Old Hollywood Day

I'm trying to have an old Hollywood day but the hippies at the Chinese embassy keep screaming and drowning out my hep-cat bossa nova. If I were Marlene Dietrich I'd get my lady tux on and out hair them with my giant Blonde Venus fro, but since I'm me I just swear and spy with my telescope. The reason I'm having an old Hollywood day is because Harper Collins sent me a new book to review, "Damage Control: Woman on the Therapists, Beauticians and Trainers who Navigate Their Bodies" edited by Emma Forrest. I didn't like Minnie Driver's story because I couldn't tell if she was forcing the language or just speaking in the Queen's English. You just knew she'd write about her hair and in that way it was contrived. But I did like the stories by Samantha Dunn, Helen Oyeyemi, and my fave - one about Topsy Young, a former screen siren (with a love of Liz Taylor) who is now elderly and has a great rapport with Swedish masseuse Asa Wrange. Old Hollywood and the people who make up new Hollywood seem to have more charisma and class than today's stars.