Chris Culler

Giving Good Hollywood Chris Culler

Does having the courage of your ambition inevitably mean losing your soul? Natalie Saladay is back in Hollywood, and now she wants it all: The power to make good movies. The love of a good man. And she?ll risk just about anything in order to ?give good Hollywood.? In this satirical romance novel of Hollywood, unabashedly ambitious, recently divorced Natalie Saladay is a studio ?reader? whose job is to cull through scripts and books in search of that perfect movie. Natalie knows that the ?show? and ?business? of filmmaking are synonymous, but her boss, the beautiful, ruthless and equally ambitious executive Mona Pearl, dismisses Natalie?s preference for character-driven screenplays as ?movies for nobody.? Soon studio intrigue and a tragic film location accident galvanize Natalie into rekindling a hot romance with charismatic producer Benny Gallo, the man she swore she never wanted to see again. Conflicted about the powerful producer and big-time heartbreaker, Natalie nonetheless persuades Benny into producing a soulful ?little independent-that-could? film set in Central Coast wine country. Mona, on the other hand, is staking her reputation on the studio?s big budget special effects/action "tentpole" picture. The entire film business appears in upheaval, but Benny Gallo urges Natalie to trust her own ambition, even as he serves to benefit from her ?giving good Hollywood.? Is he the devil bargaining for her soul? Her Svengali? Or is he ?the man who got away?? As the glitz and glamour of awards season approaches along with the release dates for both radically different movies, as the rivalry between the two women reaches a fever pitch, Natalie realizes she may indeed be risking her soul and even the love of the man she?s always wanted -- all for giving good Hollywood.