Books/Authors
BOOKS/AUTHORS
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Dishy-Witty Confessional Chronicles Magazine Editor’s Travels with Celebrities Around the World, and the Outrageous Antics He Added
Author Jeremy Murphy Spent a Decade Overseeing Photo Shoots in New York, Paris, London, Milan, Berlin, Shanghai and even Bora Bora
Outrageous Memories Include Hotel Room Fire, Bar Fights, Arrest on a Plane, RestaurantBans, and Drunkenly Singing Ted Koppel the “Nightline” Theme Song
Co-Writer Sophia Paulmier Brings Recollections to Life with Revealing Detail and Color
Post Hill Press will release “Too Good to Fact Check: Flying the Skies with Stars, Scotch and Scandal (Mostly Mine)” on August 27, 2024, a book surely to be the fall’s guilty pleasure. Filled with absurd memories from his 10 years as editor of a glossy magazine, author Jeremy Murphy and co-writer Sophia Paulmier recreate events from the decade with amusing detail, apologies, and endearing moments with celebrities like LL Cool J, Neil Patrick Harris, Julianna Margulies, Harrison Ford, Christine Baranski, and other top stars who he traveled with. Not quite a dishy memoir, “Too Good to Fact Check” is more of a hilarious confessional that takes readers into a rarefied world filled with glamour, access, and excess. Along the way, the book includes amusing recollections of Murphy’s many reckless actions, one more outrageous than the next.
“Too Good to Fact Check recreates with unbelievable detail and humor an editor’s decent into the crazy mad world of celebrity, glamour, and decadence,” said Anthony Ziccardi, Publisher, Post Hill Press. “Jeremy Murphy and Sophia Paulmier expertly bring to life the writer’s decade of over-indulgence as he traveled the world with celebrities around the world to its most iconic destinations. The revelations are shocking, hilarious, and symbolic of an era when no excess was too extreme.”
Hotel room set on fire? It’s in there. Bar fights at the King Cole? In the writer’s defense, he was defending prostitutes! Arrest on a commercial airplane in Paris? It wasn’t him, but he helped cover it up. Drunkenly serenading TV host Ted Koppel with the Nightline theme song? Yea, there’s no getting around that one. The writer’s most absurd actions unfold against glamorous photo shoots with Neil Patrick Harris aboard the Orient Express, Julianna Margulies at the venerated Hotel du Cap in the Cote d’Azur, Christine Baranski at a Tuscan vineyard owned by the Ferragamo family, LL Cool J striking a pose in the Place de Concorde, and a surly Harrison Ford arriving at the wrong hotel in Los Angeles, among other events. Murphy and Paulmier bring those moments to life with colorful detail and humor, told through the editor’s Macallan-soaked goggles.
“I didn’t think I had this book in me, but in recalling that insane decade I realized I had so many ridiculous stories I can laugh about now that the statute of limitations has passed,” says Murphy. “These are memories I’ve never shared, and I’m frankly surprised I can still recall given the over-the-top lifestyle I’d come to enjoy. Too Good to Fact Check is a diary, love letter, stand-up act, and mea culpa in one book. And great way to become un-employable.”
Authoring with Murphy is Sophia Paulmier, a New York based writer and award-winning filmmaker with several screenplays in development.
“Jeremy told me about this idea and I was fascinated, but not sold until he humored me on a couple of crazy stories; I could not believe was hearing,” said Paulmier. “Bringing this to life was a challenge that intrigued me. We spent months recreating this decade through his voice and memories, and the end result is a genuine, character-rich narrative that brings readers back to the highest era of pop culture.
Jeremy Murphy is the author of “F*ck Off, Chloe,” a critically acclaimed book about the culture clash between young and old in the workplace. He is also the screen writer of “House of Medici,” an in-development TV series produced by James Brolin and Scott Hart; “Python,” a series he is producing with Faith Zuckerman; and “Court of St. James,” also with Zuckerman. Murphy worked for 14 years as a Vice President at CBS, and for a decade editor in chief of Watch! magazine. Currently, he runs 360bespoke, a NY-based PR agency he founded in 2016.
