The Great Divide

How to Be a Hollywood Star: Your Guide to Living the Fabulous Life
by Stephen P. Williams

Confidential: For Stars' Eyes Only

Worried that your air kisses lack panache? Afraid to go to a Lakers game lest you sit too close and annoy Jack Nicholson? Wondering why you don't have a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame? Relax! You hold in your hand the fabled How to Be a Hollywood Star, the top-secret guide to managing the details of your fabulous celebrity lifestyle. The ultimate primer for Tinseltown newbies, it''s been passed down through generations of Hollywood's elite. And now you've got your very own copy. Baby, you have arrived.

Useful tips include:

• Dating and romance for the rich and famous
• Daily diva affirmations
• Six surefire ways to spot a stalker
• Ten tasks stars should delegate to their assistants
• Negotiating the Cannes Film Festival
• How to sell out discreetly
• Choosing a Hollywood home, yacht, and car that suit your image
• Selecting the trendy religion that is right for you
• What to pack for rehab and how to hire a prison coach

Whether you're already a huge star or just wish you were, this helpful, often hilarious manual explains the nuts and bolts of Hollywood stardom — from outrunning the paparazzi to mastering the art of the onscreen kiss. Taken from interviews with the stars, the members of their entourage, their nannies and personal assistants, and the countless employees who make the whole thing look effortless, here is your road map to navigating the top-secret world of the stars.

Chapter 1

There are two places called Hollywood.

1. Physical Hollywood hugs the Santa Monica mountain range in Los Angeles and is accessible by compact car from Laurel Canyon Boulevard, the 101 Freeway, and Santa Monica Boulevard. A brief history: In 1886, a crippled Topeka, Kansas, man named Harvey Wilcox bought 160 wilderness acres outside Los Angeles. His wife, Daeida, christened the ranch "Hollywood," after an Ohio town someone had mentioned on a train. In the early 1900s, movie companies were drawn to Hollywood's intense sunlight. They also liked its distance from the New Jersey courts where inventor Thomas Edison had filed lawsuits claiming copyright ownership of the filmmaking process. Edison lost and the studios prospered.

The first Academy Awards took place in 1929. In 1960, the first star was laid in the Walk of Fame. Currently, about three hundred thousand people live in Hollywood, including many homeless teenage hustlers, a few long-legged farm girls, and several Armenian shop owners. Most of the studios are now in Burbank and elsewhere. As a star, you might pass through this community on occasion for business or entertainment purposes, but it will not be your home.

2. Magical Hollywood, which you will inhabit, crosses geographical boundaries to include parts of Los Angeles, New York, France, and Montana; the first-class lounges of international airports; nightclub VIP rooms; hyperyachts; and secluded, pampering resorts in odd locations. You may reach this Hollywood only via jet, helicopter, comfortable boat, motorcycle, or late-model Maybach. In this Hollywood, people eat raw foods, wear thousand-dollar T-shirts, and bemoan their loss of creative freedom. It is a world that only you and your peers will ever understand. Once inside, you will do anything to stay.

STAR KNOWLEDGE: Where to Live

Star abodes fall along a line stretching from Silver Lake, at the intersection of the 101 and 5 freeways, west to Santa Monica and up the coast to Malibu. A number of desirable communities lie within this geography, and each has its own personality and implications for your image.

Los Feliz/Silver Lake: This area is suitable for stars who haven't left their roommate days behind. If you're still here when stardom calls, move immediately to negate the risk of running into failed negative people (FNP) who haven't made it big. You deserve better, unless you're purchasing one of the pedigreed midcentury modern homes bordering the reservoir. If the realtor drops the names Richard Neutra, Rudolf M. Schindler, Gregory Ain, or John Lautner, immediately offer the full price, as houses by these dead architects confer great status.

West Hollywood: More a shopping and dining destination for stars than a place to pitch a tent. This is Gay Hollywood. If you are a closeted gay star (CGS) in this neighborhood, be prepared for paparazzi and make sure your lifestyle denial speech is well-scripted.

