Celebrities Books

Emotions and Words expressed in this book were heartfelt and real.
A great book of rememberance and may we never forget.

Gentle and not so gentle reminders of what happened, what's been done, and what needs doing abound in this book. Each person's eyes tells me that they're not doing this as a pretty face, but as a witness. Let us each witness in our own way that what happened in New Orleans, in Florida, in Texas, could happen to us, to anyone we love, and let us witness, too, how we can each, in our own way, support, care for, and aid each other and ourselves in time of need.

Some books defy almost all categories. This is definitely one of those books. It is a book of hope, dreams, encouragement and support, for those who lost so much in Hurricane Katrina. This book is the brainchild of Naomi Strasser who, along with photographer friend Paul Alexander, decided to create art that would help in some small way to heal.

Alexander donated his time in photographing celebrities from around the world and from different strata of society. Many others contributed to the work, from the stylists working with the celebrities, to Ryan Priest doing the design and layout. This book was the work of the generosity of many, many people who all championed it and gave of their time and talents to make it happen.

The book is a collection of 71 unique portraits of celebrities, from Johnny Depp, Kelly Hu, and Coldplay, to Viggo Mortensen, Helen Bonham Carter and so many more. Accompanying each portrait is a letter, or encouragement note, to encourage the giving to continue. And it is for those who are far from home now, that they should keep hoping and dreaming of their return. Interspersed with photos of the actual devastation from Katrina, these notes provide hope, encouragement and support.

From Johnny Depp who writes "Help and Keep Helping", to Helen Bonham Carter stating "No amount of rain can drown the music of New Orleans", the words will challenge us to appreciate what we have and to help those less fortunate than we find ourselves to be.

The publisher, Naked Ink Press, is doing their part as well; they have committed to give at least $25,000 US dollars to both the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and to Habitat for Humanity's Operation Home Delivery. That is $2.50 from each book, sold for a minimum of $25,000 each more depending on sales.

Shawn Ashmore states: "She beat you, but she didn't break you!! Stay strong!!" Picking up this book, either for yourself or for others as a gift, will help to make those words come true. So along with Kevin Bacon we will say "Thinking of U."

It may be trite, but giving this book as a gift, will be a gift that keeps on giving.

In January I discovered Missy Laws is the same person as Charlotte Laws. She is a politician in my area in Southern California and has written fascinating articles. I read her column each month and have heard her speak. So I bought this book used. It was a fast read and filled with interesting often outlandish stories. It seems good for anyone looking to be successful. It basically tells how to use the back door to get a job or become an actor or sell your writing or become a top executive in a corporation. It is about schmoozing with the right people and getting on the A list and being heard by the influential types. It sure seems Charlotte Laws has done it all. Good book.

This is such an entertaining book. I really enjoyed the tales about the famous. Additionally, the humor is balanced with good advice on how ordinary people can do extraordinary things. I hope the author will write a sequel someday. I will buy it.

Meet the Stars is full of insightful tidbits about mingling with those in the entertainment industry. Curious to discover whether the techniques suggested by author, Ms. Laws, actually work, I sought a date with my favorite actress. I must admit I was a bit skeptical as this book's publication date is quite ancient and I assumed the information would be out of date. But lo and behold, I met the actress of my dreams -- although could not persuade her to go out with me.

Ms. Laws does not discount the import of perseverance so I continue to pursue this goal. It has now been 18 months, and I must say that I have established quite a good friendship with my actress friend although have not yet had a date. (I am omitting her name out of respect for her privacy) But I do not give up hope. In the meantime, I've had the opportunity to meet many famous people by adhering to Ms. Laws' techniques and many other attractive women. I'm very impressed with her book and believe it could be of benefit to others.

The milk ads are the best, I've been collecting them for a long time and it's really great to have them all in one cool book. My friends are all talking about this. I loved the first book and love this one too! Keep those ads coming...can't wait to see who is next!

Milk Mustache Mania is a must-have for any fans of the ad campaign!! It is thinner and not as long as the first book (The Milk Mustache Book) but it is better IMO because they have all the brand new ads featured in full-color pages that also include a detailed description of the people featured in each ad and interesting tidbits about why they decided to do an ad or little facts like how Dewey from Malcolm in the Middle helped make the chocolate milk in his ad!!

This book is at a gerat price for what you get and it's a really interesting read as well as an addition to anyone's collection of milk ads!!

If you are a fan of the milk mustache ads, this book is a must. I have the first book, but it doesn't have all of the newer ads in it. This one has all the ads that weren't in the first book. It's really great!