Sophia Paulmier is an actor, director and writer from Germantown, Philadelphia and currently residing on New York City’s Upper West Side. She has worked with many top creative talents, including the late director Joel Schumacher who hailed her as “brilliant” on a filming project. Her scripts are known to be female driven as well as having an architectural framework and pink palettes. She is “always looking for stories that feel nostalgic in time and place.” Paulmier’s dark comedy “Sisters,” about two sociopathic siblings, won her best director as well as several best Web-series/Pilot awards. She is currently in the early script stages of a feature about the dark side of being an actress.
About Post Hill Press:
Founded in 2013 by a team of seasoned entrepreneurs and book industry professionals, Post Hill Press has successfully published a wide spectrum of books, with a focus on the categories of pop culture, business, self-help, health, current events, memoirs, and political books. Our entrepreneurial spirit makes Post Hill Press a nimble publisher, willing and able to move quickly and take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace.
For photography, click here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/kpzjkhocbpakfra371uld/AMORjE-gaNZHl45T4fUxdso?rlkey=a4sf85umn9kqulxjefue2togd&st=jhi8hu48&dl=0
Hounded by a relentless press, indifferent family and a coterie of supporters who would leak the most intimate details of her life, Princess Diana struggled to find her authentic self amid the chaos that surrounded her life. During this period, no one ever knew Diana was meeting with a private voice and presence coach, Stewart Pearce, in the two years before her death. Working in secret, Pearce helped her find her voice and how to share with the world messages of hope, empowerment, kindness, and authenticity. Now, 24 years after her death, he is sharing how he did it in his new book DIANA THE VOICE OF CHANGE (Echopoint, $20.95). Far from a scandalous tell-all, Pearce’s book is both a story and call to action, detailing how Diana’s legacy broke taboos, opened hearts and gave people the confidence to be themselves. A presage to the #Me2 movement, the book is also a workbook for women to be the voice of change in their own lives, learning from the Princess. DIANA THE VOICE OF CHANGE debuts June 15th on Amazon and bookstores nationwide.
Our brains excel at making split-second decisions based on instinct. Our biologically driven instincts evolved and honed over millennia to survive a world ruled by scarcity and danger. In today’s fast-paced, complex, and technologically-driven environment, those same instincts can pose a danger, driving us to respond and react instantaneously, without the careful consideration and critical thinking today’s challenges demand.
You can see instinctual decisions and responses played across today’s headlines, from polarizing political divides, perceived enemies and cultural groupthink to hiring biases, gender assumptions, mandatory diversity training, and management missteps.
In INSTINCT: Rewire Your Brain with Science-Backed Solutions to Increase Productivity and Achieve Success (on-sale April 27, 2021; Hardcover, $28.00), Dr. Rebecca Heiss offers a fascinating glimpse of the instinctual mind at work, why we are hardwired to make instant decisions that aren’t grounded in rational thought, and why it’s vital to intentionally slow down in the moment in order to process information to make the best decision.
In a beautifully sincere and clear voice, L.W. Clark’s THE YELLOW SUITCASE(9781098374242; trade paperback; $17.99; on-sale September 21, 2021) follows a young woman as she––literally––packs up and puts her old life aside in the pursuit of claiming a new one. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098ZVL28K/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Desperate to shed the limiting expectations of her friends and family of Eastern Europe in the 1990s, Alyssa Florescu finds that looking for love, freedom, and life itself in America under New York’s city skyline isn’t at all it’s cracked up to be. It’s much more. Based on real events, THE YELLOW SUITCASE is an immigrant’s story about love, courage, and freedom. Written in the first person with internal dialogues to expose Alyssa’s innermost thoughts, this is a story of drama, comedy, and self-reliance.
