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Palm Springs Confidential: Playground of the Stars
by Howard Johns
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Barricade Books (2006-01-25)
ISBN: 1569802971
EAN: 9781569802977
Dewy Decimal #: 790
Paperback: 320 pages
SKU: LP1721
Condition: Very Good
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Lifting the screen of privacy, author Howard Johns invites the reader into the world that Hollywood's biggest stars have made their playground. He dishes all the dirt from Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra to Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon.
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Customer Reviews
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Tabloid without the titillation
Rating  (1)
Date: 2008-09-24
Dreadful tabloid-level writing without even the titillation and absurdly flamboyant half-truths and lies of a good tabloid. The result is dull boredom, with irrelevant and uninteresting tidbits about minor "stars" and, even worse, very little about the houses and neighborhoods they lived in.
Buyer beware on this one!
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Palm Springs Confidential: Playground of the Stars
Rating (1)
Date: 2007-01-25
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Is a complete waste of time. It reads (and looks) like a bad copy of the National Enquirer, but in a better cover.
I've already recycled my copy.
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Amusing Handbook to Desert Dish
Rating  (4)
Date: 2006-02-22
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Expensive for a softcover book with only B&W stock photos, but still a fun resource guide for Desert afficianadoes. Not-too-dishy gossip about some of the celebs and celeb wannabe's who have had residency in Palm Springs, California...both past and present.
Author Johns obviously had some fun researching and writing this prosaic "Map to the Stars Homes" manual. Especially fun if you are a frequent visitor to the area or are planning a vacation there.
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DULL, TRIVIAL AND SOPHOMORIC
Rating (1)
Date: 2005-11-22
3 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
Based on other reviews, PALM SPRINGS CONFIDENTIAL seems like great dish along the lines of Kitty Kelley, with well-researched chapters about sex and scandal in Palm Springs.
What Johns has produced, however, is more like a star map on steriods. Each chapter takes you house-by-house through a different old Palm Springs neighborhood, which could be interesting in the right hands. Johns does not have the right hands.
The result is a choppy, schizophrenic mess of mostly trivial detail. There's nothing here that you can't find in other, better-written books on Palm Springs. Johns's bitchy barbs combined with his sophomoric prose and unnecessary commentary on stars's films, music, and addictions make slogging through this slop a real chore. I find it hard to believe that Johns could be the editor-at-large of a grocery list much less PALM SPRINGS LIFE magazine.
Even more shocking is Johns's dark, homophobic tone when discussing gay celebritites, especially considering that the gay community practically runs Palm Springs. He carelessly tosses about phrases like "limp-writsed," "debauched," and "effeminate," completely oblivious to how offensive he is to anyone with a compassionate nature.
Johns's nasty tone -- whether discussing gay people or not, his amateurish style, and his inability to weed out superfluous detail make PALM SPRINGS CONFIDENTIAL an enormous waste of time and money. There are much better books on Palm Springs out there. Don't make the mistake of buying this one.
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Great Palm Springs Movie Star Memorabilia!
Rating  (5)
Date: 2005-09-06
3 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
Loved the book and it's many pictures and movie star history. Having grown up in Palm Springs, I found it especially interesting to read about the more glamorous side of a familiar town. Great book--well worth the money!
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