The Hollywood Book of Breakups

James Robert Parish has always had the ability to cut right through the froo-froo icing and get right to cake. That's why so many of his books are on my shelf. With this one, I have to start a new shelf. He packs in a lot of information: mini bios of all the players, what brought them together and the circumstances that drove them apart. He brings each era alive, mentioning timely rumors and headlines, but delivers only the facts, dispelling media speculation in exchange for - get this - the real story! And the variety of couples, from Stanwyck and Taylor, Burton and Taylor, Brad and Jen or Liza and David Gest represents 75 years of Tinsletown romance gone awry. I, too, write books about Hollywood (Dishing Hollywood, Hollywood Haunted). Our books are often paired; I am very complemented by that because James Parish is really great at what he does.

What a guilty pleasure! Concisely written, carefully researched, The Hollywood Book of Breakups is a speed read of celebrity couplings gone wrong. Parish doesn't glamorize or trash his subjects, he makes the stars seem all too human. A fresh take on Hollywood divorce, and a crash course in the many, many ways that relationships can burn up and flame out.

In his latest book, veteran Hollywood chronicler James Robert Parish gives the true story behind the dissolutions of 47 Tinseltown couples in "The Hollywood Book of Breakups." One thing I like about Parish's writing is the amount of research that goes into each - for this book alone, 335 books were consulted - that's an average of over 7 per chapter. I also appreciate the amount of detail given to each couple - at an average of almost 6 pages each - it's just enough to cover their lives before, during and after their relationship.

As always, James Robert Parish provides his film-loving readership with a highly readable, impeccably researched book. Refreshingly, this account of breakups among the Hollywood elite doesn't merely focus on the current tabloid targets (although it is right up to date -- the Pitt-Aniston breakup is covered, for example), but reaches back through the history of Hollywood to the beginnings, with an essay on the ill-starred John Gilbert-Greta Garbo romance, for example. Readers seeking the details on their favorite movie star couples from the 1920s to 2006 will not be disappointed.

How interesting to read in-depth stories of couples who have loved and broken up. Tells so much more than the tabloids. Very well researched. Enjoyed the biographies on each before they met, then their "together" story and the "after" story. Tells you everything you ever wanted to know about your favorite couples in Hollywood.