Hidden in the beautiful coves of Bermuda, lies a terrifying secret. One so dangerous, that it’s worth killing for! Bob Richards’ compelling new World War II thriller, TRIANGLE OF TREASON (White Oak; June XX, 2021; $29.99 US) takes us on a high stakes adventure in the lives of three characters in this epic drama. Brimming with action, adventure and espionage, the book follows Rodney Grant, a retired British Naval Captain, who after a chance meeting with Adolf Hitler, becomes an unlikely spy for the Third Reich. Grant, who was looking forward to enjoying Bermuda’s peace and tranquility, finds himself embroiled in treason by providing the Germans with useful intelligence regarding the location of American and British warships as they cross the Atlantic. Meanwhile, American pilot Harley Harvey is deployed to Bermuda where he’ll fly reconnaissance missions around the island, scouting for any signs of German warships. In 1941, Bermuda played an important role in providing critical protection for many American cities and ports because of its location in the Atlantic. As the Nazis continued to march eastward, stationing troops in this pristine British territory was vital should Britain fall to the Nazis, who would turn their sights on the United States. Richards masterfully weaves together three powerful storylines in TRIANGLE OF TREASON while blurring the lines between fact and fiction, giving readers a rare inside look at this momentous period in Bermuda’s rich history.
Spies, Secrets and Suspense: Go Behind Enemy Lines with a Former CIA Agent in the Summer’s Ultimate Beach Read “In Red Weather.” Daniel Cameron didn’t just see the world change through the lens of South East Asia. He had a hand in doing it as a CIA operative, gathering secrets, recruiting spies and planning one of the most audacious operations in the agency’s history. Now, the retired case officer is sharing never-heard-before stories in his very first memoir IN RED WEATHER, the story of how a Harvard educated kid from Brooklyn wound up in Vietnam, planning coups, sabotaging plots and saving thousands of lives by foiling the Vietcong’s effort to shoot down US planes. That particular operation, code named “Habrink,” is at the heart of Cameron’s book, a fast-paced, you-are-there thriller that will leave readers riveted from beginning to end. “There are some stories I cannot share, even today,” said Cameron, who, as an intelligence officer, had to submit the book to the CIA for review. “But there are many more I can, which I think readers will enjoy. Life as a spy was thrilling, more adventurous than expected. There were, of course, times of physical danger, but the overall experience riveting, irresistible, and rewarding, and I think that comes through in the book.
GATECRASHER:
How I Helped the Rich Become Famous and Ruin the World
By Ben Widdicombe
“A fascinating and punchy account… This eye-opening account of a moment when ‘being wealthy was becoming embraced as a sub-culture’ will delight pop culture enthusiasts.”—Publishers Weekly
“Witty and insightful … A sharp-eyed and disturbing chronicle.”—Kirkus Reviews
A sharply funny memoir that will satisfy every gossip-lover’s itching questions about what it’s really like to mingle with the filthy rich and the inexplicably famous.
Have you ever caught yourself standing on line at the grocery store, discreetly craning your neck to catch a glimpse of the gossip rag headlines? Of course you have. You’re only human. But your secret glances will soon be a thing of the past, because Ben Widdicombe, society columnist extraordinaire, has arrived to be your in-depth guide into the dizzying heights of celebrity life with his sensational tell-all, Gatecrasher. No gossip-worthy venue will go unexplored—whether it be the Met Gala or Mar-a-Lago—and no high-flying family escapes his notice—be they Kardashians or Kochs.
Widdicombe’s Gatecrasher is not only a roaring good time, filled with every lurid, eye-popping detail you could hope for, but just look past that glitzy Instagram filter, and you’ll find plenty of harsh reality beneath its surface. Gatecrasher makes it all too clear that our fascination with star-studded human interest stories is no simple guilty pleasure. Widdicombe argues that our national obsession with the rich and famous has had lasting, far-reaching consequences. Could it be that our love of Paris Hilton was the beginning of a dotted line that led straight to the election of Donald Trump? “As the gossip pages go, so goes the country,” Widdicombe says, and he should know better than anybody. He is the only writer to possess one difficult-to-acquire distinction: the Triple-Crown of having worked for Page Six, TMZ, and The New York Times.
