Starmaker

Life As a Hollywood Publicist with Farrah, The Rat Pack and 600 More Stars Who Fired Me

Jay Bernstein

• Publisher: ECW Press
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781770900431
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Performing Arts & Business

This memoir by the legendary publicist offers "an intimate glimpse into the best and the worst of the golden age of Hollywood" (Stacy Keach, Golden Globe Award–nominated actor). Jay Bernstein, an entertainment industry fixture who helped launch the careers of celebrities including Farrah Fawcett and Suzanne Somers, was famed for his sense of showmanship, his outrageous style, and the publicity stunts he engineered to get attention for his clients. Starmaker tells his story, from his childhood in Oklahoma City and his first job in a Hollywood mailroom to the ownership of his own public relations firm and his work as a television producer. In addition to a behind-the-scenes look at several generations of show business and hard-hitting insights about how the industry changed over the decades, Bernstein also describes the relationships he had with stars and his notorious techniques, such as paying women to throw hotel keys at Tom Jones, having Entertainment Tonight host Mary Hart's legs insured for one million dollars, and getting married underwater for an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. With the wisdom of experience and a sense of humor, this autobiography shares the intimate details of a fascinating Hollywood life.

AFTERWORD

By Larry Cortez-Hamm

This memoir is the result of a yearlong collaboration between Jay Bernstein and me. Jay had wanted to write a history of Hollywood as seen from the inside looking out, interweaving his personal experiences during a period just short of fifty years. I worked daily with him for a solid year, piecing his amazing story together. Then suddenly on April 30, 2006, Jay succumbed to a massive stroke. Fittingly, Farrah Fawcett stayed by Jay’s side at the hospital until his final breath on earth.

A few weeks later, a memorial service was held for Jay at Paramount Studios. It played to a packed house at the Paramount Theater, an event Jay would have appreciated, with 500 stars, directors, producers, friends and fans in attendance. In my mind the service reaffirmed that Jay was more than another Hollywood character.

Although Jay had vivid recollections of almost every person he represented, befriended and combated during his career, he was aware that only a handful could be explored in a memoir. Therefore he chose a select few people around whom to weave his story, not all of whom he considered friendly witnesses to the events.

“I’m not interested in other people’s viewpoints,” he once said to me....