Amidst the bright lights of Tinseltown, the line between fantasy and reality is often a blurry one. Unlike an earlier era when movie stars and TV personalities were accorded a certain measure of privacy whenever they stepped away from the cameras, we’ve become a society that’s obsessed with knowing every intimate detail about those whom we’ve placed on celebrity pedestals. On any given day in supermarket checkout lines, we’re exposed to cheesy tabloids and glossy Hollywood mags that spill the latest scandal about infidelities, pregnancies, arrests, addictions, spiraling out of control, or hovering near death.
In her debut novel – “Stars In Their Eyes” – author Danielle Turchiano paints an accurate picture of the film industry’s superficiality and the adage that a star is only as good as his or her most recent production. Her protagonist, Courtney Primm, is a soap opera actress who is desperate in her quest to be taken seriously by making the leap from a small screen to a big silver one. Her assistant and best friend, Leah Conroy, is just as committed to scarfing up La-La land perks, achieving fame-by-attachment, and bedding any available male within a 20’ radius. Leah has charmingly mastered the art of the con and, at times, is the more watchable of the pair.
Being seen by the right people who can be instrumental in career advancement finds the two women hitting all manner of swank parties and encountering like-minded souls who recognize how fickle their chosen universe can be. Enter Jay, an AD who not only invites Courtney to think outside the box and entertain thoughts of a “normal” existence as his wife but also threatens to redefine the friendship comfort zone that Leah always believed would last forever. If Courtney thought her stint on “Chateau Pacific” was the stuff of steamy soaps, she soon finds that her new “unscripted” relationship comes with even more trauma and drama.
Throughout this read, I was reminded of the plethora of sitcom stars who continue to attempt exactly what Courtney is doing – making a leap to a bigger platform. The rationale that being adored by audiences in prime time is an automatic guarantee of success at the box office fails to address that – for the majority of them – their talent is only sustainable in the context of an ensemble that meets weekly and exchanges witty banter with one another. Place them against a bigger backdrop and they still seem to play the same characters; the only thing missing is for their sitcom families and five best friends to walk through the door and join them. While Courtney has more of a moral center and a vulnerability than Leah, it’s hard to imagine her finding any more success than she has already achieved at the fictional “Chateau Pacific”. The reason we root for her is because she finally has the chance to find contentment – a rarity, it seems, in the glamorous world that Turchiano bring to life for us through her wonderful imagery and familiarity with the SoCal entertainment scene.
The formatting of “Stars In Their Eyes” is written in the vein of a treatment as opposed to a traditional novel. On the one hand, this is a very clever marketing strategy for pitching the book to prospective producers. On the other hand, I would like to have seen this written from a more traditional approach and with more evenly paced “chapters”. There are unexplored layers of these characters that were hinted at but not fully developed and I think a longer version could address these. Turchiano has a great gift for snappy one-liners and references to pop culture that are priceless. If I were to cast this tomorrow, I would see Jennifer Aniston as Courtney, Peri Gilpin as Leah, and Matthew McConoughey as Jay (although the latter would probably balk at having to wear a shirt for most of his scenes).