The Biography of Warren Beatty: The Sexiest Man Alive (Hardcover)

Amburn's book is a fairly entertaining read, despite the fact it's cobbled together from magazines/newspapers & has plenty of quotes from Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (which tells you pretty much what is here, but in a more entertaining fashion & with some knowledge of films). The emphasis is gossip-based and tabloid; well, it is published by Virgin! It is up to date, with discussions of more recent Beatty works, such as Bulworth & the mess that was Town & Country. But it didn't tell me much that a two-page article in Uncut magazine a few years ago did...This book frequently goes off the point- e.g. the Polanski case that saw him become an exile, Diane Keaton reportedly having a miscarriage after getting back together with Al Pacino. Hal Ashby is pretty much sumarised in a paragraph, in a manner that suggests Amburn read the bits on Ashby in Biskind's book. A lot of the information here is just gossip and extremely repetative- at times it was like reading the Warhol Diaries written by Joan Rivers, or an even better satire of Truman Capote's diaries than the one PJ O'Rourke did in Age & Guile...Jack & Angelica, & Dustin & Diane & Julie & here's a bit about some newscaster Beatty saw for a bit who died in a car crash with such and such and here's some politics-lite etc.

& having read several Beatty-biogs, I'd say it wasn't much different in approach to Warren Beatty: The Last Great Lover of Hollywood or The Films of Warren Beatty. I suppose people can't resist it, here's a man who is quite a myth and rumoured to have had relations with all sorts of glamorous women. It's a pity they don't want to talk about the films- Reds doesn't get talked about much, just slightly talked around - which is surprising as it's the most significant film Beatty has worked on. Beatty ought to be written about in a more academic way as he's been deeply involved in many of his films, co-writing Shampoo, co-directing Heaven Can Wait, producing Bonnie & Clyde etc. If you've never read a Beatty-biog, this book probably isn't that bad & will kill an afternoon in the sun (though David Thomson's Beatty book is the best one written so far). & it's notable that Amburn leaves out Beatty's almost collaboration with Quentin Tarantino for Kill Bill- though at least we're spared some more tedious cod-philosophising. & a lot of the references to Beatty's supposed pre-nature sound to me like some sort of jibe from the author at his subject. Which is all a bit Albert Goldman. & why has the title to this been changed (well apart from the inner sleeve) from The Sexiest Man Alive to Warren Beatty: A Biography? A standard biography, quite good value for £6.99 (perhaps), but of more interest to people who like to read about Hollywood stars copulating than American cinema...