I bought this book because I was/(sometimes) am a huge Madonna fan. I got it about 10 years ago it when it was sold through her now-defunct fan club for a lot more than this. I believe I spent roughly 3 times the price of the most expensive book here (I guess I helped pay for Madonna's baby's daddy's spousal support; that was the benefit of belonging to Queen-Madonna's fan club, because heaven knows she would never send an autographed photo or offer decent concert tickets in advance!)

Madonna is on the back cover of this book (MTV 1990 Awards) and many more pictures are included inside; including an unpublished photo of Madonna with her daughter. The book includes lots of other great photos by the late Herb Ritts (he died 5 years ago of A-I-D-S.)

Even though Herb Ritts always had some type of chip on his shoulder, he still managed to take good photos. (I'd love to see an interview/photo of him where he is actually smiling, he always looked so ticked off and acted like everyone should be lucky to be in his presence; kinda like how Madonna behaves, but on a much, much smaller scale.) Herb Ritts totally reminds me of that middle-aged h-o-m-o-s-e-x-u-a-l man who just wants to have a little fun but doesn't know how or can't; because he has some type of debilitating disease. And didn't he look like the type of man who didn't worry about trimming his frontyard? Oh, come on, I know you know the type.

I wasn't crazy about the cover of the book though. As you can see from the picture it's an ultra-close up of someone's mouth. Not just someone, D-list "celebrity," Sandy Bernhard. Who wants to look at this woman's huge lips? They should have put Madonna on the cover. Madonna is light-years more photogenic than Sandy ever was or ever will be for that matter!

I have purchased all of Herb Ritts books. He was an amazing visionary. I am a photographer as well, and see him as one of my all time idols. His passing was sad for me. At least we have something to remember him by.

This was the first book by Ritts I ever purchased.I found it to be an amazing collection of portraits of everyone from Madonna and Sean Penn to Pee-Wee Herman. A definite must have for a fan of Herb Ritts' work. He has become my favorite contemporary photographer at the moment.I strongly recommend it.

Charles Hobson creates gorgeous, imaginative, unconventional books. This book has an unusual structure, opening out from the middle, with each half of the page dedicated to one half of a pair of famous lovers. It's a lovely and romantic book.

For Hemingway Paris was "a moveable feast"; Nietzsche said, "An artist, a man has no home in Europe save Paris." To many it is the city of love; for artist Charles Hobson it is the backdrop for some of the most famous and intriguing liaisons the world has ever known - Napoleon and Josephine, George Sand and Frederic Chopin, Marie and Pierre Curie, Anais Nin and Henry Miller, and others.

Uniquely constructed with a gate fold "French door" format, Parisian Encounters blends art and literature to tell the stories of eight famous couples. Collage-like images present portraits of the couples and segments of their handwriting. A brief biographical essay accompanies each portrait.

We learn that when Napoleon asked Josephine for an annulment so that he might marry Princess Marie-Louise of Austria, he wrote, "I still love you, but in politics there is no heart, only head." An established poet within Parisian literary society, Louise Colet was 11 year his senior when she met the then unpublished Flaubert. He used her as a sounding board as he created Madame Bovary.

The relationships of the couples were complex - "each playing instrumental roles for the other - emotionally, creatively, and intellectually - and this interplay wove their lives together."

Parisian Encounters is an original, a wonderfully revelatory volume uniquely conceived and executed.

- Gail Cooke

Beautiful artwork,fascinating words,mix and match your favorites to design your own "odd couples"! So,besides being a visual delight,this book is also very informative.

Just as James Agee (deceased) and Pauline Kael (alive, but retired) remain the best writers on the Art of Film, so Kenneth Tynan (again, deceased) is still the best writer on the Art of Theatre. Tynan wrote so beautifully and wittily and lovingly about the stage and the people who inhabit it and he was also responsible in a major way for the success of the National Theatre of Great Britain along with his friend and professional partner, Laurence Olivier. (an essay on Olivier is one of the high-points of this book.) It was Tynan who "discovered" Harold Pinter, who "made the career" of John Osbourne and was a major factor in reviving the career of Noel Coward, after years of neglect: as Literary Manager of the National, it was Tynan who urged a revival of Coward's classic "Hay Fever."

This collection of 50 essays is absolutely essential reading for anyone who has a love of theatre or simply of celebrity and star power. No one writing today writes as well as Tynan did nor consistently shows his affection for Show Business. If you regularly read today's so-called critics, you come away with the feeling that they become INSULTED that plays they dislike were actually produced!

