A Star Is Bored by Byron Lane
from amazon;
She needs an assistant.
He needs a hero.
Charlie Besson is tense and sweating as he prepares for a wild job interview. His car is idling, like his life, outside the Hollywood mansion of Kathi Kannon, star of stage and screen and People magazine’s Worst Dressed list. She's an actress in need of assistance, and he's adrift and in need of a lifeline.
Kathi is an icon, bestselling author, and award-winning movie star, most known for her role as Priestess Talara in a blockbuster sci-fi film. She’s also known in another role: Outrageous Hollywood royalty. Admittedly so. Famously so. Chaotically so, as Charlie quickly discovers.
Charlie gets the job, and his three-year odyssey is filled with late-night shopping sprees, last-minute trips to see the aurora borealis, and an initiation to that most sacred of Hollywood tribes: the personal assistant. But Kathi becomes much more than a boss, and as their friendship grows Charlie must make a choice. Will he always be on the sidelines of life, assisting the great forces that be, or can he step into his own life's leading role?
this book is like a combo of the second & first assistant books by mimi hare & clare naylor; with their look inside hollywood & being an assistant and wishful drinking & shockaholic; with adult language, drugs, drinking, outrageous comments and mental illness.
i felt like the book was trying too hard to be....something. shocking? irreverent? satire? funny? i don't know. i just didn't like it.
the author was an assistant to carrie fisher for a few years, and despite the claim that it was all fictional i had to wonder how much was based on true events/people. especially since the woman the main character works for is a (very) thinly veiled version of fisher. did her mother really hire someone to forge her signature on photos fans sent in because CF only signed stuff at cons where people paid? was she that uncaring about making messes in hotel rooms & everywhere she went? what was the bad sci-fi movie meg ryan's son was in that CF had to see because she was going to see MR & was going to talk about it?
also; being a personal assistant to a rich person seems like a terrible job. they're the gatekeeper, minder, shepherd, therapist, parent, & at times a chauffeur, maid or chef. being disposable when they feel indispensable and some of them feeling like they're a part of the family/their boss' best friend when the boss doesn't care about them or sometimes even bother to remember their name.
She needs an assistant.
He needs a hero.
Charlie Besson is tense and sweating as he prepares for a wild job interview. His car is idling, like his life, outside the Hollywood mansion of Kathi Kannon, star of stage and screen and People magazine’s Worst Dressed list. She's an actress in need of assistance, and he's adrift and in need of a lifeline.
Kathi is an icon, bestselling author, and award-winning movie star, most known for her role as Priestess Talara in a blockbuster sci-fi film. She’s also known in another role: Outrageous Hollywood royalty. Admittedly so. Famously so. Chaotically so, as Charlie quickly discovers.
Charlie gets the job, and his three-year odyssey is filled with late-night shopping sprees, last-minute trips to see the aurora borealis, and an initiation to that most sacred of Hollywood tribes: the personal assistant. But Kathi becomes much more than a boss, and as their friendship grows Charlie must make a choice. Will he always be on the sidelines of life, assisting the great forces that be, or can he step into his own life's leading role?
this book is like a combo of the second & first assistant books by mimi hare & clare naylor; with their look inside hollywood & being an assistant and wishful drinking & shockaholic; with adult language, drugs, drinking, outrageous comments and mental illness.
i felt like the book was trying too hard to be....something. shocking? irreverent? satire? funny? i don't know. i just didn't like it.
the author was an assistant to carrie fisher for a few years, and despite the claim that it was all fictional i had to wonder how much was based on true events/people. especially since the woman the main character works for is a (very) thinly veiled version of fisher. did her mother really hire someone to forge her signature on photos fans sent in because CF only signed stuff at cons where people paid? was she that uncaring about making messes in hotel rooms & everywhere she went? what was the bad sci-fi movie meg ryan's son was in that CF had to see because she was going to see MR & was going to talk about it?
also; being a personal assistant to a rich person seems like a terrible job. they're the gatekeeper, minder, shepherd, therapist, parent, & at times a chauffeur, maid or chef. being disposable when they feel indispensable and some of them feeling like they're a part of the family/their boss' best friend when the boss doesn't care about them or sometimes even bother to remember their name.