Hollywood tends to do things in pairs. A few years ago, two movies about erupting volcanoes debuted within weeks of each other. The following year, the same thing happened with two films about flying space rocks. This month a pair of novels about the inner workings of Hollywood will hit bookstores within days of each other. Maneater (Simon & Schuster; 309 pages) by Gigi Levangie Grazer and Action! (Random House; 388 pages) by Robert Cort explore the less camera-ready aspects of the film industry, and the authors know whereof they speak. Grazer wrote the screenplay for Stepmom and is married to Brian Grazer, the Academy Award--winning producer of A Beautiful Mind. Cort's bio boasts that he has produced a whopping 52 films, including, alas, Three Men and a Baby and Jumanji. Despite their shared insider status, the two have very different takes on their hometown.
In the case of Maneater, it is safe--and even perhaps encouraged--to judge the book by its bubble-gum-pink cover. The funny, crude and knowing novel follows the antics of Clarissa Alpert, who is untroubled that she possesses no talents, job or interests but a little concerned that she has yet to acquire a husband. "Her timeline was clear: she would be 29 (32) in November; she and her lucky husband would have two children within four years; she'd be divorced by 40 and still hot (thanks to Dr. Drew Franklin of the Beverly Hills Triangle) and living the good life while the nannied, tutored, personal-trained kids attended out-of-state boarding schools." Clarissa sets her sights on Aaron Mason, an extravagantly wealthy Southerner new to the film industry, and books the wedding hall and florist before their first date.
Clarissa's world is narrow, existing within roughly 10 square blocks of West Los Angeles. Try as she might, she cannot remember the state in which her in-laws live (Georgia). She does not know what the NASDAQ is but understands the anthropological significance of floor seats at a Lakers game. Nevertheless, she proves to be a not only likable but also sympathetic character, particularly after her carefully planned march to the altar ends up throwing her for a financial loop.
Grazer, who has an obvious affection for Clarissa and the circles in which she travels--moviemakers and those who want to sleep with them--gently skewers rather than condemns. She spikes the narrative with apt metaphors: one character's face "dropped like a famous name at a West L.A. dinner party"; another is so disheveled, she "looked like Courtney Love in the early, pre-op, pre-Oscar party years"; and when Clarissa first speaks with Aaron, she notes that his accent "came out as flat as her mother's breasts (before the lift)."