Like No Business I Know

Read on for a trio of reading recommendations on one of America's favorite topics: fame.

“Stardom isn’t a profession; it’s an accident.”

-- Lauren Bacall

- The Setup: A True Story of Dirty Cops, Soccer Moms, and Reality TV by Pete Crooks.

non-fiction

Chris Butler was a former cop who'd opened his own PI firm in California. So far, so normal -- except that Butler's firm was staffed entirely by soccer moms. Average, everyday women who had become real-life versions of Charlie's Angels.

Even before Lifetime came banging at their door to offer them a reality TV show (to be called PI Moms), Butler and his soccer moms were a hit, appearing in such places as People magazine and Dr. Phil. (They even got a mention by This American Life host Ira Glass.) When reporter Pete Crooks was promised a ride-along one on of the firm's cases, he was just a writer for the California lifestyle magazine Diablo, looking for nothing more than a typical local fluff piece.

But if Crooks's adventure with the "PI Moms" seemed too good to be true, it wasn't long before he discovered ... it was. The PI bust he'd witnessed had been a set-up, the clients and perpetrators played by actors. The whole scene had been staged -- and it wasn't the first time such a set-up had occurred. Soon, Crooks was peeling back the layers of a bizarre case involving disgruntled employees, illegal drugs, and a con intended to make good use of the lack of "reality" often required for a reality TV show.

I was personally hoping for more time spent on the "Moms" themselves, in the hopes of finding out why such ordinary people would agree to take part in such an extraordinary con, and what the determination for fame might truly cost. But if you're looking for a read on the bizarre layers of a corrupt would-be star, give this book a whirl.

Read Crooks's original article for Diablo magazine here.

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- Fame Junkies: The Hidden Truths Behind America's Favorite Addiction by Jake Halpern.

non-fiction

Fame, author Jake Halpern argues, is one of America's biggest addictions. From entertainment magazines to reality television shows, our obsession with celebrity has never been higher. In this book, Halpern tries to figure out why.

He travels the country to interview three different types of people who are committed to the pursuit of fame: hopeful performers looking for their big break (focusing particularly on would-be child stars), the workers who devote their careers to celebrities (in the forms of paparazzi or celebrity personal assistants), and obsessed fans to the stars (like the Pittsburgh woman who has a room in her house devoted entirely to singer Rod Stewart). Along the way, he talks to psychologists, sociologists, biologists, counselors, and other experts to try to peel back the layers of why we're so fascinated by the world of celebrities -- and the celebrities who inhabit it.

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- Funny Girl by Nick Hornby.

fiction

Barbara Parker only entered the Miss Blackpool beauty pageant because you have to start somewhere if you want to be a star. And Barbara doesn't want to be just any type of star: she wants to go on television and star in a sit-com, like her hero, Lucille Ball. She knows she's got the talent, but she's also a woman in 1960s England, where she's more likely to be offered a job making coffee than making people laugh.

But she's got serendipity on her side, and so a chance meeting, a name change, and her own sense of committed determination leads her to a starring role in a sit-com designed just for her. The ensuing fames is beyond what she'd hoped for -- even as her own life begins to oddly mirror that of her sit-com alter ego.

Her story is intertwined with her cast and crewmates from her series: the show's creators, their producer, her on-screen husband, the occasional guest stars. The various characters gives Hornby a chance to look at different facets of show business: what it means to be famous, the art of comedy, the tension between highbrow art critics versus those in the world of popular culture, and, ultimately, what we strive for in life -- whether we're famous or not.

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-- Post by Ms. B