover illustration reflect what the book is really about, yet what the subtitle suggests isn't quite accurate either.

The often entertaining (and often not) collection of brief memoirs edited by Peter Lefcourt and Laura J. Shapiro rarely describes how writers sold their first screenplays to the movies, and we can perhaps be glad of that. Most screenplays are collaborations, especially those involving beginners. Most such stories would probably sound pretty much alike.

Fortunately the 50-plus contributors interpreted the directions broadly, and the result is essays about a number of different kinds of "firsts."

Nat Mauldin, who would later write screenplays for Dr. Doolittle and The Preacher's Wife, tells of discovering he could write when he was called on to write an obituary for singer Ronnie VanZant, whom he had never heard of, that was well received.

Men in Black writer Ed Solomon remembers selling a joke to Jimmie Walker for $25 while in a comedy club, and enjoying the laughter when Walker performed the joke that very night.

Melville Shavelson tells of being sued by Mamie Eisenhower (his first lawsuit), who wanted to block the broadcast of a miniseries he wrote about Dwight Eisenhower's relationship with Kay Summersby, his driver, during World War II.

Anna Hamilton Phelan, who wrote Gorillas in the Mist, tells about getting her first agent. Gail Parent, who wrote comedy skits for Carol Burnett, describes what it was like earning the respect of male comedy writers. Charlie Hauck tells of getting his start after being encouraged by comedian Phyllis Diller. Peter Tolan, later to write Analyze This and The Larry Sanders Show, has an amusing tale about starring in a high school production of Bye Bye Birdie.

Screenwriters tend to be an anonymous lot, except to those few who bother to read credits. But a few contributors to this book have names that may ring a bell, including Alan Alda, Cameron Crowe, Delia Ephron, Larry Gilbert, Carl Reiner and William Goldman, who provides the foreword.

This is a mixed bag, but it contains enough entertaining show business stories to make reading it worthwhile.
… (meer)
 
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hardlyhardy | 1 andere bespreking | Nov 18, 2022 |
If you've never read any of this guy's books, go find The Dreyfus Affair. Then you can read Abbreviating Ernie. Although there is a murder trial in this story, it is not a mystery, it's a laugh riot. Ernie is a proctologist with some kinky sex preferences. In the midst of one with his long suffering, not real attentive wife, he dies of a heart attack, but doesn't - how do I say this delicately - slip out. Since he handcuffed her to the stove before starting (did I mention kinky?), her options were limited. But she can reach the electric knife. All of this is in the first part of the first chapter. It gets better and better and better.… (meer)
 
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susandennis | 2 andere besprekingen | Jun 5, 2020 |
I read this during my Kindle Unlimited binge, and K.U. Has some excellent books but also mediocre and worse. This one fits into the latter category. It's supposed to be hilarious. It's mildly amusing at best. It's not very P.C., but it's real failure is that it is boring. At least it was to me. There was too much explaining of background. And two bad guys are looking to hook up with one washed-up actress. Light and fluffy with a little bit of dark undertones, but not entertaining enough for me.
 
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TooBusyReading | 1 andere bespreking | Mar 7, 2020 |
A charming if somewhat dated novel. I would have enjoyed it more if Randy hadn't been married; my sympathy for his wife and daughters made it hard for me to root for Randy and D. J. in the beginning.
 
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GaylaBassham | 7 andere besprekingen | May 27, 2018 |

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Statistieken

Werken
11
Ook door
1
Leden
740
Populariteit
#34,321
Waardering
½ 3.7
Besprekingen
23
ISBNs
47
Talen
2

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