Hollywood and Venal

“Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you find the real tinsel underneath.” — Oscar Levant

Sometimes fiction is the best way to tell the truth. In this, his first collection of short stories, Nat Segaloff (Final Cuts, Guarding Gable, Mr. Huston/Mr. North) reveals the truth behind some of Hollywood’s biggest scandals, agendas, and confidences.

First published by reporter/columnist Nikki Finke on her acclaimed website HollywoodDementia.com, these romans-à-clef (stories with a key) expose long-hidden secrets about the Blacklist, the Oscars, publicity stunts, studio follies, ageism, celebrity weirdness, and other gambits that, even today, are barely whispered—if they are discussed at all. For half a century author Segaloff has been a publicist, critic, historian, and producer (not all at the same time) absorbing film industry lore. And he kept notes. Where he could use real names, he put them into his memoirs Screen Saver and Screen Saver Too (both from BearManor). Where he had to hide identities, he saved them for Hollywood and Venal.

Here is a collection of funny, revealing, moving, and sometimes absurd narratives, every one of which has its origins in an actual Hollywood event, legend, mindset, pitch, or occurrence known personally to the author. Listeners are invited to guess who.