Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Linda, thank you for keeping the interview rolling while I was in the wilds
of a biker country club in Rip Van Winkle country!

I'm home now.
  

    
Richard Gault is an actor/musician who had some success in Hollywood
in the seventies.  He was never a big celebrity because he never chased
fame and was too honest to be embraced by the Hollywood establishment.
But to a small group of artists and fans, he was the real deal. 
Secret Celebrity is the story of four characters in search of Gault,
twenty years after he left town. 
  

    

And the four people who go in search of him are...
  

    


And, to a large extent, as you read the book, it's hard not to embark on
an analogous mental journey, trying to find (in your memory) someone real
who *completely* fills the bill -- even if you know it's a composite.
  

    
Hi, Carol.  I'm curious to know if you're related to David Wolper
(Wolper Productions).
  

    

People in search of Richard Gault...hmmm.  Evokes echoes of people looking 
for John Galt.
  

    
who is that guy?
  

    
I was going to ask the same question about David Wolper, Carol.
  

    
The four people who go on a search for Richard Gault are: an L.A.
partygirl, a newsstand guy who is also an aspiring songwriter, a D.P.
for commercials and videos, and the narrative voice of the book -
Christine Chase, who is trying to jump start her heart and career by
making a documentary about the elusive Gault. 

And Jennifer, you're right.  The Gault/Galt connection was 
intentional. 

As for my connection to David Wolper, years ago I was married to his
youngest son - who is not in the business.  In fact the idea to make
Christine a documentary filmmaker was, in part, inspired by DW. Back in
the fifties and sixties he launched his  career by producing some
interesting documentaries.  More recently - well - back in the late
eighties - he produced "Imagine", the documentary about the life and
death of John Lennon.
  

    
When I was growing up, the name David L. Wolper was synonymous with
documentary filmmaking.
  

    
He would love to hear that.   He's coming out with his own book next
year.  Non-fiction. Story of his life and career - especially the TV
business which he was a part of from the early days.

He came to my book signing at Book Soup in L.A.    

However I haven't spoken to him since. Hope he likes Secret Celebrity.
 
  

    

Do your friends, colleagues and acquaintances look for (and find) themselves
in your characters?  Has this ever gotten you into trouble?
  

    
Good question.  I haven't exactly gotten into trouble but I might have
a few secret enemies out there.   

My friends understand that writers draw from the world around them and
most of them have no problem with that. In fact, they love it when I
use bits and pieces of things we've experienced together. 

By the way, the secret enemies don't worry me.  Besides, the girl the
character "psycho girl" is based on doesn't read. Unless it's a
magazine that she might be mentioned in. 
  

    

Tell us more about her, please.

I have to confess that the bound galley I marked up in preparation for this
interview isn't in hand -- I think my business manager "borrowed" it.
  

    

She's looking to see if there's anything in there about her, no doubt!
  

    
"psycho girl"  is one of those L.A. types who believes you're nothing
if you're not famous.   It's facinating to watch someone who appears to
have no inner life at all.  And isn't looking for one. Fascinating in
a kind of Diane Arbus freak show way. 
  

    

> It's facinating to watch someone who appears to
 have no inner life at all.

Can you elaborate on that a little?  In a town as oriented toward creativity,
you'd expect to find lots of people who are pretty much engaged with
reality...
  

    

I know that question wasn't addressed to me, but I have to say that LA is 
not a town oriented toward creativity, it's a town oriented toward the 
creation of appearances, and is absolutely unconcerned with reality.  It's 
how things appear to be that counts.
  

    

I was congratulating myself for having typed that with a straight face.
  

    
>  it's a town oriented toward the 
>  creation of appearances, and is absolutely unconcerned with reality.  
>  It's how things appear to be that counts.

That raises a question in my mind. Carol, is reality the 'secret'?
  

    

> LA is not a town oriented toward creativity, it's a town oriented toward
> the creation of appearances, and is absolutely unconcerned with reality.
> It's  how things appear to be that counts.


I'd say this comment is a reductive oversimplification of a diverse, rich,
complex, fascinating, mysterious, puzzling, menacing, challenging,
thrilling, profound city, where millions of people (several of whom are
unconnected to the entertainment industry) lead very real lives, and
fulfilling ones at that. At least that's been my experience here for the
past 41 years.

I can't think of another big city that gets dismissed with such glee in such
broad generalized strokes by so many people Los Angeles does.

And there is a vibrant community of creative people in and around Los
Angeles (several of whom are unconnected to the entertainment industry)
making art and poetry and theatre and music that rivals the output of any
other major city's art-makers.

I also think one can point accusations of superficiality at the outward
aspects of just about any community, urban or otherwise.

I consider it a tribute to Los Angeles that every attempt to define it
defeats
itself.

I'm not living in denial of the glitzy overbelly of the town. I just know
there's way more to Los Angeles than the accepted easy view of it.

And I'm also in a snarky mood after a series of bad days, so my apologies if
the tone is abrasive. No viciousness intended.
  

    
Okay I screwed up one of my responses, so it didn't post. Let me try
again. 

First of all Hollywood and L.A. intersect but certain observations
about Hollywood do not apply to the bigger city. 

In Hollywood, reality is the weekly box office.  That's one bottom
line everyone is interested in. Other than that fact, there's not a big
interest in truth.  That said, there are some smart, talented, truth
seeking filmmakers around; David Fincher. Alexander Payne. 

As for the earlier question/comment about the character "psycho girl"
, let me put it this way. These kinds of girls are as weird tomme as
someone who  has had too much plastic surgery. 
In a way  psycho girls have undergone a kind of
emotional/psychological plastic surgery. Their obsession with fame has
rendered them life-less.

As for the remark about L.A. as a place that defies description, I
agree. Which is why it's so much fun to try to describe it. 
  

    

I say that as a loving native Angelino.  I wish it weren't true, but it
sums up a lot of what I was exposed to in the 40 plus years I lived there,
and the thing I miss the least about it.  Like what I call "The LA
Greeting" where you walk into a room and everyone's eyes slide up and
down, checking out the hair, the shoes, the details that let them know
whether you are up-to-the minute or happily oblivious to the fact that
those are last year's jeans - this year those of us in the know are
wearing rivets, and for god's sake no one's hair is piecy any more - and
how you are received depends on whether or not the proper accoutrements
are found.  Suffice it to say that I love LA, but there are some things I
don't miss, and all the things that Barry mentioned that I do.  
Especially this:

>  making art and poetry and theatre and music that rivals the output of 
>  any other major city's art-makers.
>  

But!  Back to the book!
  

    
I too love L.A.   I can't imagine living anywhere else and hopefully
that comes through in my book.     One of the things I'm trying to do
in my novel is shift the focus away from those people in Hollywood who
chase fame to those people who are, as Sean MacPherson calls them,
"secret celebrities" - people who are really good at what they do, have
the respect of their peers but are not trying to land in People
magazine and People magazine will never get what's so great about them.
  

    

So you're saying it's possible to do good work in Hollywood, maybe even earn
a decent living, and have the respect of your peers -- without having to
dress just exactly so before you leave the house, be seen in only this or
that important place, and choose your sex partners on the basis of what they
can do for you professionally?

Cool.

I have to say, even the shallowest of your principal characters in "Secret
Celebrity" shows a little depth before the story ends.  Doesn't she?