Friday, April 23, 2010

The Starlet-Mary McNamara

The Starlet
Mary McNamara
Simon & Schuster, Jun 8 2010, $15.00
ISBN 9781439149843

In Los Angeles at the posh Pinnacle Hotel, Juliette Greyson heads public relations. However to get away from the coddled rich and famous, she is on vacation in her maternal family’s country Italy. In Florence, Juliette is stunned to watch druggie Mercy Talbot, an actress missing from a movie shooting in Rome, dive into a fountain. The paparazzi are too busy taking pictures to help Mercy out of the water; so Juliette pulls her out of the fountain.

Juliette takes Mercy to her family estate Cerreta just north of Florence. There the young woman seems less frantic so the filmmaking is relocated to Juliette’s estate. That is enough to irritate Juliette who needs rest on her vacation, but now Mercy’s shrew of a mom arrives demanding posh hotel treatment; as do much of the Hollywood crowd. However what is worse for Juliette is her former lover movie superstar Michael O'Connor is on location at her estate too at the same time someone is killing the pampered celebs.

The latest Greyson over the top (this time the Italian Alps rather than the Hollywood Hills - see Oscar Season) thriller is an amusing tale that lightly lampoons celebrities and their “ambulance’ chaser paparazzi. The story line is a frantic fun frolic as Juliette hopes to survive the movie world invasion of Italy that she thought she left behind in L.A.

Harriet Klausner

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