Mulholland Drive: This legendary winding road is lined with glamorous homes perched high above the city. Away from the madding crowd and far from good takeout restaurants, this area is perfect for stars who are comfortable in their skin and who like the freedom to tinkle in their backyards, if the urge hits them, without upsetting the neighbors.

Laurel Canyon: The side streets of this canyon have been home to superstars, porn stars, politicians, and drug dealers. The jumbled compounds are perfect for bohemian sensibilities and substance-addled Trustafarian souls. Neighbors will applaud your spiritual commitment when you install a large stone Buddha that dribbles water out of its mouth into your pool.

Beverly Hills: While the neighborhood certainly has cachet, it's also less inviting and more crowded than a true star might appreciate. These days, Jed, Jethro, Granny, and Elly May would more likely be known as the Bel Airbillies.

Bel Air: Now you're talking. The astounding amounts of water consumed by the picket-fence roses in these arid luxyons mark Bel Air as true star territory.

Brentwood: This double-income-zero-orgasm (DIZO) neighborhood features big houses, big egos, and strong gates. You might bump into your agent here. The sidewalks are so deserted that stars have been known to murder their cheating spouses right on the street and get away with it.

Pacific Palisades: Urban legend holds that families who live in this wealthy neighborhood of fresh air and tranquil homes stay together longer than families who live in Beverly Hills.

Santa Monica: A beighborhood home to surfers, flower children, and power-hungry vegetarians, this casually expensive beachside community is perfect for socially aware stars.

Malibu: Seemingly simple cottages on stilts line the beach, but be assured that luxury reigns behind their charming facades. High-wattage stars work hard to keep riffraff off the beach so they can play fetch with their dogs in peace. Check deeds for public beach access stairways before purchasing a home here, or you might end up having to file a lawsuit to remove the permanent gathering of fans just below your deck.

STAR ISSUE: How to Select a Home

Your career success depends, in part, on your home. An unseemly home (too small, too ugly, too far from power-lunch spots like the Ivy) will mark you as antisocial and unpredictable, which are undesirable traits in an industry of team players. Aim for a beautiful house that's as unapologetically large as your ego. Choose from among the following styles:

Tudor: These houses, which feature cosmetic, nonstructural wooden beams, steeply pitched roofs, and stucco walls, became popular in the 1920s when Lon Chaney, Louise Brooks, and Charlie Chaplin reigned supreme. To Americans, the style has always evoked visions of English country homes. To everyone else in the world, fake Tudor just looks dark and dumb. Leave these houses for the Film Theory 101 professors. Tudor does not have star power (SP).

Tiki: This Hawaiian lounge look is good for young Hollywood stars. You can trade up to something more mature after your twenty-third birthday.

Mayan Revival: Serious architects are still in awe of this exotic motif from the 1920s that radiates creative power. Best for eccentric stars.

Midcentury Modern: Perfect for your weekend getaway home in Palm Springs. Reflecting pools, metal arches, airport-lounge-style sloped ceilings, overtiled bathrooms, curved colorful chandeliers, and stone walls tell the world you have arrived and are proud to be cool. Expect major magazine attention. Star friends may be a bit bored, as this trend is peaking.

Postmodern: No one knows exactly what this term means, except that it is the condition of postmodernity, or "after what is now." But enough theory. In practice, postmodern houses make unashamedly bold and goofy statements, with oversize columns, vaguely historical windows, shingle siding, and perverted traditional forms. Favored for East Coast star retreats like Easthampton and Martha's Vineyard. Perfect for auteurs.

Spanish Revival and Mission: These stucco houses with red-tiled roofs are always right for any Hollywood star, and they look good in Architectural Digest.

Bungalow: Low-key Los Angeles architectural form that works well for young star couples on their way up.

Minimalist: For secure stars only. This highly evolved style eschews ornamentation and color, relying instead on clean open spaces that say, "I am so successful that I need nothing." While the houses invariably look empty, there are always many hidden closets and drawers for concealing star junk.

Copyright © 2006 by Stephen P. Williams. Excerpted by permission of Three Rivers Press, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

About the Author

A newspaper and magazine journalist for more than twenty years, Stephen P. Williams has written articles for publications such as the New York Times, Men's Journal, Newsweek, GQ, and many others. He is also the author of How to Be President.