Insanity Chic in Babylon -- The Case Against Celebrity

This book is fabulous! I believe that most of the people who are bemoaning that this book is just a rehash of old stories are wrong. This book is not about the stories. It's about the notion that these narcissitic half-witted celebrities are totally devoid of values... oops, we are not allowed to talk about values.

AN excellent book!!!It exposes the leftist Hollywood cigarette smoking drug addict Botox injected pinkos for what they really are.That's why this book doesn't get five stars.Not because it's not good.Exactly the opposite.It's too good.It thoroughly exposes the hypocrisy of the Hollywood communists.Just my thoughts.

Definitely a well-written book about many of Hollywood's two-faced hypocrites, but if you have any knowledge current Hollywood scandals you've probably heard most of these stories before, plus the book has a not-so-subtle Right Wing-brand "family values" patina to it, thus making the authors' agenda a little suspect. If you read the book as an Op-Ed piece rather than unbiased reporting (even though the stories told are all pretty much true) it'll probably make an easier read.

P.S. Upon reviewing many of the other reviews left for this book, I see more than quite a few other people were also put off by its Right Wing bias and lazy, re-hashed research.

What a terribly-written book. Take 100 diverse subjects about the media and celebrities, divide them into vague groupings, then take quote from a bunch of other sources and try to string it all together. Then, to make it worse, add the snarky commentary of Andrew Breitbart along with the carefully-filtered "facts" and you get one giant mess.

It's hard to know where to begin with why this book is so bad. It's not because it comes from a conservative perspective because that's what I was looking forward to hearing. Instead it's terrible because it is just a bunch of mis-matched information often taken out of context and thrown together based on whatever articles the authors had in their files.

To list the people speared in this collection of tabloid stories would go on and on: John Travolta. Michael Ovitz. Rosie O'Donnell. Michael Jackson. Eddie Murphy. Robert Downey. Nothing is said that you haven't heard before or haven't read elsewhere (because they take directly from other publications, as noted in the 31 pages of footnotes!). Often the subject is just touched upon lightly with the writers showing no understanding about the topic. At other times there is character assassination via what they don't include or how they address the star (like them never using Tom Cruise's name with prefacing it with "the hetrosexual").

It's like a really bad term paper from a smart-alack kid who waited until the last minute to put it together and acts like he knows more than anybody else to overcome his obvious ignorance. It's a complete waste of paper (almost 400 pages hardcover!) and by now extremely outdated. If you think Breitbart has any credibility, just scan this book and you'll quickly discover what his major problems are: he has a gigantic ego and he draws often incorrect conclusions based on small amounts of information.

This is a completely unobjective book written by a pair of apparently very moralistic writers on the woes of celebrities and how they have done irreparable harm to our nation in counteless ways...perhaps they have, I do not have an opinion on that either way, and in any case, exercise my freedom of choice by not buying the fan mags or paying to see the movies that i find offensive...but the problem with the book is the non-stop sermons from the authors on each issue they address...they cannot even write a complete paragraph without preaching.
Also, nearly all of the mosr interesting examples they cite of the various crimes and misdemeanors the celebs are always told with anonymous sources and usually without naming the celeb in question. This makes me wonder if some of these items are even true, or if so, how they were verified enough to put into a non-fiction account. Yes I know sources must be protected but there is not much of a story there if even the offender goes unnamed...and when they do name names, often the people are such minor celebs that they have to go into detail telling who they are and why they deserve to be called celebs or be in a book about celebs..
In any event, this book is too obviously geared to the untra-conservatives of the land, which is fine-but it should not be mistaken for an unbiased read-which could have been done well. Many celebs have shown to be out of control and no one would argue that, but instead this pair has chosen their side and present it to the exclusion of all else. And it is not even interesting stuff...if only they had waited a few years, they would have been able to crow about poor Anna Nicole being dead instead of simply a pitiful joke...etc...

It's not exactly news that Hollywood is a depraved place that rewards, covers up and condones bad behavior. What may be news to the conservative "writers" of this atrociously slanted book is that Washington DC (my hometown, I'm a lifelong resident) is also a depraved place that rewards, covers up and condones bad behavior. The main difference is that Hollywood doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is (how could it?) but The Nations Capitol does.

