Under the Red Carpet of Babylon


Book Description

Under the Red Carpet of Babylon is story of Tagg Faulkner, a professional star wrangler assigned to escort and assist talent during award shows and rehearsals during the biggest movie awards night of the year. In this case, it is the show’s host—a disgraced drunkard comic attempting a comeback. Tagg’s job is to keep the host sober for the show. If he fails, it means his job. When a stupid mistake takes Tagg off the assignment, he resolves to complete it under the radar. Complicating matters, the young wrangler is a budding alcoholic himself, and he must keep the host from drinking even as he fights his own battle with the bottle. Now off the wrangling-the-host job, at least so far as anyone knows, he is assigned to wrangle a trio of old-time Hollywood divas, all prima donnas, who are in the show to bury the hatchet in a thirty-year-old feud. The three all threaten to quit and Tagg must keep them content and ready to perform or there will be hell to pay. He also wrangles a tantalizingly lovely young starlet he has always fantasized about. But she has her own ideas about how to treat wranglers, as he soon learns. Meanwhile, a young woman nicknamed Marvelous, a play on her real name as well as her face and figure, is assigned to wrangle three talent of her own. One is a kid known for heartwarming movies and cute schtick, but who arrives with a set of problems she never expected. The second is a vain and abusing musical star whose demands on her wrangler exceed abilities to get the job done. The last is a hunky action star, someone Marvelous crushes on, but who has a dark secret that will bring his whole world crashing down on him if she can’t solve an impossible problem. Can Tagg save the show and his own job despite the odds being stacked against him? Can Marvelous navigate the peccadilloes of three difficult talent with grace and success? And which of the three suitors vying for his romantic attention will Tagg finally choose? All will be revealed when the curtain goes up and the lights come on Under the Red Carpet of Babylon.




Red carpet for the Antichrist


Book Description

A few hours after his triumph at the UN, everyone has come to consider the brilliant solutions to international problems he proposes to be some kind of miracle. Later appears all smiles and full of self‐confidence at the Olympic Stadium for a ceremony that will prove to be an unprecedented spectacle. The global digital television broadcasts the crowd going wild. As he passes by with a bounce in his step and smiling cordially, a sea of hands rises, all of them making his sign. Many try desperately to touch him; he’s the perfect idol of every nation, class and age. As he reaches the microphone, the stadium quakes. Millions of people are captivated. He’s amazing; he’s a genius; he’s the hope of the world, a phenomenon, one‐of‐a‐kind, a god! Who would believe that he’s…the Antichrist? Who could resist him?




Beyond the Red Carpet


Book Description

Ever wonder what really goes on behind the scenes of the Oscars? Want to know which actors are funny and which ones are just plain boring? What is it like to interview Madonna, Robin Williams, and Pierce Brosnan? All of these questions (and many more) are answered by veteran entertainment journalist Francine Brokaw. With a delightful mixture of wit and honesty, Francine gives readers an uncensored view of life as an entertainment journalist. In addition to her own perspective, Francine’s colleagues across the country weigh in on questions like . . . • What is the best swag you’ve ever received? • What is the most memorable interview you’ve ever conducted? • Have you ever had to interview someone rude? Perfect for a weekend read or as a companion text to an introductory course in mass media, Beyond the Red Carpet is an informative and entertaining book that covers every aspect of the business of entertainment journalism. Francine Brokaw has been a professional writer for over twenty years, focusing on entertainment and political journalism. Her work has appeared in numerous national and international magazines. She frequently interviews A-list celebrities such as Tom Hanks, Blake Lively, Julie Andrews, and Johnny Depp, but her favorite time period to write about is the studio days of Old Hollywood.




It's All Your Fault


Book Description

An Essential Guide to Landing -- and Keeping -- Your first Hollywood Job A position as an assistant to a producer, agent, director, studio executive, or star can be the path to a fabulous career -- or a one-way ticket to hell. How can the aspiring Hollywood assistant quickly learn the inside track to success while avoiding the land mines? It's All Your Fault is the answer. Written by two former Hollywood assistants who've been there and done that, It's All Your Fault is bursting with hard-earned advice, from figuring out who's who and who isn't to sex, drugs, and other work-related issues. Filled with outrageous anecdotes and countless celebrity stories, It's All Your Fault proves an indispensable addition to the nightstand of every wannabe Hollywood mover and shaker.




