Scott Bradfield

The fresh hell of Dorothy Parker’s Hollywood

Though well paid as a screenwriter, Parker lampooned Hollywood’s moguls, dubbing MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Merde as she slipped further into alcoholism

Dorothy Parker’s smart dialogue kept making it into the final cuts of Hollywood films –unlike her friend F. Scott Fitzgerald’s. [Bridgeman Images] 
issue 16 November 2024

Hollywood didn’t kill Dorothy Parker, but booze probably did. In fact, if Hollywood hadn’t paid her so well to spend so much time at home, she couldn’t have afforded the booze – as well as maintain a lifelong ability to insult almost everyone she loved while still earning their (sometimes reluctant) affection.

It’s hard to believe that Parker didn’t take her film work seriously, since she kept producing such good work

Gail Crowther’s latest book (she has written entertainingly on other notably cocktail-absorbed writers such as Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton) is a focused, fun and almost recreationally enjoyable brief biography not...

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