Nothing in this book is particularly eye opening, Hollywood liberals are hypocrites, wow how utterly shocking! Actors and musicians are predisposed to alcohol and drug abuse and casual sex! Oh my, say it isn't so! Guess what! So are politicians of both political stripes! Guess what else? IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY AND IT ALWAYS WILL BE! It takes a certain type of person with a certain type of ego and "moral flexibilty" to go into show biz and politics. Remarkably they are the same type! Again, how shocking. The only problem is this books takes a cruel, partisan and jaundiced view of the moral decay of Hollywood (which is no different that any other conservative view of Hollywood written in the last, oh...90 years or so...) but at no point do they acknowledge that the moral, family values conservatives are no different than the depraved denizens of Hollyweird. They just clean up better and their children (who are as screwed up as the children of Hollywood, I should know, I went to school with enough of them) are cleaner cut and hide their drug problems and parental neglect better.

I wonder what stories the nannies of Capitol Hill would have to tell about their charges and employers? I know for a fact that they would be no different than the stories told by the nannies of the entertainment industy.

Who is worse, the people who churn out garbage that is "pornoizing" and destroying this country or the closet hedonists who make the public policy that is destroying our democracy? Hmmmm, both of them are dangerous, but Hollywood is simply pathetic and DC is scary. Not that you would know this from reading this book. Go guys! I pray that Ms. Huffington has let Mr. Breitbart go, especially after her awakening from the conservative nightmare she lived for so long.

I enjoy books about Hollywood and its celebrities--the good the bad and the ugly--but this book was simply repulsive. As for naming names, there were some, but there were still enough blind items to be frustrating. Plus, the tone was so completely unredeemingly negative that there were entire sections of the book I simply skipped because they were repetitive and demeaning. There aren't many books that can make me feel "slimed," but this one managed to. It's one thing to dish the dirt, like gossip columnists do--they often do it with a sense of humor at least--but these authors simply poured on the manure unrelentingly, and made me totally regret having bought the book and rewarding them for it. If you're a person who genuinely loves the entertainment biz, even with its excesses, do yourself a favor and pass this one up. Compared to this book, even the tabloids read like "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm."

I was expecting something humorous, given that one of the authors worked for SPY. Instead, I discovered a disorganized hodge podge of mean-spirited rants and stale gossip, and found I couldn't get through the whole thing. Sure, Hollywood is an easy target and ripe for criticism, and so I suppose the authors should be commended for taking it on (there were a couple of unintentional moments of humor when I contemplated the authors ever getting a job in Hollywood ever after this, or how much of their royalties will go for lawsuits), but something with a sense of satire and irony and not so sanctimonious would have been more of a pleasurable read. At least all those vapid, messed up celebrities in Tinseltown retain their entertainment value. This book does not.

I checked this out of the library & only read about 1/3 of it. That's about all i could take of this mean-spirited, one-sided, repetitive diatribe.

Please read the Pub Weekly review above. It gives a fair picture of this crappy book.

I have no problem w/ criticism of hollywood & celebrity, as long as it's fair & intelligent criticism. This book is neither. It's just a biased, unoriginal rant.

The worst thing i can say about it is that the tone is that of a smug, intolerant, finger-wagging, self-righteous hypocrite of the worst kind. Of course the authors, while condemning these celebrities, have no problem making money off of them (& their misfortunes). These guys are the worst kind of blood-sucking insects.

If you're really curious, leaf through it at the library & then put it back. Please don't give these narrow-minded idiots your hard-earned money.

I figured since authorship was shared between Breitbart and another author, that maybe it wouldn't be such a right-wing diatribe. But alas, it's just trashing people, some of whom seem to actually be pretty good parents (Jolie-Pitt,etc.) Of course, there are a bunch of wack-job wing nuts in Hollywood, but this is just one overblown, unresearched, vitriolic rant. Don't bother with it, it isn't even interesting.

This book is ripped from old tabloid news. The gossip is stale, and gossip is all you get. The authors made this a string of tabloid articles with no additional inforamation, no substantive interviews, and they can't write! I suppose they've written articles in the past, but never a book.
This book isn't clever or funny. It is merely whiny and nagging. It's also mean and the authors are self-congratualtory.
In reality they are part of the Hollywood problem. Instead of getting real jobs, they want to snigger at others. Too bad they lack the skill to make their gossip entertaining instead of petty.