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Bancroft Press in the MediA
Publishers Weekly Highlights Gossip King's First
Novel
Hot Deals by John F. Baker -- May 31, 1999
KING OF GOSSIP
The name of Mike Walker can mean several things. For one,
he is the gossip columnist for the National Enquirer (which
is much less downmarket than it used to be, and its supermarket
tabloid brethren still are). He appears every Friday on Howard
Stern's popular radio and TV talk show. He was the collaborator
on two bestselling O.J. Simpson books at the height of that
craze: Faye Resnick's on Nicole Brown Simpson and one by an
O.J. juror. Meanwhile, MGM-TV is launching a new nationally
syndicated show, The National Enquirer with Mike Walker, in
the fall. Now Walker is turning his talents to fiction: Malicious
Intent: A Hollywood Fable will appear in October from small
but enterprising Bancroft Press in Baltimore, which specializes
in books by journalists. Sold by Walker's agent, Caron K,
the book is a gossipy saga about a sexy Jackie Collins-style
actress, told with a great deal of inside savvy. It's also
to be a Literary Guild selection for October. Bancroft is
distributed by National Book Network.
Walker offers $500 for contest
winner
Mike Walker, the National Enquirer's gossip
guru who's seen daily on a nationally syndicated TV show he
helped bring to the air this fall -- "National Enquirer
TV" (MGM TV -- Bogorad/Wyler Productions) -- is now out
with a book, a sizzling, scary (but funny) portrait of Tinseltown,
seen through the eyes of a tabloid gossip columnist and a
sexy, dangerous star named Charmain Burns. The ever hardworking
Walker, who appears each Friday on Howard Stern's radio show
playing "the Mike Walker Gossip Game," can be seen
every weekend these days, inspecting LA bookstores, gathering
sales info, and signing copies of "Malicious Intent:
A Hollywood Fable," which launched October 15. Mike has
pledged $500 from his own pocket for the best letter (or e-mail)
that says which real-life TV/movie star (or stars) inspired
the creation of his fictional heroine -- and how readers figured
it out.
H'wood at its most vicious
New York Post, Wednesday, October 13, 1999
Post Columnist Cindy Adams Asks Good Questions About Walker's
New Novel
The Enquirer's Mike Walker is hustling his
first novel, "Malicious Intent: A Hollywood Fable."
Bancroft Press. Story of an actress hiring a thug to beat
up a tabloid reporter. Hey, they could beat me, they could
kill me, I would never suggest this "fantasy" is
littered with real-life characters.
Like the lead. Charmain Burns, bad-girl star of TV's "BevHills
High." Some dumb stupid imbecilic dolt of an idiot could
maybe possibly remotely liken that to "Beverly Hills
90210's" Tori Spelling. And the "Larry
Buckley, mega-successful TV producer character who created
BevHills High"? Some knocked-out wacked-out zapped-out
zombie could conceivably think Aaron Spelling.
I, naturally, do not even partially share this sick view.
The crazy screaming in-your-face producer? Folks with a death
wish might guess Joel Silver of "Die
Hard," "Lethal Weapon" and TV's new action
thing "Action." Me, not. Me, this idea would never
even occur to me.
Butch singer Bonnie Farr who introduces the heroine to her
gay underground. k.d. lang? The Cindy Frye
who flashes on her show? Daytime TV watchers can have a shot
at that one.
All I know is, despite my excellent English, author Walker
seemed not to understand anything I was saying.
The book is Hollywood at its most vicious (which is redundant,
of course) and it's out this week. |