No other writer has slipped past more velvet ropes, dished on more juicy details, or brushed elbows with so many celebrities. If you want to gatecrash, this is your manual. If you want to make small talk with Anna Wintour or Henry Kissinger, this is your Bible. And if you want to see just how our country ended up where it is today? Well, this book can explain that, too. An endlessly comedic read that never skimps on detail or depth, Gatecrasher will be your next celebrity obsession and your go-to source for the last two decades of pop culture.
| Author Q & A | with Ben Widdicombe
Author of: Gatecrasher
Q: What’s the #1 reason you wanted to turn your experiences with the New York gossip scene into a book?
A: Gossip culture is garish fun, but I believe it is also a bellwether of the deeper currents in American public life. It anticipates mainstream culture and even political outcomes. This book is my attempt to outline that particular crackpot theory.
Q: Americans see so much gossip nowadays: on the newsstands, on Twitter, etc. Are there any preconceived notions about your industry you’d like to set right?
A: That gossip journalism can be done ethically, just like any other kind of journalism or profession.
Q: How did your background as an Australian immigrant factor into your early years on the job as you tried to climb the ranks?
A: I think it’s helpful to look at any culture from the perspective of being an outsider, because it highlights what elements are unique and distinctive to a particular time and place, and which others are just an expression of indelible human nature.
Q: What was the most surprising thing we should know about the lifestyles of the rich and famous?
A: That hanging out with them looks glamorous, but is mainly just stressful and expensive.
Q: Do you see a line between the American fascination with celebrity culture and the election of a reality star to the highest office?
A: It’s not so much a line as a power cord. Celebrity and democracy run on parallel tracks, since they are both popularity contests. Gossip culture is popular culture is mainstream culture, and in a democracy, mainstream culture determines political outcomes. In our modern era of decentralized media, with the new social norm that there is no such thing as too much personal publicity, there is much less separation between low culture and high office.
Q: If you could give one piece of advice to someone looking to start gatecrashing, what would you say is most important?
A: The three golden rules of gatecrashing are: dress the part, act like you belong, and always be ready to sail with the tide.
Q: You co-founded Chic Happens, the first online gossip column, which set the stage for Perez Hilton, Gawker, and so many others. How do you see the online gossip scene as having changed since you and Horacio Silva kick-started it all?
A: We were young enough to be among the very first to “get” the 1.0 internet, which was instinctive to us, and enabled us to be more nimble than legacy publications. However, we were old enough to exist before social media, which changed everything about gossip reporting, and completely washed away the blog generation. I’m grateful we found that niche, and were able to thrive in it.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like your readers to think about?
A: Fame will cost you your soul, but my book is only $27.
A shocking new book exposes secrets, lies and cover-ups behind the automotive industry’s biggest scandal. Killer Airbags: The Deadly Secret Automakers Don’t Want You to Know, by Jerry Cox, is an insider’s account of the downfall of the Japanese manufacturer Takata Corporation, which for years supplied defective airbags that have killed, seriously injured and maimed hundreds of drivers. The book, says consumer advocate Ralph Nader, has “all the ingredients for a movie . . . all the corruption, out of Central Casting, former Secretaries of Transportation, bankruptcy judges favoring corporations. It’s got it all.” Killer Airbags: the Deadly Secret Automakers Don’t Want You to Know (www.killerairbags.com) is available on Amazon and Lulu.
“This book is a warning to Americans who own or drive any of the 70 million cars that were equipped with Takata airbags,” says author Cox, a veteran transportation safety expert who helped establish the federal requirement for airbags in passenger vehicles. “Killer Airbags explains how the Japanese supplier put its own profits ahead of human lives and manipulated the U.S. government’s watchdog agency for 20 years.”