HIRE ME, HOLLYWOOD!

Probably just about everyone who loves television or movies has toyed with the idea of working in Hollywood.  For the most part, those dreams tend to be of the pipe variety as we aim ridiculously high and never make an honest attempt to realize them at all.  However, it takes armies of people to bring a finished product to the screen, and the reality is that plenty of ordinary folks work in Hollywood.  If you'd like to be one of them, or if you'd just like a sense of how things work on the inside, Hire Me, Hollywood! Your Behind-the-Scenes Guide to the Most Exciting - and Unexpected - Jobs in Show Business is the book for you.

Comprised of thirty interviews with people employed by the television and film industry (including familiar names like Stan Lee, Mark Steines, and Michael Gelman), Hire Me, Hollywood! offers up a nice sampling of the types of opportunities available in Hollywood.  We're not all star material, but that doesn't mean we can't get close to the business we love.  A good teacher might find work as an on-set tutor.  An excellent beautician might do well in hair and make-up.  A rough and tumble tomboy might find work as a stunt woman.  Besides, getting close to the action is always a great way to get your foot in the door - you might meet a great connection or discover a hidden opportunity while working your Hollywood "day job"!

The list of options in Hollywood is long, and the wide range of interviews in the book gives insight into each career.  Perhaps more importantly, the book paints a realistic portrait of life in the industry, stripping away the glamour and preconceptions and revealing it as the functioning workaday world it is.  It might be a much cooler world than most of us inhabit, but that doesn't mean we can't break in.