I highly recommend this book. It is passionate, charming and, at times, really funny stuff. But, please, do yourself a favor and haunt every used book shop you know to find a copy of Tynan's out-of-print collected theatre reviews from the U.S. (he wrote for "The New Yorker") and England called CURTAINS. It is absolutely the best book of criticism you'll ever read.

Enormously entertaining and the writing is to die for. Epstein regards Tynan as a lightweight and in a way I guess he is, but a skilled lightweight is still a thing of beauty and Tynan IS skilled. I stared underlining favorite passages but had to stop because I was underlining almost everything.

Tynan was one of the century's great journalists, capable of capturing a performer in two paragraphs, yet equally adept at longer essays, several of which are collected here. The pieces on Stoppard and Louise Brooks are particularly fine. The reviewer below is right: the writing is to die for; but, compared to Epstein, Tynan is a super-hevyweight, with ten times the force and prose-potency.

NOT ONLY IS THIS INTERESTING FOR THE READER BUT IT MAKES A GREAT CONVERSATION PIECE FOR A GROUP.VERY THOUGHT PROVOKING.

I did this when I was a child, write questions in a notebook and ask my friends to answer all the questions, it was a trend at the time and it was a lot of fun. Later, reading all the answers I realized I was learning a lot from those answers. I had never thought that I would come across the Proust Questionnaire and learn it was done so long ago and answered by so many great people. I loved reading this book.

Marcel Proust is still somewhat of an enigma from the past century. A man whose hefty multi-volume opus 'A la Recherche Du Temps Perdu' continues to delight, puzzle, stimulate all the arts even today, Proust has had many biographies and treatises written but few supply the sheer pleasure of this perfectly designed little volume.

In Proust's time he had two questionnaires, separated by time, but similar in content, questionnaires he responded to allowing the reader to discover his psychological fears and fantasies as well as his favorite poets, writers, painters, composers, fears, embarrassing moments etc. This artfully designed volume presents copies of those questionnaires, both in Proust's handwritten responses in French in type set English form. But the pleasure of this idea doesn't stop there.

After a learned introduction by Henry-Jean Servant as to the manner in which the original questionnaires were used, William C. Carter relates the importance of Proust's influence on the arts that followed his death and the myriad films, books, studies, and conversations that continue. Then the creators of this colorful book placed the questionnaires in the hands of a number of interesting celebrities including Alain du Buton, Brigitte Bardot, Marisa Berenson, Richard Meier and Peter Lindbergh.

THEN the book opens Proust's game to the reader, supplying pages of questionnaires to pass among friends and guests in a party game for the intellect. The book makes a delightful curiosity for dinner parties, but it is the writing of the creators including the responses by Proust himself that make this book one to own. Grady Harp, December 06

I thought I'd reviewed this years ago, but maybe it was elsewhere. I love this book. I've been a fan of the late Al Hirschfeld for years, but here's a relatively new artist from New York who captures a little of that style but yet has his own. Well, the cover says it all! If you can look at the cover and not laugh, well, you're dead. The back cover will blow away any Diana Ross fan, as well. His caricature style is such that if you follow pop culture at all, you don't need to look at the index to see whom is who. Well, for me there were a couple that were unfamiliar. I thought he missed the mark with Michael Jordan, but nobody's perfect! The book is divided into TV, Style, Music, Thinkers, Film, Scandals, Media, Sports, Theater, and Politics. Nobody seems to be off limits with Risko. His artwork is just beautifully done on a technical level, and still there's humor in a lot of it. There's one piece in particular of singer Al Jarreau that's stunning--it's part Hirschfeld and part Picasso! It's hard to explain, really. If you've never seen a Risko, you just have to experience it for yourself. Buy this book! I can't say enough about this artist, and I can't wait for Volume Two!

Found this book to be an amazing collection of illustrations by one of the most talented artists in our time. His work has matured over the years to a fine point of perfection.

Outstanding collection of extremely witty and winsome caricatures of entertainment and political figures from the 1970's through today. Most of the work previously graced the covers and feature articles of The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Interview, and Rolling Stone and therefore will be familiar to the reader.

There is much excellent cultural and political commentary (in illustration form) collected in this one book by an outstanding illustrator of the 20th century.

Great for Christmas giving, the book is beautifully printed and guaranteed to bring miles of smiles to the reader.

Francesco Scavullo has a gift, there's no question about that. His pictures are so full of life it's hard to believe they are frozen on paper. He also offers candid insights into some of his subjects which only add to the photo's charm. This book has something in it for everyone. It's a purchase you won't regret making if you have even the most remote interest in photography.

