Shocking True Story

March 1, 2010
Long before Americans got their fill of celebrity scandals and gossip from the "National Enquirer" or TMZ.com, they read juicy exposs about Hollywood in "Confidential". Scott, a media consultant and former journalist, provides an overview of this successful and controversial magazine, which promised to "[tell] the facts and [name] the names." As the author relates, publisher Robert Harrison initially kept to this credo, printing stories only after staff and private investigators checked their veracity. Eventually, though, he succumbed to publishing unsubstantiated rumors and outright lies. After a series of prominent libel suits and the shocking murder-suicide of staffer Howard Rushmore, who killed himself and his wife, Harrison sold the magazine. VERDICT Although extensively referenced and containing a lengthy bibliography, Scott's book is not as in-depth as Samuel Bernstein's "Mr. Confidential: The Man, the Magazine & the Movieland Massacre". Still, this breezy book will interest fans and followers of gossip magazines, Hollywood history, and celebrity scandals.Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2010
Scott concentrates on urscandal rag Confidential proper more than mercurial publisher Robert Harrison (so see also Samuel Bernsteins Mr. Confidential, 2006) in a short, punchy book replete with pictures (not, apparently, reprints from the mag) of the celebs tarred in its pages. Scott presents excerpts from the likes of Why Joe DiMaggio Is Striking Out with Marilyn Monroe and How Rita Hayworths Children Were Neglected and discusses their background and how they affected their subjects and Confidentials circulation and legal affairs. Salacious many stories were (e.g., What Makes Ava Gardner Run for Sammy Davis, Jr.?), but since Harrison insisted on rigorous fact-checking, there was usually a modicum of truth in the claims made. Obsessed with miscegenation, homosexuality (Lizabeth Scott in the Call Girls Call Book), and Communist affiliations, Confidential also managed to do consumer-interest stories (The Big Lie about Filter Cigarettes). The last couldnt pay the rent by themselves, as Harrison found out after being induced to give up celeb scandals. Circulation plummeted. An excellent wallow in the pop-cultural swamps.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)