Celebutantes

September 10, 2007
Gawker.com meets Glamour
in this insider’s look at Oscar week penned by L.A. junior royalty: Goldberg, producer Leonard Goldberg’s daughter, has worked for Todd Oldham; Khalighi Hopper, daughter of Dennis Hopper and Daria Halprin, produced and starred in the indie film Americano
. After a disastrous turn acting and bedding her superhunk co-star, Lola Santisi, 26 and the daughter of famed director Paul Santisi, swears off actors and acting for good. But Lola agrees to be the Hollywood ambassador for “Best Gay Forever” designer Julian Tennant, to help get a major actress to wear one of his dresses at the Oscars. Lola woos an array of glitterari, each more self-absorbed than the next in the runup to Graydon Carter’s famed Vanity Fair
bash, and competes against the ruthless Prada ambassador Adrienne Hunt for the plum actor bods. There’s up-to-the-minute star chatter and fashion name-checking throughout; wonderfully dead-on moments as Lola negotiates underlings to get on set; and a possibly fatal relapse of actor fever. The shallowness is more severe than Angelina’s neckline, but that’s the point, and it quickly becomes imperative to discover just who is going to wear Julian Tennant to the Oscars.

January 28, 2008
After listening to Gigi Bermingham's reading of the novel from young Hollywood insiders Hopper and Goldberg, it comes as no surprise to learn that the veteran stage and television actress earned both an Ovation Award and an L.A. Drama Critics' Circle Award for performing her solo play Non-Vital Organs
. Bermingham juggles the colorful cast of over-the-top characters in this gossipy tale with finesse. As the “Hollywood ambassador” for her “best-gay forever” friend and designer Julian Tenent, protagonist Lola Santisi earnestly seeks to heal the scars of her dysfunctional Tinseltown upbringing and overcome “career-deficit disorder” during Oscar week. Bermingham proves particularly delightful in her portrayal of Lola's nemesis, actress Olivia Cutter, whose mercurial outbursts and oddball phobias manage to generate shock value even by the jaded standards of contemporary celebrity misbehavior. The upbeat musical interludes at the start and end of each CD also help sustain the glitzy ambience. Fans of Ugly Betty
and The Devil Wears Prada
provide a natural audience for this entertaining production. Simultaneous release with the St. Martin's Press hardcover (Reviews, Sept. 10).