The formula for Hollywood success has long baffled even its greatest visionaries. For every blockbuster there are countless flops. Directors, producers, and actors who achieve great success with one film often suffer abject humiliation on the next. Here, journalist and former studio executive Bart reveals the backlot secrets behind the biggest hits and misses in film, television, and theater: how some projects with the biggest stars and budgets turned out to be bombs, and how unknowns overcame great adversity to make entertainment history. In so doing, Bart tells the history of pop culture itself. Bart offers his signature straight-shooting analysis of the silk purses and the sows' ears of the entertainment world. --From publisher description.