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. |