Juicy tidbits for the armchair casting agent. Readers will devour this tome for its behind-the-scenes dramas, if not...
Casting couch? What casting couch?
Hollywood star-makers Hirshenson and Jenkins debunk that myth and many others in their from-the-trenches memoir. Times have changed since the studios made casting decisions in-house and moguls bedded their wannabe starlets in exchange for plum roles. Today, according to these longtime professional partners, it’s all business in the female-dominated, mostly freelance casting profession. In fact, filling the roles of a major film takes many arduous months and poses more maddening possibilities than a Sudoku puzzle. “Casting is a complicated, delicate, and almost alchemical business,” they write. “To be a good casting director, you need instinct, patience, and the ability to remember hundreds of diverse faces, voices, and performances.” Hirshenson and Jenkins are tops among the approximately 700 casting directors and associates working in the U.S. Their filmography, which includes everything from The Outsiders to The Da Vinci Code, indicates why they are among the most sought-after in the business; they have given first star turns to unknowns like Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise and the Harry Potter kids. But even the most astute talent scouts can make missteps: The pair admits to passing on future Oscar-winners George Clooney and Kevin Spacey. Among the most riveting vignettes are those from the strange and rather perverse field of children’s casting, where Hirshenson and Jenkins first encountered such eventual above-the-marquee names as Leonardo DiCaprio, Winona Ryder and Scarlett Johansson. Though the authors’ tales are often engaging and illuminating, their prose is pedestrian, and they can be sloppy, referring to Oscar nominee Laura Dern as an Oscar-winner and misspelling Steven Spielberg’s name multiple times.
Juicy tidbits for the armchair casting agent. Readers will devour this tome for its behind-the-scenes dramas, if not literary merit.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-15-101234-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2006
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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