THE
GOOD, THE BAD AND THE CLINT
THERE ARE PRESS RELEASES, AND THERE ARE HOT PRESS RELEASES--BULLETINS
THAT SHAKE YOU UP AND MAKE YOU WANT TO READ THEM THROUGH, RIGHT UP
TO THE END. THIS RELEASE, FROM ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, CERTAINLY MAKES
ME WANT TO READ "CLINT, THE LIFE AND LEGEND," COMING SOON TO A BOOKSTORE
NEAR YOU.
Clint Facts from
CLINT, The Life and Legend by Patrick McGilligan
CLINT, The Life and Legend by Patrick McGilligan is the first biography
to penetrate the secretive world of a man whose name is the best-known
around the world of any movie star's. Among its revelations:
* CLINT THE WOMANIZER
Clint started having children out of wedlock long before getting to
Hollywood, and his first such indiscretion is perhaps the Rosebud
of his psychology. Once he became a star, he maintained a secret "double
life" away from the press, which was kept dazzled by his nice-guy,
all-American publicity. During the run of the Top Ten-rated television
series Rawhide, Clint actually shuttled between two "homes" some nights-with
a second family kept hidden from the public (and his wife). The "loner"
image was just that, a blind for nights out partying with the guys.
He has fathered at least seven children by five different women-four
of them out of wedlock, and McGilligan gets the lowdown straight from
the mouths of ex-lovers.
* CLINT THE OPERATOR
From the earliest in his career, Clint kept a tight control on his
own image. When Clint's first publicists found their hands full keeping
his unwholesome side out of print, they got fired. His first business
agent was a smooth operator who kept double books to conceal Clint's
bad habits. His first lawyer later became the head of Warner Bros.
and wrote Clint's sweetheart contract with the studio that has lasted
for thirty years. He routinely seduced journalists and critics (literally
as well as metaphorically), the prime example being his now-wife Dina
Ruiz.
* CLINT THE HOTHEAD
All the publicity says that off-screen, Clint is a soft-spoken, sweet-hearted
guy. Wrong: He plays Dirty Harry so well, because he is, beneath the
skin, Dirty Harry incarnate. When he loses his temper, watch out:
he throws punches, wrecks rooms, and bulldozes cars that have taken
his parking spaces. One of Hollywood's top legal firms has been on
retainer for forty years to defend him. Clint, The Life and Legend
also reveals sealed transcripts and records from Clint's frequent
lawsuits that have mown down writers, mistresses and other innocents.
* CLINT THE CORPORATION
Malpaso, Clint's company, is legendary as a Mom-and-Pop operation
that facilitates Clint's personal style of film production, but McGilligan
reveals that Malpaso is really much more a vanity faALade run by Warners.
Drawing on interviews with former staff, writers, and producers, Clint,
The Life and Legend paints a picture of a defensive-paranoid office
that exists mainly to shuffle communications, provide a bachelor pad
away from home for the star-boss, and run intensive museum and critic
campaigns to collect artistic honors for Clint.
* CLINT THE POLITICAL CONSCIENCE
McGilligan reveals the extent to which Clint's stint as Mayor of Carmel
in the 1980s was a Warners charade, right down to studio checks issued
to staff and campaign workers. Although Clint presents himself as
a libertarian, he's been a Nixon, Reagan, Bush (and recently G. W.
Bush) Republican all the way. Actually, he's more of a dilettante,
and was busy in Carmel, as Mayor, developing another one of his secret
families, complete with out of wedlock children.
* CLINT THE FILM ARTIST
Through the years, Clint has made some classic films. McGilligan definitively
chronicles his body of work: from the earliest Universal flops to
the breakthrough "spaghetti" Westerns right up through the multiple-Oscar-winning
Unforgiven and his most recent films. How and why the films got made
is often very different from the studio publicity (in the case of
Unforgiven, shockingly different). Readers who wonder things like
why Eastwood favors "grainy" lighting (to hide his own increasingly
craggy face) will get their fill of the behind-the-camera Clint. Interviews
with cast members, writers, directors and producers reveal an "artist"
very different from the publicity and legend.
* * * * * * * * * *
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