Vroege RecensentenRick Lenz

WILL HIDDEN ANIMOSITIES, DEMONS, AND SECRETS KILL A FILM? LATE SEVENTIES: Young, would-be movie producer Emily Bennett doesn’t believe Have Gun Will Travel star, Richard Boone, when he tells her about a 2/3 completed film, starring James Dean and John Wayne. But when she meets the old film editor who stole the master negative of the legendary Showdown, she finds two uncannily gifted celebrity impersonators and with the aid of emerging computer technology sets out to complete the movie. Filming Showdown, Emily and her stars portray characters entangled in an ambiguous love triangle with Oedipal overtones that mirror their real-life dynamic. On top of this and distrusting her prima donnaish director, Emily and her brother (three face-lifts) struggle with unresolved issues about their dying father. All these flawed characters find themselves in the titular showdown of their lives when their interwoven back-stories come together in a stormy climax that reveals their hidden animosities, demons, and loves.

WHAT'S IT LIKE TO ACT ALONGSIDE HOLLYWOOD GREATS LIKE GOLDIE HAWN AND WALTER MATTHAU? Rick Lenz dishes the details in his new insider memoir North of Hollywood. An intimate, sometimes hilarious, sometimes touching and always honest account of making a living and living life next to Hollywood legends, Rick Lenz finds meaning in the experiences he's had as a successful actor through his new memoir North of Hollywood. The book is full of anecdotes such as tough guy Al Pacino giving Lenz a gift of sorts, funny lady Lucille Ball being less than humorous with him in a dressing room and recounting his first meeting with Gwyneth Paltrow. "North of Hollywood concentrates on the part of an actor's story that happens after a person has reached the goal of becoming a working actor the point when the actor asks himself: How do I keep this from slipping away?" Lenz said. "Even if as an actor you unwittingly or not sought the spotlight, how do you cope with the unnaturalness of it? How do you avoid the convoluted ego-involvement that severely limits so many show business lives?"