Hollywood Wives (novel)

Hollywood Wives is a 1983 novel by the British author Jackie Collins. It was her ninth novel, and her most successful, selling over 15 million copies.^[1]

Hollywood Wives tells the stories of several women in Hollywood, ranging all the way from long-time talent agents and screenwriters to vivacious screen vixens and young, innocent newcomers.

After the novel's international success, it was adapted as a television miniseries by producer Aaron Spelling that aired on ABC in February 1985. It was a ratings hit, and one of the most successful mini-series of the 1980s.

Collins went on to pen several more "Hollywood" titled books, including Hollywood Husbands (1986), Hollywood Kids (1994), Hollywood Wives: The New Generation (2001), and Hollywood Divorces (2003). Although these further novels tend to be separate works rather than direct sequels, characters from the original Hollywood Wives have made brief appearances in them.

Main characters

• Elaine Conti - a Bronx girl (née Etta Grodonski) turned Hollywood hostess who is desperate to stay at the top while her marriage to former screen sex symbol Ross Conti crumbles beneath her. Previously married to a plastic surgeon, prior to her marriage to Ross. She is a compulsive shoplifter who lives in Beverly Hills. Elaine is a woman ruthlessly driven to improve both her husband's career and her own standing within Tinseltown. She falls out with Karen over her brazen affair with Ross, but despite the flagrant and very public cheating, they remain a powerful couple.
• Marilee Gray (née Sanderson) - Elaine's close friend and the first wife of director Neil Gray. Daughter of Tyrone Sanderson, a powerful studio owner. She lives a life of leisure, paid for by her ex-husband's alimony. Perhaps Elaine's most loyal friend.
• Karen Lancaster - the daughter of super celebrity George Lancaster. Also one of Elaine's friends, but that does not stop her from making a play for Elaine's husband Ross Conti. Karen later marries rock star Josh Speed, to George's dismay, at a Disneyland ceremony.
• Sadie LaSalle - a Hollywood casting agent and starmaker who was responsible for Ross Conti's stardom. Now one of the most powerful women in Hollywood, Sadie eventually discovers Buddy Hudson, who is later to be revealed as his birth mother. Also the mother of Buddy's twin, Deke Andrews. After being attacked by Deke and saved by Buddy, she bonds deeply with her son and daughter in law.
• Ross Conti - a one-time screen legend, but now a faded Hollywood star. Ross is about to turn 50 and is without a viable career. Has an affair with Karen Lancaster which imperils his marriage to Elaine. They do stay together, despite the public affairs. Doesn't realize that he is Buddy Hudson's father from his relationship with Sadie LaSalle. Also doesn't know he's the father of murderous Deke Andrews.
• Neil Gray - a top British film director and recovering alcoholic. Married to Montana and previously married to Maralee. Dies of a heart attack in a Santa Monica bar parking lot; after suffering two previous heart attacks; the first one after a very unwise tryst with Gina Germaine.
• Jason Swankle - a top interior designer who also runs a male escort agency which caters to lonely rich women. Buddy's former boss.
• Bibi Sutton - another Hollywood society hostess and gossip. A former journalist from France, she was married to Adam Sutton, another actor. Elaine's friend who follows her lead without any reservation or argument. Later, Bibi turns to Elaine, now a powerful woman in her own right, for advice.
• Montana Gray - a talented screenwriter who is determined to break the glass ceiling of Hollywood studios. She is Neil Gray's second (and current) wife. Her arch rival is Oliver Easterne, whom she humiliated with a fetid present of cow manure after his continued attempts to screw her out of what was hers (the complete control of her film, Street People).
• Gina Germaine - already a successful movie star, she is willing to do anything to advance her career and be taken seriously as an actress, including blackmail. She has an affair with Neil Gray which ends with him having a massive heart attack (he died after a second) and her career is savaged by the fallout. Revealed to be living in France to escape the Hollywood notoriety.
• George Lancaster - a beloved Hollywood superstar and a contemporary of Ross Conti's but still successful. Married to Pamela, whose marriage is punctuated by insults, but the love is there. Father of Karen whom he has a strained and distant relationship with.
• Oliver Easterne - an arrogant, abrasive, and very devious Hollywood studio boss. Only interested in getting what he wants and not caring about the damage he does to people in his way. Arch enemy of screenwriter Montana Gray (he thinks she is infringing on big boy's turf, the world of movie screenwriting), who gets even with him (for his taking control of her project) in a most unique (and very unappealing) manner.
• Buddy Hudson - a young, aspiring actor and former hustler with ambitions of stardom regardless of his past life and his new bride. Is revealed to be one of the sons of Sadie LaSalle and Ross Conti, although the latter is unaware of the connection. He is also the twin brother of murderous Deke Andrews.
• Angel Hudson - Buddy's new wife. Her youth, beauty and innocence make her a target for some of Hollywood's more unscrupulous characters. She and Buddy reunite after he rescues her and Sadie from the demented Deke. Close friends of her boss at the beauty salon, Koko and his partner, Adrian. She gives birth to twin boys at book's end.
• Pamela Lancaster - the second wife of Hollywood star George Lancaster and the stepmother of Karen Lancaster. Though she and George love one another, they also insult one another mercilessly.
• Deke Andrews - a mentally deranged young man from Philadelphia, who makes his way to Hollywood to find his birth parents, leaving a trail of death and destruction in his wake. Revealed to be the son of Sadie LaSalle and Ross Conti and the twin brother of Buddy Hudson, dies at his own hand.
• Det. Leon Rosemont - a Philadelphia cop who pursues Deke across the U.S. Married to Millie who doesn't approve of his unrelenting devotion to his police work.
• Koko - owner of a Beverly Hills beauty salon and Angel's boss and close friend. He lives with a paraplegic Vietnam vet named Adrian, and offers Angel a solid friendship and a supportive shoulder. Very protective of her, calls her "Dreamheart" and teaches her about Hollywood and its ways. Defends her against his lecherous stylist, Reynoldo. He later befriends Buddy.

References

External links

• Rosenberg, Howard (15 February 1985). "The Sex-and-lunch Bunch Of Hollywood Wives". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 21 February 2015.