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Screenwriter Paul Rudnick penned the

current biopic on Jacqueline Susann.

Isn't He Great

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—

I SI. mcial

to the Jewish News

I

•

f the 1960s marked the start of
today's cult of celebrity, Jacqueline
Susann was its high priestess, says
writer Paul Rudnick.
"Jackie wanted to be famous at
5
somethinc, and she didn't care what, "
says Rudnick, who has written the
screenplay for Isn't She Great, the
Andrew Bergman comedy-drama loose-
ly based on the life of the late Susann.
"Jackie tried acting, product-pitch-
ing, talk shows. She did everything
before becoming a novelist, which was
just what happened to work."
Susann, who in the film is por-
trayed by Bette Midler, was
the Jewish author who
turned the staid

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SINCE 1920

THE TRADITION CONTINLES

Screenwriter
Paul Rudnick:
There was a
feeling about
Susann that she
was "too brash,
too colorful,
too Jewish.'

publishing world on its ear with her
hugely-successful, trashy, sexy potboil-
ers — Valley of the Dolls, The Love -
Machine and Once Is Not Enough.
Before attempting her first novel on
her hot-pink typewriter, the 40-some-
thing Susann, as played by Midler,
says she knows about "aging stars,
hopeful hookers and people popping
pills and winding up in the gutter ...
and nobody writes books about that."
Susann, however, did write books
about that: gritty tomes peopled by
drugged-out, back-stabbing starlets
determined to claw their way to the
top. Susann — with her spiky false
eyelashes, often garish and glittering
outfits and gravelly voice — also
clawed her way to the top. The
woman who believed "talent
isn't everything" hit the
road to promote
herself with book-
sellers and on TV
talk shows.
Along the way,
she forever changed
the way books are
promoted, and
paved the way
for other block-
buster, best-
selling authors.
Without
Susann,
Rudnick says,
there would have
been no Judith
Krantz, no Jackie
Collins or John
Grisham.
And,
Rudnick says,
Susann also helped
to make inroads for
Jewish authors in the
book biz. In the
'60s, the literary
world consisted
of well-edu-
cated, Ivy
League
WASPs and

Photo by Andy Schwartz

