Celebrity biographer
Encyclopedia
Celebrity biographers are author
s who specialize in writing sensationalized book
s about the lives of celebrities. Historically, biographies have been limited to a those who specialized in literary works on important personalities or those officially commissioned by a living person or if deceased, by the estate to provide a biography of that person. In recent years, the term "celebrity biographer" has come into existence. ForeWord Magazine http://www.forewordmagazine.com/articles/shw_article.aspx?articleid=112 notes that "There is the literary biographer and the celebrity biographer." Designed to be entertainment, books by celebrity biographers are often referred to as "quickie" biographies due to the limited amount of research done vis-à-vis that of a literary biographer. Books about celebrities have existed for many years but the advent of the personal computer
(PC) reduced writing and editing costs substantially. Combined with the Internet
, that provided massive sources and easy contact, the PC created an explosion of celebrity books beginning in the early 1990s. Because of these technological tools, early writers on celebrities such as Fred Lawrence Guiles who wrote "Norma Jean; the life of Marilyn Monroe" in 1969 were able to substantially increase their book output while some newer celebrity biographers produce a book almost on an annual basis.
Celebrity biographies are published by small specialty publishers as well as major publishing houses, sometimes through an imprint
. It can be a very profitable sideline and for some small publishing houses it is an important supplemental source of revenue that keeps them afloat in the highly competitive book market. This is the case for small press
es such as ECW Press
who advertise that they publish "biographies of today's best-known rock stars, writers, artists, and television personalities."
s for anything written or said about a deceased person and some celebrity biographers have taken advantage of this to make questionable assertions. In certain egregious cases, respected book reviewers such as Publishers Weekly
have gone out of their way to caution readers by noting that the subjects are "conveniently for legal purposes, are deceased." a number of which led to lawsuit
s. However, for living people, the courts can and have become involved when the subject of a book believes their character has been deliberately harmed. Such was the case with the unauthorized biography "Clint: The Life and Legend" by Patrick McGilligan
. First published in the UK
and then in the United States in 2002 by St. Martin's Press
. Eastwood filed a $10 million libel action in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California
against the author and publisher, claiming the book was riddled with fabrications
and insult
ing statements and that at least one of the author's primary source
s was dubious at best. In response, McGilligan, who had written unauthorized biographies on film personalities James Cagney
, Jack Nicholson
, and Fritz Lang
, told the Associated Press
that "He (Eastwood) has sued people religiously" and "He's made a career of suppressing dissidence." However, McGilligan and St. Martin's Press settled Eastwood's libel claim out of court and agreed to make changes to the book prescribed by Eastwood and agreed to remove certain claims in all future printings.
In other cases such as that of celebrity biographer Cliff Goodwin, his book titled "Catherine Zeta Jones: The Biography" was canceled by Virgin Books
just a few weeks before its December 2003 scheduled release. Goodwin had previously made unsubstantiated claims about Catherine Zeta-Jones
and her legal counsel
notified the author and publisher that legal action would be instituted if the book was published.
Some celebrity biographers:
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
s who specialize in writing sensationalized book
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
s about the lives of celebrities. Historically, biographies have been limited to a those who specialized in literary works on important personalities or those officially commissioned by a living person or if deceased, by the estate to provide a biography of that person. In recent years, the term "celebrity biographer" has come into existence. ForeWord Magazine http://www.forewordmagazine.com/articles/shw_article.aspx?articleid=112 notes that "There is the literary biographer and the celebrity biographer." Designed to be entertainment, books by celebrity biographers are often referred to as "quickie" biographies due to the limited amount of research done vis-à-vis that of a literary biographer. Books about celebrities have existed for many years but the advent of the personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
(PC) reduced writing and editing costs substantially. Combined with the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, that provided massive sources and easy contact, the PC created an explosion of celebrity books beginning in the early 1990s. Because of these technological tools, early writers on celebrities such as Fred Lawrence Guiles who wrote "Norma Jean; the life of Marilyn Monroe" in 1969 were able to substantially increase their book output while some newer celebrity biographers produce a book almost on an annual basis.
Celebrity biographies are published by small specialty publishers as well as major publishing houses, sometimes through an imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
. It can be a very profitable sideline and for some small publishing houses it is an important supplemental source of revenue that keeps them afloat in the highly competitive book market. This is the case for small press
Small press
Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...
es such as ECW Press
ECW Press
ECW Press is a North American small press book publisher located in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded by Jack David and Robert Lecker in 1974 as a Canadian literary magazine named Essays on Canadian Writing. Five years later, ECW published its first books - trade and scholarly titles...
who advertise that they publish "biographies of today's best-known rock stars, writers, artists, and television personalities."
