Tales of Tinseltown

Book excerpt: "Singin' in the Rain" meets "Hollywood Babylon"! On a farm in Walnut, Iowa, the ambitious Ellie Ash dreams of becoming a famous screen star. Luckily for her, Hollywood-bound screenwriter Elmo Green just happens to ride by on his bicycle. Elmo is smitten with Ellie; Ellie jumps on his bike; and together they travel west to the 'promised land.' Once there, Elmo and Ellie work with a wild array of colorful Hollywood characters, and Ellie soon triumphs as the 'Girl of a Thousand Sounds, ' America's Newest Sweetheart. But when gossip columnist Adele DeRale exposes a few dirty secrets, Ellie has to claw her way back to the top before the new "it" girl takes her spot. "Wacky fun! Suggests "Dames at Sea" crossed with Carol Burnett's entire oeuvre. Delicious, tuneful, winning!" -Los Angeles Times