An antidote to snake oil and delusional expectations.
A Hollywood insider’s how-to guide for parents who want to get their children into show business.
In this honest, comprehensive and accessible guide to the wild, woolly and sometimes nefarious world of child acting, Bertolino aims to educate readers about all the nooks and crannies of the process. As the author documents in case after case–and she names names–there are countless scam artists out there with big promises, fat retainers and zero results. She first advises parents to take a hard look at their kids: Have they expressed a desire to act? Are they outgoing and adaptable? Do they have the ability to concentrate? Can they sit still? Do they have a sensible degree of comfort around strangers? Can they put themselves in other people’s shoes? After a thorough overview of the necessary legalities involved and an introduction to guilds and unions (including extensive resource lists), readers are squired through how to best use professional photographs, fashion a resume to attract the eye of a casting director and locate and interview an agent. The guide then offers serious advice on parental behavior–“Your job as a showbiz parent is to still be a parent”; you must still raise your kid, protect them emotionally and physically, give them character, keep their studies up and narcissism down and their range of interests broad. Bertolino also includes hair-raising stories of agent scams and telemarketers with bad intentions. The author is a caring and experienced guide who has mapped all the potholes, dangerous curves and speed traps of the acting world for aspiring young stars and their parents.
An antidote to snake oil and delusional expectations.Pub Date: June 8, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-893-89923-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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