Product Description

Sex, drugs, diva tantrums: if you're on the A list, you can get away with murder ...but there's still one taboo left in Hollywood. If you're an all-action movie star hero, and you're gay, then your home is in the closet. End of discussion. Matt Walsh is at the very top of the Hollywood ladder. He easily commands $20 million per film, and every one is a box office smash. But Walsh has a secret: his lover Billy West, a rent-boy with the fragility of Monroe and the body of Brad Pitt. When British hack Simon Fowler is sent out to write a grovelling vanity piece on Walsh, he unearths the star's secret life, and a story that could destroy him. Walsh has a long way to fall, and he could take a lot of people with him. Star People hops over the velvet rope and points its telephoto lens at a cast of stars, hookers, paparazzi and scarier-than-hell PR bitches. The result is a smart, fast-paced and wildly entertaining novel about love, fame, jealousy ...and murder.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #427540 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-03
• Released on: 2006-08-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
'Star People is a caustic but passionate slice of Hollywood life brimming with unforgettable characters and a plot that races along like a rollercoaster. A perfect summer read' ATTITUDE *'Wonderfully entertaining (fictional) romp; essential reading for anyone touching down at LAX' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'A witty, dark and insightful peek into the not-so-bright lights of Hollywood. Unputdownable' COMPANY 'A compelling read, with an intriguing plot, an attractively cynical view of how Los Angeles works and a dark sense of humour' TIME OUT 'Glamorous, trashy fiction to escape the festive freeze' THE LIST

INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
'Wonderfully entertaining (fictional) romp; essential reading for
anyone touching down at LAX'

COMPANY
'A witty, dark and insightful peek into the not-so-bright lights
of Hollywood. Unputdownable'

Customer Reviews

Great characters, interesting plot
Having read Burston's "Lovers and Losers" I was looking forward to more of the same albeit with the setting transposed from London to Hollywood with "Star People", what I got was a lot of interesting characters a lot of background and yet not enough action. This novel left me wanting a lot more. I felt that the plot had only just started when suddenly that was it - over!

Burston can certainly write, his characters were well rounded and full of interesting backgrounds and quirks, the plot was bubbling away nicely and was just starting to heat up when it seemed that it was cruelly snatched from me and I'd arrived at the final chapter where everything was wrapped up in a few pages. I had similar feelings towards Burston's "Lovers and Losers" which I felt should have been a lot longer, but at least I felt suitably satisfied by the last page of that novel, this one left me feeling quite cheated.

I've enjoyed his other books, but I'd give this one a miss...
`Star People' is set in West Hollywood. Matt Walsh is a film action-hero, rumoured to be gay, but keeping his private life private. That is until he falls for a young hustler called Billy West. Matt is protected by his publicist Lee Carson, but with the amount of enemies she has, she might be more of a hindrance than a help!

I bought `Star People' because I loved `Lovers and Losers.' Unfortunately, the quality of the writing (and the jokes) is nowhere near as good. Whole chapters are dedicated to giving back stories to characters, I would much rather have learnt about them during the course of the story and this felt like a lazy way of writing. The ending is also abrupt and unsatisfying, and you can predict what is going to happen about half way through the book.

It's a shame to say, but I'd give this one a miss and read `Lovers and Losers' instead

The dark side of Hollywood Lives
I've read all of Paul Burston's novels, but this is easily my favourite. On the surface it could be seen as another gossipy Hollywood fable in the style of Jackie Collins or Valley Of The Dolls, but there is much, much more to it than that. There is a note of melancholy that runs throughout the novel which grounds any of the more cheeky flights of fancy in a world that feels utterly authentic; the observations on West Hollywood life feel like they are based on either personal experience or at the very least the author having spoken at length to people who have lived, loved and worked there.
The setting lends itself perfectly to Burston's chatty, over-the-garden-fence style; it's as if he's sharing a salacious story with you as a friend, but this style in itself is deceptive, because just when you think you're enjoying a harmless frolic through the gutters he slaps you in the face with a telling line or scene that breaks your heart.
Ultimately, as I've said, comparisons with Collins or Jacqueline Suzanne are mostly unfounded. This reminded me more of Gavin Lambert's novels, especially 'The Slide Area'.
If you're expecting Ian McEwan, forget it; that's not what Burston is about, and furthermore, I find it hard to believe that Ian McEwan's style would suit the veneer-thin glitzy world of La La Land. Burston understands the gutter as capably as he understands the desire to look at the stars from it, and this book is the perfect embodiment of that