Fame: The Hijacking of Reality
"Wholly riveting." --New York Times Book Review
"Justine Bateman was famous before selfies replaced autographs, and bags of fan mail gave way to Twitter shitstorms. And here's the good news: she took notes along the way. Justine steps through the looking glass of her own celebrity, shatters it, and pieces together, beyond the shards and splinters, a reflection of her true self. The transformation is breathtaking. Revelatory and raucous, fascinating and frightening, Fame is a hell of a ride." --Michael J. Fox, actor, author of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future
Entertainment shows, magazines, websites, and other channels continuously report the latest sightings, heartbreaks, and triumphs of the famous to a seemingly insatiable public. Millions of people go to enormous lengths to achieve Fame. Fame is woven into our lives in ways that may have been unimaginable in years past.
And yet, is Fame even real? Contrary to tangible realities, Fame is one of those "realities" that we, as a society, have made. Why is that, and what is it about Fame that drives us to spend so much time, money, and focus to create the framework that maintains its health?
Mining decades of experience, writer, director, producer, and actress Justine Bateman writes a visceral, intimate look at the experience of Fame. Combining the internal reality-shift of the famous, theories on the public's behaviors at each stage of a famous person's career, and the experiences of other famous performers, Bateman takes the reader inside and outside the emotions of Fame. The book includes twenty-four color photographs to highlight her analysis.
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Become an affiliateBorn in Rye, New York, Justine Bateman has an impressive résumé that includes Family Ties, Satisfaction, Arrested Development, and many more. As an actress, she has been nominated for a Golden Globe and two Emmy awards. An advocate for net neutrality, Bateman holds a degree from UCLA in computer science and digital media management. Her film producing credits include Easy to Assemble with Illeana Douglas and Jared Drake's Z. Bateman wrote her directorial film short debut, Five Minutes, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival, and her follow-up film short is the drama Push. She is currently in preproduction for her directorial feature film debut of her own script, Violet. Her writing has been published by DAME, Salon, and McSweeney's.
As the title Fame: The Hijacking of Reality more than implies, this is a book about the complicated aspects of all things fame.-- "Vanity Fair"
Bateman digs into the out-of-control nature of being famous, its psychological aftermath and why we all can't get enough of it.-- "New York Post"
The Family Ties alum has written the rawest, bleakest book on fame you're ever likely to read. Bateman's close-up of the celeb experience features vivid encounters with misogyny, painful meditations on aging in Hollywood, and no shortage of theses on social media's wrath.-- "Entertainment Weekly"
Bateman addresses the reader directly, pouring out her thoughts in a rapid-fire, conversational style. (Hunter S. Thompson is saluted in the acknowledgments.) . . . But her jittery delivery suits the material--the manic sugar high of celebrity and its inevitable crash. Bateman takes the reader through her entire fame cycle, from TV megastar, whose first movie role was alongside Julia Roberts, to her quieter life today as a filmmaker. She is as relentless with herself as she is with others.
-- "Washington Post"