false 211020 4 "My wink is binding," Bernie Brillstein writes in the middle part of his memoir of a career in showbiz. At this point the movie-star manager has already admitted that he wanted power and prestige as soon as he started in the William Morris agency mailroom. And that he chased after a Don Corleone-ish kind of respect afterward. But even when he became a clout-carrying manager and near-mogul he kept his people-first credo. You suspect he loves it too for the way it echoes the Borscht Belt, since that's the kind of verbal energy he draws on throughout this anecdote-crammed autobiography. He calls himself "show," but in four decades he had to be "business" too, tough enough to tell clients, as he says he did, when to start their career over from scratch. The book begins with a graphically honest memory of his visit to the proctologist with his family when he was 24--something he guffaws off, but it's probably not far from the sort of reality check he regularly gave clients like Jim Henson, Norm Crosby, Lorne Michaels, John Belushi, and Brad Pitt. He cops to a gambling addiction, a love of "high class call girls," and to the way he stole from <I>Laugh-In</I>to invent <I>Hee Haw</I>. But he also brokered Lorne Michael's big break with <I>SNL</I>, produced <I>Dangerous Liaisons</I>, and eventually got <I>News Radio</I> and <I>The Sopranos</I> on the air. He candidly assesses professional pains too, including Michael Ovitz's pathology, Garry Shandling's riddling neuroses, and the loss of Belushi and Henson. "I care," he writes finally, "because that's who I am." It's easy to smile at that, but by the end of the book it's also easy to believe he means it. <I>--Lyall Bush</I> 204236 1999 Where Did I Go Right?: You're No One in Hollywood Unless Someone Wants You Dead total:15|5:5|4:8|3:2| 15 63 26 1 0 0 false false Thu Apr 24 17:21:25 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 24 17:21:38 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Sun Oct 25 17:41:05 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 17:41:05 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Oct 17 10:23:02 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 17 10:23:15 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Sep 14 13:29:13 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 13:29:13 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Sep 14 06:12:49 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 06:12:55 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Jul 22 09:58:13 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 09:58:13 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jul 16 15:05:23 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 16 15:05:23 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Jul 09 19:26:46 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 09 19:26:46 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Jun 21 10:16:51 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 10 17:07:11 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 10:16:51 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed May 20 11:18:02 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 11:18:02 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Apr 25 16:30:47 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 25 16:30:47 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Apr 12 00:02:04 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 12 00:02:04 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Tue Apr 07 18:09:30 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 07 18:09:30 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Feb 21 10:25:45 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 21 10:25:45 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jan 22 17:32:32 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 17:32:32 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Thu Jan 08 12:46:05 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 12:46:05 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Aug 08 14:00:28 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 08 14:00:52 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Wed Jun 25 17:13:34 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 25 17:13:34 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Thu Jun 12 08:36:32 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 12 08:36:32 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Sat Feb 09 17:46:01 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 09 17:46:01 -0800 2008