Film:
Sharp is a media-genic expert on Hollywood and Healthcare. Her print work moves easily to the screen and she’s often asked to appear on news shows, on television series and in film documentaries. Here are a few:
Moguls and Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood (TCM, 2011)
Executive produced by Bill Haber and his Tony Award-winning Ostar Productions, this ten-part series aired on Turner Classic Movies in 2011. Working with producer/writer John Wilkman, Sharp was one of the consultants and on-camera interviewees for this excellent series. Here’s a topic that continues to fascinate the world.
Reviewers’ praise:
Elegantly narrated by Christopher Plummer, “Moguls & Movie Stars: A History of Hollywood” is the cinematic equivalent of a coffee-table book – handsome…
— Daily Variety
Narrated with great flair and humor.. Moguls includes footage from classic films and rarely seen footage and photographs…ambitious…
— The Los Angeles Times
The Last Mogul (ThinkFilm 2005)
Directed by Barry Avrich and inspired by Sharp’s book about Lew Wasserman, the late, great chairman of Universal Studios, this film documentary won raves at several film festivals (including the prestigious Palm Springs Film Festival), before it was released in theaters. It featured interviews with Sharp, the consulting producer, and some of her sources including the late Dominick Dunne, David Brown, Jimmy Carter, Suzanne Pleshette and Helen Gurley Brown. Catch it on Bravo or Showtime.
Reviewers’ praise:
“The Last Mogul” is a smart, well-paced documentary that balances the man’s triumphs with his rare failures and discerningly explores the darker side of his power.
The Los Angeles Times
….(A) refreshingly honest film about the life and times of Hollywood uber-power player Lew Wasserman….biographer Kathleen Sharp participates here, offering insights into Wasserman’s durable and socially brilliant wife.
— Daily Variety
A&E’s American Justice: The Erin Brockovich Story
Based on Sharp’s very popular story for Salon.com (one of its top ten stories for 2001), this film version revolves around one idea: What got left out of the blockbuster movie Erin Brockovich was juicier and more accurate than what got put into it.
Sharp has also appeared on ABC News, KRON-TV 4 (San Francisco), KEYT-TV-3, and KING-TV among others. She has a great radio voice and has contributed to National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition.”
Other Books
Mr. & Mrs. Hollywood: Edie and Lew Wasserman and Their Entertainment Empire (Carroll & Graf, 2004)
Is the scintillating tale of how super-agent Lew Wasserman, captain of MCA’s stable of stars and champion of Universal’s blockbusters, and his politically shrewd wife, Edie, created Hollywood as we know it today. It includes stories of actors Jimmy Stewart, Barbara Stanwyck, and John Belushi; directors Billy Wilder, George Lucas and Alfred Hitchcock; industry leaders Roy Brewer, Jim Petrillo and Jack Valenti; and the politicos within the Kennedy, Reagan and the Clinton families, all of whom played roles in elevating Hollywood’s first conglomerate, Universal Studios.
Reviewers’ praise:
Dramatic and enthralling….Lavish and extravagant, gossipy, yet even-handed, maximizing a great story; Likely to become the standard text on the Wassermans.
— Kirkus Review (starred)
Entertaining…eye-opening…This isn’t just Lew Wasserman, the ‘king’ of Hollywood, but Edie, who mixed the drinks, gossiped with the stars and wives and was nothing less than vital.
—David Thomson
Author, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film
A must-read, a real-life ‘Access Hollywood’…..a brilliant and gripping study of Hollywood’s charming and corrupt First Couple.
— Clancy Sigal
Film critic and author of Going Away
In Good Faith: The Inside Story of Prudential-Bache’s Multibillion-Dollar Scandal that Defrauded Thousands of Investors and Fractured the Rock (St. Martin’s Press, 1995).
How did the largest non-bank company in the world at the time — The Rock — defraud a million investors of some $2 billion? And why does this type of story keep recurring in America? This report on sex, drugs, stocks & bonds was used by lawyers in their efforts to retrieve funds for their clients and hit the shelves just as 60 Minutes aired part of the story.
Reviewers’ praise:
The biggest — and sleaziest — scam of them all suggests you shouldn’t drop your guard… Sharp’s book also looks at… (why) eternal vigilance may also be the price of capitalism.
— The New York Times Book Review
This shocking expose is a complex tale of corporate greed…
— Publishers Weekly
Sharp’s book gives an overall view of the tragedy as it unfolds….chilling.
— The Wall Street Journal
Stalking the Beast: How Hollywood Super-Sized King Kong (2006).
Here’s a quick primer on the history of Hollywood as seen through the lenses of the three seminal King Kong movies. Inspired by a piece Sharp wrote for Playboy, it incorporates interviews with actors Jeff Bridges and Naomi Watts, producers Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson, screenwriters Philippa Boyens and Lorenzo Semple, and, most poignantly, the last interview given by the late Fay Wray.
Anthologies
True Thrills (Mira Books TBA).
This collection of narrative non-fiction suspense will include works by Ann Rule, Mark Bowden, Eileen Welsome, Douglas Preston, Stuart Woods and Sharp, among others.
Thrillers: 100 Must Reads (Oceanview Publishing) Hardcover July 2010.
Contributing alongside David Morrell, Gayle Lynds, John Lescroart, Melodie Johnson-Howe and many others, Sharp wrote a piece on the manic work of Edgar Wallace. hyperlink the title to
Experiencing Race, Class, and Gender in the United States (Rider University, 2009)Edited by Roberta Fiske-Rusciano.
Sports in America: Opposing Viewpoints (Greenhaven Press, 1994) Edited by William Dudley