Legal actions
By the mid 1990s, fierce competition in the celebrity biography field developed that brought even more sensationalist claims. Statutes in the United States and other countries prohibit libel lawsuitLawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
s for anything written or said about a deceased person and some celebrity biographers have taken advantage of this to make questionable assertions. In certain egregious cases, respected book reviewers such as Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
have gone out of their way to caution readers by noting that the subjects are "conveniently for legal purposes, are deceased." a number of which led to lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
s. However, for living people, the courts can and have become involved when the subject of a book believes their character has been deliberately harmed. Such was the case with the unauthorized biography "Clint: The Life and Legend" by Patrick McGilligan
Patrick McGilligan (biographer)
Patrick McGilligan is an Irish American biographer, film historian and writer. His biography on Alfred Hitchcock, Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light was a finalist for the Edgar Award. He is the author of two New York Times Notable Books, and he lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin...
. First published in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and then in the United States in 2002 by St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the Flatiron Building in New York City. Currently, St. Martin's Press is one of the United States' largest publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints, which include St. Martin's Press , St...
. Eastwood filed a $10 million libel action in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
against the author and publisher, claiming the book was riddled with fabrications
Lie
For other uses, see Lie A lie is a type of deception in the form of an untruthful statement, especially with the intention to deceive others....
and insult
Insult
An insult is an expression, statement which is considered degrading and offensive. Insults may be intentional or accidental...
ing statements and that at least one of the author's primary source
Primary source
Primary source is a term used in a number of disciplines to describe source material that is closest to the person, information, period, or idea being studied....
s was dubious at best. In response, McGilligan, who had written unauthorized biographies on film personalities James Cagney
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...
, Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...
, and Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
, told the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
that "He (Eastwood) has sued people religiously" and "He's made a career of suppressing dissidence." However, McGilligan and St. Martin's Press settled Eastwood's libel claim out of court and agreed to make changes to the book prescribed by Eastwood and agreed to remove certain claims in all future printings.
In other cases such as that of celebrity biographer Cliff Goodwin, his book titled "Catherine Zeta Jones: The Biography" was canceled by Virgin Books
Virgin Books
Virgin Books is a United Kingdom book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Enterprises, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company.-History:...
just a few weeks before its December 2003 scheduled release. Goodwin had previously made unsubstantiated claims about Catherine Zeta-Jones
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Catherine Zeta-Jones, CBE, is a British actress. She began her career on stage at an early age. After starring in a number of United Kingdom and United States television films and small roles in films, she came to prominence with roles in Hollywood movies such as the 1998 action film The Mask of...
and her legal counsel
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
notified the author and publisher that legal action would be instituted if the book was published.
Some celebrity biographers:
- Ellis AmburnEllis AmburnEllis Edward Amburn is an American book editor and biographer.-Life:A 1954 graduate of Texas Christian University, Ellis Amburn worked as a reporter for Newsweek before going into the book publishing industry where he rose to the position of editor, working for such well-known publishers as...
- Christopher AndersenChristopher AndersenChristopher Peter Andersen is an American journalist and the author of 30 books, including many bestsellers. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, Andersen joined the staff of Time Magazine as a contributing editor in 1969. From 1974 to 1986 Andersen was senior editor of Time...
- David BretDavid BretDavid Bret is a French-born British author of showbiz biographies. He chiefly writes on the private life of movie stars and singers in a somewhat sensationalist style.-Life:...
- Roberto Chiesi
- Suzanne FinstadSuzanne FinstadSuzanne Finstad Bestselling American author, biographer, journalist, producer, and lawyer born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. .-Work pre-1990:Finstad received the Frank Wardlaw Prize in 1984 for literary excellence for her first book, Heir Not Apparent , drawn from her experiences as a young law clerk...
- Albert GoldmanAlbert GoldmanAlbert Harry Goldman was an American professor and author.Born in Dormont, Pennsylvania, Albert Goldman wrote about the culture and personalities of the American music industry both in books and as a contributor to magazines...
- Cliff Goodwin
- Boze HadleighBoze HadleighBoze Hadleigh aka George Hadley-Garcia is an American journalist writer of celebrity gossip and entertainment.-Biography:...
- Laura Jackson
- Kitty KelleyKitty KelleyKitty Kelley is an American journalist and author of several best-selling unauthorized biographies of celebrities and politicians. Her subjects have included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan, the British Royal Family, the Bush family, and Oprah Winfrey...
- Jeff Lenburg
- Patrick McGilligan
- James Robert Parish
- Annie Réval
- Frank Sanello
- Marc Shapiro
- James Spada
- Donald SpotoDonald SpotoDonald Spoto is an American celebrity biographer, Catholic theologian, and former monk. He is best known for his best-selling biographies of film and theatre celebrities such as Alfred Hitchcock, Laurence Olivier, Tennessee Williams, Ingrid Bergman, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly,...