Product Description

Are you young, eager, smart, and heading off to LA to make it big in the entertainment business? Time for a reality check: Leave your diploma at home, put your grandiose dreams on hold (where hopefully they'll get tired and hang up), and start by repeating the first rule of the industry: Who you work for is more important than who you are. Then leapfrog over everyone else by reading The Hollywood Assistants Handbook.

Written by two very sharp and successful assistants to HPPs (Hollywood Power Players), here are 86 lessons packed with a combination of blunt truth, insider humor, and juicy secrets that explain the unwritten rules of how to get a foot in the door and make all the right moves as you climb to the top. Here are the minimum-wage jobs that will put you in the path of HPPs. An annotated resume roundup. The clubs to frequent and the cocktails to order. Movies to watch and books to read (it's called homework). Dressing do's and don'ts. How to get on the Free List. A lineup of boss genres—the Horror Show, the Romantic Comedy, Mr. Action—and how to dodge the tirades that will soon be hurled your way, along with the proper outlets for venting. Plus, the ins and outs of your most important tool, the telephone—when to listen in (always!), who to put through and who to put off, and your new best friend forever, the Plantronics CS70 cordless headset.

With its hilariously snarky tone—the gate-keeping quiz is "How to Tell if You're a Moron Who Should Pack Up the Corolla and Move Back Home"—The Hollywood Assistants Handbook is as baldly entertaining for everyone who loves reading about Hollywood as it is indispensably practical for the job-seeker.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168674 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780761147466
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"As a former assistant myself, I know well the dirty little secret of Hollywood ... all knowledge resides with the Hollywood Power Player's assistants; they are the ones who know how to get things done. The only danger in reading this book is that if you become too good an assistant, your boss will never let you go on to bigger and better things. Read this book—it will tell you what to do!"
—Laura Ziskin, producer, Spiderman 1, 2, and 3

From the Back Cover
It's the assistant, and here at last is the essential book for how to get a foot in the door and begin your exhilarating climb to Hollywood Power Player. The Hollywood Assistants Handbook is the ultimate insider's guide, packed with practical tips, unwritten rules (#37: Please don't touch the celebrities), quizzes, industry secrets, humor and advice ("Giveaways are never given. They're traded. Most likely for your soul…") All of it priceless knowledge for anyone who's ever dreamed of making it in la-la land.
Been there, done that, kept notes:
• Minimum-wage workplaces to put you in the path of HPPs
• Perfect that resume
• Homework: the must-see movies, the must-read books
• What to wear to your first interview
• Boss genres and personality types
• The 18 favorite insults
• How to roll calls
• Swag!
• To gift or not to gift: the holiday dilemma
• Why there is nothing better than interns
• The 20-10-10 trick to reading a screenplay
• Your very own entourage
• Appropriate company party behavior
• Fail up
• Knowing when to quit
• Rolodex management

About the Author
Hillary Stamm, raised in Seattle, Washington, is a graduate of Stanford University. She's worked for a bevy of production companies, as well as the chairman of a motion picture studio. She lives with her husband in Los Angeles and is working on her first novel.

Peter Nowalk was born in New Jersey and is a graduate of Brown University. He worked as an assistant at an agency, production company, and major studio before becoming a writer. He resides in Los Angeles.

Customer Reviews

HOLLYWOOD WORKPLACE REVEALED FINALLY
I found the information to be very helpful in understanding the worlds of working in the entertainment industry. Having insider information on the Hollywood industry should provide guidance for people deciding if this is the work career place they want. I got the book out of curiosity about the industry that provides the public with amusement products. The information is well arranged and easy to understand. The publication does not hold back from warnings about making mistaken moves while working in Hollywood.
It comes across as a very useful workplace guide.

Smart, Funny - A must have for any US Magazine addict!
A very smart, funny read. Entertaining and informative. Loved it! Definitely going on my Mother's Day shopping list for mom, mother-in-law, and all the other Hollywood gossip-hounds that I know. The authors do a great job of offering real insights while still being humorous and not taking themselves too seriously. Perfect choice for the smart woman -- toss it in your beach bag with your Fuji water, Economist, OK Magazine, and Blackberry!

A wonderful guide into the world of being a hollywood assistant
Don't be an assistant forever!!! This book engages you and helps you find a job as a Hollywood assistant, keep your job, help you find an new one if you get fired and then ultimately helps you get that promotion. Fantastic