I collect and read photography books. This one I got as a Christmas present, and it's super. Whether you're into celebrities or just great photography, this book covers it all. I also like his reasoning and history behind some of the people he photographed. A great book to have in any collection.

If you like photographs of celebrities that express their personalities in loving ways, this volume is a must for you!

This volume contains a few nude and topless female photographs that are artfully and tastefully done.

Francesco Scavullo created the images that most of us carry around with us that "define" the celebrities that have made an impression on us. These images are greatly enhanced in this volume by brief captions in which Mr. Scavullo shares his verbal perspective on the model. For example, about Diana Vreeland, he says, "Allure personified." His way with words is as good as his way with the camera. Louise Nevelson (one of the subjects of this volume) called his work "the poetic essence of his subject." In doing this, he "filters out visual cliches." In fact, he changed the images of many of his subjects (do you remember the glamor portrait of Martha Mitchell on the cover of New York Magazine?). He has been fascinated that "you could make people attractive."

Mr. Scavullo has an obvious love for people that carries from one thoughtful portrait to the next. He captures a liveliness that most people only feel a few times a year, yet that spark exists in almost all of these images. It's enough to get you to jump up out of your seat and kick your heels in the air!

The book's essay is also candid about Mr. Scavullo's experiences with manic depression, and his joy in doing his photography while in the manic state. Many of his downs are described as "nervous breakdowns" and certainly give a greater poignancy to these bouyant views.

There is also a brief chronology of his career that will put events in perspective for you.

The book is a blockbuster of outstanding images. I could have listed dozens as my favorites from these great black and white and color photographs. Here are a few selections to whet your appetite for the real thing:

Sophia Loren, 1973

Catherine Deneueve, 1970 (1st one)

Elizabeth Taylor, 1977

Oprah Winfrey, 1994

Maria Shriver, 1986

Louise Nevelson, 1981

Christopher Reeve, 1977

Dick Cavett, 1978

Salvador Dali, 1973

Gore Vidal, 1975

Andy Warhol, 1983

Samantha Jones, 1969

Iman, 1989

Lauren Hutton, 1975, 1973

Rene Russo, 1974 (2nd image)

Ingemore, 1968

Maria Badeau, 1970

Brooke Shields, 1983, 1991

Pauline Trigere, 1977

Linda Evangelista, 1990

Claudia Schiffer, 1989

Elizabeth Hurley, 1995

Julie Andrews, 1994

Bee Gees, 1977

Gene Simmons, 1979

Isabella Rossellini, 1986

What thought does it take for you to come alive as these people do? Notice that they seem younger, less guarded, and more confident and comfortable. That makes them more appealing.

Be your most attractive to inspire you . . . and everyone else!

My parents alerted me to this book. It's different, as the singers of today do not sing songs. They talk to a beat. Connie Haines sang with Tommy Dorsey's fine orchestra when Frank Sinatra was also a singer with his band. They did lots of duets together. I think that Helen Forrest and Connie Haines were the two best singers of those big band days. Her's is an interesting story that stresses her religious faith and how she overcame distress in her life. The photos are great, too. I understand she is still singing today with the same gusto. A friend recently saw her perform in Atlantic City with a World War II type review. Her good friend Jane Russell penned a foreword.

My parents alerted me to this book. It's different, as the singers of today do not sing songs. They talk to a beat. Connie Haines sang with Tommy Dorsey's fine orchestra when Frank Sinatra was also a singer with his band. They did lots of duets together. I think that Helen Forrest and Connie Haines were the two best singers of those big band days. Her's is an interesting story that stresses her religious faith and how she overcame distress in her life. The photos are great, too. I understand she is still singing today with the same gusto. A friend recently saw her perform in Atlantic City with a World War II type review. Her good friend Jane Russell penned a foreword.

I am the author of Snootie Little Cutie. Connie Haines is the best singer of the big band era. At seventeen she sang shoulder -to -shoulder with Frank Sinatra first in Harry James' band, and then they both joined Tommy Dorsey singing with the Pied Pipers, Buddy Rich, Jo Stafford, all members of the great showcase band. Connie lives in Florida and still performs. Her friend Jane Russell wrote the foreword. This book will transform you back to the Big Band Era with over 100 photos. Connie later toured with Abbott & Costello on their radio show, and also toured with Jane Russell, Rhonda Fleming, & Beryl Davis as Les Girls, singing bible songs on a nationwide tour. "You will learn a lot about this honorable, faithful, fun-loving, talented, crystal- chanddelier-loving Southern Belle," according to Jane Russell.