About the Book
In this compulsively readable and constantly surprising book, Peter Biskind, the author of the film classics Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Down and Dirty Pictures, writes the most intimate, revealing, and balanced biography ever of Hollywood legend Warren Beatty.
Famously a playboy, Beatty has also been one of the most ambitious and successful stars in Hollywood. Several Beatty films have passed the test of time, from Bonnie and Clyde to Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait, Reds (for which he won the best director Oscar), Bugsy, and Bulworth. Few filmgoers realize that along with Orson Welles, Beatty is the only person ever nominated for four Academy Awards for a single film -- and unlike Welles, Beatty did it twice. Biskind shows how Beatty used star power, commercial success, savvy, and charm to bend Hollywood moguls to his will.
Beatty's private life has been the subject of gossip for decades, and Star confirms his status as Hollywood's leading man in the bedroom, describing his affairs with Joan Collins, Natalie Wood, Leslie Caron and Madonna, among many others.
Biskind explains how Beatty exercised unique control, often hiring screenwriters out of his own pocket, producing, directing, and acting in his own films. He was arguably one of the most successful and creative figures in Hollywood during the second half of the twentieth century, and in this fascinating biography, Warren Beatty comes to life -- complete with excesses and achievements -- as never before.
About the Author :
Peter Biskind is the author of five previous books, including Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ‘n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. He is a contributor to Vanity Fair and was formerly the executive editor of Premiere magazine. He lives with his family in Columbia County, New York.
Review :
'Beatty was a hero of that era -- a writer, director, producer and facilitator as well as actor and olympic-level womaniser -- so this should be quite a tale' 'What's hot in 2010', Time Out 31/12 'Beatty emerges as both politically passionate (he campaigned for Bobby Kennedy) and unjustly overlooked (despite being twice nominated for four Oscars). Beatty's magnificent book doesn't shirk Beatty's love life entirely: put it this way, Madonna won't enjoy it' GQ February issue 'The book claims that Beatty, 72, who wed actress Annette Bening in 1992, lost his virginity at the age of 20, but averaged one woman a day in the next 35 years. The author says the figure does not include 'daytime quickies'. The book claims that one lover, supermodel Janice Dickinson, woke up in the night to find him 'admiring himself in the mirror'. The author also claims Beatty's 'relentless' libido proved too much for Joan Collins, writing: 'Exhausted, she stumbled out of bed (and) said, "don't think I can last much longer. He never stops' News story, Daily Mail 4/1 'A new biography of the film star Warren Beatty claims that he has been to bed with 12,775 women. The author adds, usefully, that the figure does not include daytime quickies, drive-bys, casual gropings, stolen kisses and so on' Craig Brown, Daily Mail 5/1 'Ageing lothario Warren Beatty has bedded '12, 775 women, give or take', a new biography reveals. The 72-year-old Bonnie and Clyde star was asked by Peter Biskind just how many women he had made love to and he replied: "Easier to count the stars in the sky"' Metro, 4/1 'The author also claims in the book..that insatiable Beatty proved too much for another lover, actress Joan Collins, for whom he dumped Fonda. He writes: "He made love to [Joan] Collins relentlessly. But for Collins it was too much of a good thing. One Sunday morning, exhausted, she stumbled out of bed. Dragging on a forbidden cigarette she said, 'I don't think I can last much longer. He never stops -- it must be all those vitamins...in a few years I'll be worn out'.' Daily Mirror 4/1 'Playboy who breaks all the rules...No one has seduced more of Hollywood's leading women but as a new biography reveals he has been just as outrageous in his personal vanity and the demands he makes on set' Daily Express 26/12 'We men are in touch with our feelings...Let us hope that in this new decade, some sort of gender balance will be established. An early hero of the new age will be Warren Beatty (pictured), whose mental and physical alignment is so perfect that, according to a new biography, he has had 12,775 lovers. To gain a sense of scale, imagine an average crowd at a Queens Park Rangers match consisting entirely of women who have had sex with Warren Beatty. The star's lawyer has issued a denial while Beatty himself has kept a tactful silence' Diary column, Independent, 6/1 'How many women has Warren Beatty slept with? The actor and legendary Hollywood lothario could be forgiven for having lost count. But he nonetheless takes exception to the extraordinary claim, in a new biography, that there are close to 13,000 notches on his bedpost. The 72-year-old star, currently married to Actress Annette Bening, has a romantic CV which has in the past featured showbusiness royalty such as Jane Fonda, Joan Collins, Dianne Keaton and Julie Christie' Belfast Telegraph 5/1 'There's no way I have slept with 12,775 women, claims Beatty...Beatty's lawyer, Bertram Fields, yesterday responded to publication of the biography' Independent 5/1 'The book is compelling in the extreme' The Sunday Times 10/1 'Have you slept with Warren Beatty in the past 35 years? It's highly likely that you have, possibly without ever realising it. A new biography of the actor claims that he has slept with 12,775 women over this period, which works out at 365 women