Bio Unmasks Astaire as Racist

Need a good beach (or bathroom) read? Try these

(NEWSER) - To understand how women have defined “celebrity” over the past century, you have to read these 20 biographies. Or maybe, writes Tracie Egan Morrissey for Jezebel , you’re just looking for a trashy bathroom read. That works, too:

• No Lifeguard on Duty, Janice Dickinson: The supermodel is “deliciously TMI about everything: when she tried to trick Sylvester Stallone into thinking he was the father of her baby when he wasn't; getting totally fucked up on coke and booze at Stephanie Seymour's bachelorette party; describing—in detail—Liam Neeson's penis size.”
• Liz, C. David Heymann: “Focuses mostly on the trashier aspects of Elizabeth Taylor’s life and career—like the pills, the booze, the marriages, and the fluctuating weight—but is mostly interesting for its account of all of her ‘firsts’ as a celebrity woman.”

Robert F. Kennedy film in the works at New Regency

(NEWSER) - If shelling out $10 to see a biopic about Robert F. Kennedy doesn’t thoroughly excite you, perhaps this will change your mind: RFK will be played by none other than Matt Damon. Well, make that might be played. Deadline reports the deal is done and Damon is attached—but the actor wants to see the script before confirming the project is a go. More»

Biographer's hypothesis also doesn't take into account squash

(NEWSER) - When the Slate staff discussed the topic of Warren Beatty potentially sleeping with 12,775 women , as biographer Peter Biskind asserts, “most of the men present found Biskind's number preposterous. Several women, though, argued it might be feasible. Interpret that, dear reader, as you will,” writes Nathan Heller. Heller is of the “it’s preposterous” opinion—and he lists 13 reasons why “such a rate of conquest seems logistically, socially, and ontologically impossible”: More»

New biography offers a 'yummy' look at the actress who truly mastered fame

(NEWSER) - Elizabeth Taylor, whose affair with Eddie Fisher was more scandalous than the Brad-Jen-Angelina triangle can ever hope to be, is “a pioneer for the Madonnas and Lindsay Lohans of today, women whose personal lives occupy more of the public imagination than does their creative work,” writes Laura Miller in Salon. As William J. Mann’s new biography How to Be a Movie Star makes clear, Taylor was—and still is, as evidenced by her use of Twitter—a master of the celebrity game. More»

Monroe's life, death explored in another tell-all, but there's still no 'external villain'

(NEWSER) - J. Randy Taraborrelli’s new 541-page biography, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, doesn’t really deliver on promises of “explosive,” “revelatory” discoveries—at least, “not to a Marilyn obsessive like myself,” writes Lori Leibovich for DoubleX. “Instead, there is the deepening of the much more ordinary tragedy that continues to fascinate”—including the tale of Monroe being committed, when an intern told her, “You are a very, very sick girl.” More»