Hollywood Girls Club

Hollywood power-puff Marr pulls back the curtain on the wizards of Tinseltown, exposing a quartet of shameless, shoe-crazy ladies bent on building fame and fortune through blockbusters. Here's Celese "Cici" Solange, the stunning movie queen clinging to stardom by a manicured fingernail; her agent, Jessica Caulfield, president of CTA, "the most powerful agency in town," determined to keep her top-notch client list and position; billion-dollar producer Lydia Albright, fighting to a bring a sure-fire hit to the screen before she's fired by a new studio chief; and writer Mary Ann Meyers, plucked from obscurity to write the $1.5-million screenplay that brings all the players together. Marr knows her power-hungry vipers, thanks to her stint at the talent agency ICM. Though her insider's tell-all bristles at the plight of women who compete ("Talent representation was a male business; it was sales"), this novel is less about hit-making than cold compromise—"With the paparazzi, with the press, with the studios, with the producers, with myself," as Celeste concedes. The girls' club, cutthroat and callous, turns out to be a lot like the boys' club, but cattier and more fun to read about. A sequel is in the works. (Apr.)