Amazon.com
When it comes to the Academy Awards®, movie buffs usually have two settings: Oscar fever, and Oscar fatigue. Journalist Steve Pond's book, The Big Show: High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards, is a triumph in that it manages to feed the former while keeping the latter at bay. Pond, a writer for Premiere magazine, was granted unfettered access to the creation and behind-the-curtain world of a decade's worth of Oscar ceremonies (years 1994 to 2004). Until some brilliant reality show producer manages to sneak a camera into the green room, this is as close to an all-access backstage pass as most of us are going to get.
So getting down to brass tacks: the gossip is sort of juicy, though not particularly surprising. Russell Crowe is kind of grumpy. Madonna, told of a last minute change to her musical number, shows that a good diva never takes bad news lying down. Hoop Dreams was robbed (seriously). And ironically, a ceremony that is considered Hollywood's premiere occasion for self-aggrandizement has also tripped up certain careers. (The Uma, Oprah fallout may still be haunting Letterman.) Most of all, The Big Show is a model of efficiency; it summarizes 10 ceremonies in the time it usually takes you to sit through one. --Leah Weathersby
From Publishers Weekly
Entertainment journalist Pond (Premiere; etc.) opens this bluntly informative look at the "negotiations and machinations, the politics, the compromises and the excesses" of the Academy Award process by discussing the legendary tastelessness of the show Allan Carr produced in 1989, a production so savaged by critics that it destroyed his reputation (it began with Snow White and Rob Lowe performing a "Proud Mary" duet, prompting a lawsuit from Disney). Pond covers Oscar's early history, including such injustices as Norma Shearer's 1930 win over Greta Garbo, a victory triggered by MGM's orders that employees vote for studio chief Irving Thalberg's wife ("What do you expect?" Joan Crawford famously commented. "She sleeps with the boss"). He devotes many pages to the disastrous choice of David Letterman as host in 1995, whose excruciating jokes ("Oprah. Uma. Uma. Oprah") and pet tricks set a ludicrous tone; and cites Madonna's profane tirades during a 1991 rehearsal. The book covers Academy campaigns over the past 15 years, and effectively dramatizes how the show changed under the leadership styles of Richard and Lili Zanuck and current producer Gil Cates. Little-known anecdotes about Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand, Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal and Halle Berry confirm that Pond knows this backstabbing territory well, and fans of Hollywood gossip will find plenty of colorful new material. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"Steve Pond has long been the hardest-working pop culture writer around, and The Big Show proves it. This backstage journey through the last decade of Academy Award specials adds up to way more than the sum of the de rigueur gossip, glamour, and glitz--though there's plenty of that. Based on years of his own behind-the-scenes reporting, Pond delves deep into a closely-held world that the public never gets to see, and brings back an all-access-pass portrayal of the stars and the star-making machinery that makes sure the show must go on. If the Academy awarded Oscars for books about their annual festivities, The Big Show would have no competition." -- David Rensin, author of The Mailroom: Hollywood History from the Bottom Up
"Anyone who's been around show business comes to realize that often the show behind the show is the most entertaining and intriguing. Steve Pond has taken full advantage of his unique, fly-on-the-wall perspective on the Oscars and the result is a compelling, insightful, and revealing look into the glamorous engine room of Hollywood's biggest night." --David Wild, author of The Showrunners: A Season Inside the Billion-Dollar, Death-Defying, Madcap World of Television's Real Stars
"The Big Show is better than the best seat in the house. Only one journalist has ever been given long-term complete access to the Oscar telecast, and the great news is that it's Steve Pond. A masterful writer, Pond gives you the wonderful feeling that you're along for the ride as his exclusive guest. He whisks readers backstage, behind the curtain, and into the inner sanctums, taking you through the laughably pretentious moments, the quiet sadnesses, and the humor, preparation, anxiety, glory, and aftermath of the biggest show around." --Cameron Crowe, Oscar-winning writer/director of Almost Famous and Jerry Maguire
"After nearly a decade of amazing access, Steve Pond tells all in a deeply dishy, always engaging look at What It Takes to put together everyone's favorite Hollywood extravaganza. Nobody can take you behind the scenes of Oscar night like Steve Pond, which is why The Big Show is a must-read for any Oscar fan . . . and any Oscar winner." --Chris Connelly, five-time Oscar pre-show host and red carpet fixture
Book Description
An unprecedented look at the machinations behind everyone's favorite Hollywood circus and what it reveals about the business of moviemaking.
Oscar parties. Oscar pools. Oscar style. Oscar predictions. The Oscars breed their own peculiar mania and a billion people worldwide are alleged to watch the broadcast every year. While that figure may be the Academy's big white lie, the Oscars draw a viewership well into the hundreds of millions--a tremendous audience for what is essentially a television program. But this is no ordinary show. Love it or loathe it, the Oscars are an irresistible spectacle: a gloriously gaudy, glitzy, momentous, and foolish window into the unholy alliance of art and commerce that is the film industry. The Oscar statuette is a totem of such potency that millions are spent and careers laid on the line in the reckless pursuit of an eight-pound chunk of gold-plated britannium.
The Big Show is a chronicle of the past fifteen years of the Academy Awards, the most tumultuous decade in Oscar's seventy-six year history. Written by the only journalist ever given carte blanche access to the planning, production, and backstage intrigue of the Oscars, it offers an unguarded, behind-the-scenes glimpse of this singular event, along with remarkable insight into how the Oscars reflect the high-stakes politics of Hollywood, our obsession with celebrities (not to mention celebrities' obsession with themselves), and the cinematic state of the union.
About the Author
Steve Pond has been writing about popular culture and the entertainment industry for over twenty-five years for publications including Premiere, the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, and the Washington Post.
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