every year, or one a day' Rod Liddle, The Sunday Times 10/1 'The Hollywood actor Warren Beatty has slept with 12,775 women, claims a new biography. Author Peter Biskind says the figure doesn't include "quickies, drive-bys, casual gropings, stolen kisses and so on"' 'And now we know', The Sunday Times 10/1 'Beatty is famously enigmatic and egotistical, making any biographer's task a challenge, but Peter Biskind manages to capture the essence of the man with just the right combination of scholarship and salaciousness. He reminds us that Beatty has been nominated for Oscars as an actor, writer, director and producer, a feat matched only by Orson Welles. As the screenwriter Bo Goldman remarked, Beatty might have matched Welles, but never fully realised his potential because: "his ego gets in the way. It's a form of narcissism. It's always been about him"' Sunday Telegraph 10/1 'The ever closed Beatty may hate this book, but it is both impeccable and rollicking, and a not disloyal tribute to a man who had it all and yet, but for himself, could have had so much more' Observer, 10/1 'Sheer vanity, it emerges, proved Beatty's undoing. Even to a celebrity hairdresser, he was "one of the most conceited men I have ever met"' Daily Telegraph 9/1 'Headline-raising claims that Warren Beatty slept with 'give or take' 12,775 women..So who was Beatty?...Deftly balancing juicy, horse's-mouth gossip with intelligent cinematic context, Biskind may admit he's as 'besotted' with Beatty as any 1970s starlet. Yet...his elliptical portrait is hardly an airbrushed puff piece. Beatty emerges as a vain, dithering, pseudo-intellectual whose aspirations to be the new Brando don't extend much beyond mumbling. Biskind's book, not Beatty, is the star attraction here' Four stars, Metro 14/1 'Considering Beatty in terms of what it means to be a movie star is fascinating, because his career straddles two great eras. He started out at the end of the 1950s, when the studio system was still all-powerful, and Biskind argues that in many ways he's a star in the tradition of Clark Gable or Cary Grant. But while retaining what he learned from the Old Hollywood, he also became the key instigator of the New Hollywood, as producer and star of 'Bonnie and Clyde'. He went on to appear in many of its defining films, such as 'McCabe and Mrs Miller', 'The Parallax View' and 'Shampoo', not to mention directing 'Heaven Can Wait' and 'Reds'...But as Biskind's book amply demonstrates, Beatty has certainly lived a full life, defined by far more than just his movies.' Sight and Sound February issue 'Clearly Warren Beatty is too sexy by half...This week a forensic debate has broken out between the film star/director/producer Warren Beatty and his latest biographer Peter Biskind. Like anglers, many ordinary men tend to magnify the quality and quantity of past catches but Mr Beatty is striving to miniaturise his. His biographer says he has slept with 12,775 women...Mr Beatty has suggested that may be something of an exaggeration' Daily Express 9/1 'I could have been Warren Beatty's lover no. 12,776 (but unlike Madonna, Bardot and Joan Collins, I spurned his cheesy chat-up lines' Glenys Roberts, Daily Mail 9/1 'During her time canoodling with him in 1990, Madonna was asked if it was true that Beatty, 72, pictured, was 'insatiable'. She replied: "He's satiable"' Ephraim Hardcastle, Daily Mail 12/1 'It's claimed this Hollywood superstar has slept with a whopping 12,775 women -- that's a new woman every day for the three-and-a-half decades he was single' Reveal, 16/1 'I've no idea whether Warren Beatty really has slept with 12,775 women, as claimed in a new biography. But I do know that I really, really enjoyed reading the gory details of how the 72-year-old star lost his virginity at 20 and then supposedly seduced an average of one new female a day throughout the ensuing 35 years before settling down in 1992 to faithful domesticity with his current wife, Annette Bening' LA Notebook, Independent 7/1 'Beatty met Leslie at a party to boost Caron's chances of an Oscar for The L-Shaped Room. "We practically did not leave each other for the next two years", the French actress and dancer later recalled. But her subsequent split from theatre director Sir Peter Hall caused a furore when Beatty was named in the divorce. An early victim of Beatty's love 'em and leave 'em philosophy, she said: "He always falls in love with girls who've won or been nominated for an Oscar". He wanted to marry but the star dragged her feet and later ended the relationship, saying she could not handle the pace' Daily Mirror 7/1 'Chronicler of Hollywood's hell-raisers finally and unsurprisingly turns to the priapic star whose fingertips Woody Allen wanted to be reincarnated as' '7 books you should own', Belfast Telegraph 9/1 'You wiggle your toes in horrified delight at Leslie Caron's recollection of being woken at 5am with Beatty squawking down the phone 'You're sleeping! You're not thinking about ME!', and at Julie Christie being coerced by Beatty to undergo breast enlargement surgery, after which he sat beside her bed tenderly holding her hand and stroking her hair. You feel pleasantly appalled to read how he and Jack Nicholson frequently swapped women -- 'a male bonding thing' -- at the luxury homes in Mulholland Drive (dubbed Bad Boy Drive), where Brando owned a house. You applaud Beatty's sister, Shirley MacLaine, for her waspish verdict during the Madonna flight that he was: 'fifty from the neck up and 14 from the waist down.' Above all, you smirk at Beatty's own observation about the fickleness of fame: 'I know that the Press has to cut people like me down to size...my tide goes in and out.' Not only his tide, de
