The Second Assistant - Softcover

Hare, Mimi; Naylor, Clare

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330420070 ISBN 13: 9780330420075

Publisher: Pan MacMillan, 2004

Synopsis

When you hit the lobby of the Hollywood's premier talent management company, The Agency, with its polished marble floor and a light so brilliant flooding through the vast windows that you reach for your Gucci sunglasses (before you remember they are last season's, and put them back swiftly), you realise that you are, arguably, in the most important place in Hollywood. And if you take a job there as second assistant, your life will never be the same again. So it is for Elizabeth, newly employed by Hollywood manager extraordinaire, Scott Wagner, and his side-kick, Lara, the woman who hates everyone and everything in Hollywood . . . Elizabeth's first task is to separate the beige thumb tacks from the coloured ones on the notice board. And when Lara takes her out for her drink that night and gives her the first rule, Never to Date anyone in the Business, she thinks it'll be a doddle. Until the most gorgeous man rescues her after a fall, and she finds herself in a beautiful Malibu beach house . . . Hilarious, sassy and utterly unputdownable, this is life in the Hollywood fast lane - with the top down.

About this title

Review:

If contemporary fiction has one thing to teach us, it's that working for the rich and glamorous is a living hell. This simple truth has already been revealed by such books as The Nanny Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada, but for those who feel that the message bears repeating, Clare Naylor and Mimi Hare's The Second Assistant: Tales from the Bottom of the Hollywood Ladder offers yet another enjoyable (though fairly forgettable) lesson.

The heroine of this gossipy tale is Elizabeth Miller, a young, former campaign worker for a US congressman who finds herself between employment opportunities. Unable to obtain any more socially responsible work, Lizzie is lured into the job of second assistant to an executive at a glitzy Hollywood agency. Once there, she's hit with all the "pick-up my dry cleaning," "walk my dog," "hire strippers for my party" torment that the higher-ups can dish out. At first Elizabeth is isolated, out-of-place, and underdressed in her new world, but she makes friends, builds her wardrobe, and eventually grows to care for her menial job, her Ritalin-snorting boss, and the entertainment industry in general. Finally, she reaches the conclusion that thousands of other Californians have before her: what she really wants to do is produce. At times, Lizzie seems far too naïve to survive long in the shark-infested waters that the authors describe, but there can be only one kind of ending to such a light-hearted book, so we know she will somehow muddle through. Hare (who was once a Hollywood executive herself) and Naylor throw in a dreamy guy and a few plot twists that most readers could see coming from space, stir, and serve. Of course, a little frivolity is not a bad thing, and The Second Assistant is certainly an entertaining addition the new underling subgenre of modern fiction. --Leah Weathersby

About the Author:

Clare Naylor was an editorial assistant in a London publishing house, and is the author of several novels including LOVE: A USER'S GUIDE and CATCHING ALICE (Hodder Headline). This is her first joint novel with Mimi Hare, who was Director of Development on JERRY MAGUIRE and AS GOOD AS IT GETS at a Los Angeles production company. They are also co-authors of THE ACCIDENTAL HUSBAND, a film set to star Uma Thurman in Summer 2004.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pan MacMillan
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0330420070
• ISBN 13: 9780330420075
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448