The Red Carpet


Book Description




Buzz Books 2023: Spring/Summer


Book Description

Buzz Books 2023: Spring/Summer is the 22th volume in our popular sampler series. As always, Buzz Books presents passionate readers with an insider’s look at 54 of the buzziest books due out this season. Such major bestselling authors as Ryan Holiday, Nancy Horan, Kate Morton, and Abraham Verghese are featured, along with literary greats Jamel Brinkley, Eleanor Catton, Patrick DeWitt, and Cathleen Schine. Other sure-to-be readers’ favorites are a fiction debut by celebrated nonfiction author Helen MacDonald and an adult debut by acclaimed YA author Elizabeth Acevedo. Buzz Books has had a particularly stellar track record with highlighting the most talented, exciting and diverse debut authors, and this edition is no exception. Shelly Read’s Go As A River, one of a bumper crop of 23 debuts titles, has already been sold to 27 countries. Among the others are Monica Brashears, Tembe Denton-Hurst, Katherine Lin, Janika Oza, and Tyriek White. Our robust nonfiction section covers such fascinating subjects as the native peoples in America; a literary memoir of growing up with a reggae musician father who was a member of a strict Rastafari sect; and a definitive biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Bestselling stoicism guru Ryan Holliday offers wisdom for dads, while David Von Drehle provides wisdom from a 102-year-old. Finally, we present early looks at new work from young adult authors, including: Throwback by Maurene Goo, Queen Bee by Amalie Howard, and Lucha Of The Night Forest by Tehlor Kay Mejia. Be sure to look out for Buzz Books 2023: Fall/Winter, coming in May.




Chanting Down Babylon


Book Description

This anthology explores Rastafari religion, culture, and politics in Jamaica and other parts of the African diaspora. An Afro-Caribbean religious and cultural movement that sprang from the streets of Kingston, Jamaica, in the 1930s, today Rastafari has close to one million adherents. The basic message of Rastafari—the dismantling of all oppressive institutions and the liberation of humankind—even has strong appeal to non-believers who are captivated by reggae music, the lyrics, and the "immortal spirit" of its enormously popular practitioner, Bob Marley. Probing into Rastafari's still evolving belief system, political goals, and cultural expression, the contributors to this volume emphasize the importance of Africana history and the Caribbean context. Author note:Nathaniel Samuel Murrellis Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and Visiting Professor at the Caribbean Graduate School of Theology in Kingston, Jamaica.William David Spencerserves as Pastor of Encouragement at Pilgrim Church in Beverly, MA, and was an Adjunct Professor of Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary's Center for Urban Ministerial Education in Boston. He has authored, co-authored, or editedThe Prayer of Life of Jesus, Mysterium and Mystery: The Clerical Crime Novel, God through the Looking Glass, Joy through the Night, 2 Corinthians: Bible Study CommentaryandThe Global God.Adrian Anthony McFarlaneis Associate Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY. He is author ofA Grammar of FearandEvil–A Husserlian-Wittgensteinian Hermeneutic.




Behind the Scenes


Book Description

"Scenes from Canadian plays for two to six actors. Thirty-two excellent opportunities for young thespians these are texts which I would certainly use with my own senior students of dramatic arts." Reviewing Librarian




I'm Not with the Band


Book Description

DON'T MISS SYLVIA PATTERSON'S BRAND NEW MEMOIR, SAME OLD GIRL, COMING SPRING 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2016 'Celebratory and elegiac' Guardian 'A roller-coaster memoir' Sunday Times 'Funny, anecdote-packed, nostalgic but also very touching' The Pool 'Patterson fillets out the pretentious bones of pop, leaving its glistening meat' Observer This is a three-decade survivor's tale . . . a scenic search for elusive human happiness through music, magazines, silly jokes, stupid shoes, useless blokes, hopeless homes, booze, drugs, love, loss, A&E, death, disillusion and hope. In 1986, Sylvia Patterson boarded a train to London armed with a tea-chest full of vinyl records, a peroxide quiff and a dream: to write about music, for ever. She got her wish. Escaping a troubled home, Sylvia embarks on a lifelong quest to discover The Meaning of It All. The problem is she's mostly hanging out with flaky pop stars, rock 'n' roll heroes and unreliable hip-hop legends. As she encounters music's biggest names, she is confronted by glamour and tragedy; wisdom and lunacy; drink, drugs and disaster. And Bros. Here is Madonna in her Earth Mother phase, flinging her hands up in horror at one of Sylv's Very Stupid Questions. Prince compliments her shoes while Eminem threatens to kill her. She shares fruit with Johnny Cash, make-up with Amy Winehouse and several pints with the Manics' lost soul-man Richey Edwards. She finds the Beckhams fragrant in LA, a Gallagher madferrit in her living room and Shaun Ryder and Bez as you'd expect, in Jamaica. From the 80s to the present day, I'm Not with the Band is a funny, barmy, utterly gripping chronicle of the last thirty years in music and beyond. It is also the story of one woman's wayward search for love, peace and a wonderful life. And whether, or not, she found them.




Between Two Worlds


Book Description

Zainab Salbi was eleven years old when her father was chosen to be Saddam Hussein's personal pilot and her family's life was grafted onto his. Her mother, the beautiful Alia, taught her daughter the skills she needed to survive. A plastic smile. Saying yes. Burying in boxes in her mind the horrors she glimpsed around her. "Learn to erase your memories," she instructed. "He can read eyes." In this richly visual memoir, Salbi describes tyranny as she saw it - through the eyes of a privileged child, a rebellious teenager, a violated wife, and ultimately a public figure fighting to overcome the skill that once kept her alive: silence. Between Two Worlds is a riveting quest for truth that deepens our understanding of the universal themes of power, fear, sexual subjugation, and the question one generation asks the one before it: How could you have let this happen to us?