Stranger than fiction, here are the real stories of the book world.
In the US they paid $US2million, for an American Idol judge to write a book called, I Don’t Mean to Be Rude, But…
According to rumours, There’s A Bear In There (and he wants Swedish) by Australian actress and former Playschool presenter, Merridy Eastman, is to be turned into a BBC television series. The book, a funny and fascinating account of Merridy’s time spent working as a receptionist in a brothel, was selected as a book of the month in The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Talk in the US of a second film in the pipeline of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl’s 1964 children’s book.
Some young people go into publishing with dreams of one day becoming literary stars themselves. It’s just happened to a junior staff member at Allen & Unwin in Sydney, although it might not be in the way he imagined – he was asked and happily agreed to pose for the photograph that graces the cover of the latest crime thriller by Minette Walters, Disordered Minds. In a recent copy of Book magazine, Sara Paretsky, creator of private eye V.I Warshawski, reveals a passion for Jaguar cars. She has two, a convertible and a sedan and to “make up for” not being able to buy a whole collection of her favourite cars, her husband buys her stuffed toy jaguars of the four-legged kind.
Maeve Binchy’s nephew, Chris Binchy has written a book called The Very Man. Described as ‘Hornby-esque,’ it’s about a confident young man returning from the US to a different life in Dublin. (Maeve fans, please note: there’s a charming short story by Maeve Binchy in this month’s issue (December 2003) of The Australian Women’s Weekly).
After the success and controversy of Nikki Gemmell’s The Bride Stripped Bare, Gemmel is busy writing a sequel which HarperCollins will release next year.
So far, 94 movies have been made about Tarzan, the story of the ape man that Edgar Rice-Burroughs first set down in 1912. Publishers Weekly reports Warner Bros are making another Tarzan movie with the vine-swinging character less of a “jungle hippie,” more “ferocious and wild, like Wolverine without the claws.” Same magazine reports a re-make of two book-inspired movies, The Manchurian Candidate, starring Meryl Streep and Denzel Washington and The Stepford Wives which will star Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick with Christopher Walken, Glenn Close and Bette Midler.
Amusing incident at the launch earlier this year for Madonna’s debut children’s book, The English Roses: The publicity director was having a quiet word with a small boy who was having great fun chasing his sister near the ladies’ loo, when the boy’s mother appeared – it was Nigella Lawson.
According to Publishers Weekly, actor, comic and some-time host of the Oscars, the divine Billy Crystal has become a grandfather and signed a two-book deal for a pair of children’s books.
On the local front, actress and writer, Kate Fitzpatrick, is penning her memoirs for HarperCollins.
The Strangest Book of the Year title goes to My StoryS. My Life, written by “internationally renowned, police-accredited psychic investigator, Maria Whitworth who has written the life story of Marilyn Monroe “as channelled to her over the last 25 years.” Anyone interested can tune in on www.marilymonroespeaksout.com
To launch her historical romance, The Touch, Colleen McCullough hosted a literary luncheon in Sydney. Sporting a new, closely cropped hair-cut, the famous author was at her outrageous best. On the subject of her biography of Sir Roden Cutler, she depicted a lovely man who was not very forthcoming. “Getting information out of him was like extracting buckshot from someone’s behind.” Her next novel, she announced, will centre on a Mrs Delvicchio Schwartz who lives in Kings Cross, reads fortunes and still breast-feeds her four year old. “Then, added Colleen, “I am writing my serial murderer book.” Colleen assured the 500 plus fans who attended the luncheon that despite her failing eye-sight, she still has plenty of books in her.
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