Shawn Levy Knihy

Paul Newman se zapsal do historie filmu jako jedna z největších hollywoodských legend. Shawn Levy ve své knize sleduje Newmanovu cestu od divadelních začátků až po vrchol, kde spolupracoval s hvězdami jako Elizabeth Taylorová a Robert Redford, a získal řadu oscarových nominací. Kromě úspěchů se kniha nezdráhá přiblížit i temnější stránky života tohoto modrookého lamače srdcí. Newman, oscarový herec známý svými charismatickými a zlomenými postavami ve filmech jako Biliárový král a Butch Cassidy a Sundance Kid, byl raritou v Hollywoodu – herec, který točil kasovní trháky a zároveň se věnoval charitě dlouho předtím, než se to stalo módou. Narodil se v rodině úspěšného podnikatele, vyrostl na předměstí Clevelandu a místo rodinného byznysu se rozhodl pro herectví. Po počátečních obtížích mu tragická náhoda přinesla roli boxera Rockyho Graziana. Newman, člen původní generace Actors Studia, se vždy snažil o vysokou profesionalitu. Kromě herectví se aktivně angažoval v otázkách občanských práv a nukleárního zbrojení. V automobilovém sportu se stal nejstarším jezdcem, který vyhrál velký profesionální závod, a založil značku Newman’s Own, jejíž zisky věnoval na dobročinné účely. Levy nabízí jedinečný pohled na Newmanův život, jeho lásku k Joanne Woodwardové a tragédii, která zasáhla jeho rodinu. Je to fascinující portrét muže, který se stal jednou z nejoslavenějších hvězd dvacátého století.

When Shawn Levy had the notion to write a poem each day for a year, inspired by the obituary pages of The New York Times, he had no way of knowing that the year in question, 2016, would claim so many of the world's most iconic figures. His project became, in effect, a vehicle for surveying the breadth of the twentieth century: Titans from all fields of endeavor, lives that contained one quirky but insoluble achievement, and people who had special significance in his own life. From Nancy Reagan to Muhammad Ali, David Bowie to Arnold Palmer, Prince to Janet Reno, Antonin Scalia to Mary Tyler Moore, and including a Black Miss America, an obsessive weather reporter, the nurse famously kissed by a sailor on VJ Day, the man who put the '@' in your email address, and the last man to walk on the moon, the lives recollected in these one hundred poems provoke compassion, sorrow, outrage, surprise, nostalgia, even laughter.

A portrait of the film icon offers insights into his early years and family background, drawing on interviews with friends and colleagues to trace his artistic evolution and the apparent disconnect between his real and on-screen personalities

"Today, women are ascendant in standup comedy, even preeminent. They make headlines, fill arenas, spawn blockbuster movies. But before Amy Schumer slayed, Tiffany Haddish killed, and Ali Wong drew roars, the very idea of a female comedian seemed, to most of America, like a punchline. And it took a special sort of woman-indeed, a parade of them-to break and remake the mold. In on the Joke is the story of a group of unforgettable women who knocked down the doors of standup comedy so other women could get a shot. It spans decades, from Moms Mabley's rise in Black vaudeville between the World Wars, to the roadhouse ribaldry of Belle Barth and Rusty Warren in the '50s and '60s, to Elaine May's co-invention of improv comedy, to Joan Rivers' and Phyllis Diller's ferocious ascent to mainstream stardom. These women refused to be defined by type and tradition, facing down indifference, puzzlement, nay-saying, and unvarnished hostility. They were discouraged by agents, managers, audiences, critics, fellow performers-even their families. And yet they persevered against the tired notion that women couldn't be funny, making space not only for themselves but for the women who followed them. Meticulously researched and irresistibly drawn, Shawn Levy's group portrait forms a new pantheon of comedy excellence. In on the Joke shows how women broke into the boys' club, offered new ideas of womanhood, and had some laughs along the way"-- Provided by publisher

The intoxicating story of Hollywood, as seen from the suites and bungalows of its most iconic hotel

A biography of the 'Rat Pack' - Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop, this is the brilliant story of their rise and fall, and their connections with the Kennedys and the Mafia.

First biography of The Rat Pack -- Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop et al -- the original Swingers. Brilliant and beautifully written story of their rise and fall, and their connections with the Kennedys and the Mafia, which will appeal to fans of Swingers!, Goodfellas and Nick Tosches' Dino. They alit in Las Vegas for a month to make a movie and play a historic nightclub gig they called the Summit; they hit Miami, the Utah desert, Palm Springs, Chicago, Atlantic City, Beverly Hills, Hollywood back lots, illegal gambling dens, saloons, yachts, private jets, the White House itself. It was sauce and vinegar and eau de cologne and sour mash whiskey and gin and smoke and perfume and silk and neon and skinny lapels and tail fins and rockets to the sky. It was swinging and sighing and being a sharpie, it was cutting a figure and digging a scene. while and Joey Bishop when they asked him and Jack Kennedy and Sam Giancana and tables full of cronies and who knew how many broads. It was the ultimate spasm of traditional showbiz -- both the last and the most of its kind. It was the Rat Pack. It was beautiful. Rat Pack Confidential -- you're never far from a cocktail, a swingin' affair and a fist-fight.