[close] It is said men literally had to support themselves against buildings when she walked by. She was that beautiful. She was the great sex symbol of her time, and also a bad girl who became the obsession of many of the biggest names of her day -- including Frank Sinatra, Ernest Hemingway, and Howard Hughes. She drank, fought, and slept around with the best of them. She married some too: Mickey Rooney, the biggest star on the MGM lot; Artie Shaw, the charismatic, cold-blooded bandleader; Sinatra, whose jealousy she battled like a wildcat and whose dreams she haunted for the rest of his life. This biography is rich with style, detail, and a sense of place. Prodigiously researched and laced with fascinating fresh interviews with many who worked with, knew -- or loved -- Gardner, many speaking on the record for the first time, Ava Gardner: "Love is Nothing" repositions the talented star as a woman who lived large, long, and precisely as she wanted to. [close]