my books .. myself
My latest solo book is
ALL FOR A FEW PERFECT WAVES:
The Audacious Life and Legend of Rebel
Surfer Miki Dora.

My newest collaboration is DON'T GIVE UP, DON'T GIVE IN: Lessons
from an Extraordinary Life, (2014) with the late Louis Zamperini,
hero of UNBROKEN. I also co-wrote his autobiography,
DEVIL AT MY HEELS

previously ...

I collaborated on THE MEN ON MY COUCH: True Stories
of Sex, Love and Psychotherapy. A memoir of Dr Brandy Engler's
first year in practice. She planned to treat women
but only got calls from men.

In 2009 I co-authored Sam Haskell's PROMISES I MADE MY
MOTHER." Sam was the William Morris Agency's Worldwide Head
of Television until he left to run the Miss America Corporation,
and pursue a life of philanthropy



and there's more...

I co-wrote THE LITTLE STUFF
MATTERS MOST: 50 Rules from 50 Years of
Trying to Make a Living (Gotham, Sept
2004/different title for the 2005 paperback),
with show biz legend Bernie Brillstein. Think
of it as pithy, humorous, no BS advice, based
on Bernie's life and business experience for
those who want to chart a unique path to
success and be enterained while they do it.

In 2003 I wrote THE MAILROOM: Hollywood
History from the Bottom Up (Ballantine), a
bestselling oral history of what it's like to
start at the bottom in show business, in a
classic talent agency mailroom, dreaming of
the top. It covers 65 years and contains the
stories of more than 150 former trainees,
many of whom, like Geffen, Diller, and Ovitz,
went on to run Hollywood.

Also in 2003, I co-wrote musician/composer
Yanni's New York Times bestselling
autobiography, YANNI IN WORDS (Miramax), and
DEVIL AT MY HEELS (William Morrow), the
inspirational and incredible saga of Olympian
and World War II hero Louis Zamperini, who
survived 47 days on a raft, drifting 2000
miles across the Pacific Ocean -- after his
bomber crashed on a rescue mission -- and
then almost three years of torture and humiliation
in Japanese prison camps.

I co-authored Hollywood super-manager
Bernie Brillstein's widely-lauded memoir,
WHERE DID I GO RIGHT?, as well as four
New York Times bestsellers:
actor/comedian Tim Allen's mega-hit
DONT' STAND TOO CLOSE TO A NAKED MAN,
and its follow-up I'M NOT REALLY HERE;
Jeff Foxworthy's NO SHIRT, NO SHOES, NO PROBLEM
and Chris Rock's ROCK THIS! I also co-authored
the bestselling CONFESSIONS OF A LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW HOST:
The Autobiography of Larry Sanders, with Garry Shandling,
and created and co-wrote -- with Bill Zehme -- THE BOB BOOK,
a groundbreaking and bestselling
humorous sociology of men named Bob.

I've also been a contributing editor of
Playboy since 1981, for which I have
interviewed people such as Bill Gates, Jerry
Seinfeld, Cindy Crawford, Billy Crystal,
Martin Scorsese, Ben Stiller, Dennis Miller,
Bill Maher, Whoopi Goldberg, Sean Penn,
Larry King, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, Nicole
Kidman, Chris Matthews, Shirley MacLaine,
Charlton Heston, Jack LaLanne, David Spade,
Garry Shandling, and many more. I have also
written extensively for other magazines,
including Rolling Stone, Esquire, TV Guide,
US Weekly, among others.