Waxman, Sharon

PERSONAL: Born in Cleveland, OH; married Claude Memmi (a businessman). Education: Oxford University, master's degree.

ADDRESSES: Home—Santa Monica, CA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, William Morrow & Company, 10 E. 53rd St., 7th Fl., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER: Journalist. Washington Post, Hollywood correspondent, 1995–2003; New York Times, Hollywood correspondent, 2003–. Previously worked as a stringer and freelancer. Appeared as herself in films Overnight, 2003, and The Golden Globes: Hollywood's Dirty Little Secret, 2003.

WRITINGS:

Rebels on the Backlot: Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered the Hollywood Studio System, William Morrow (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Sharon Waxman has used her experience as a Hollywood correspondent, first for the Washington Post and then for the New York Times, to write her first book, Rebels on the Backlot: Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered the Hollywood Studio System. In the book, the author examines six modern-day directors and how they managed to create their cinematic visions and earn success along the way. The directors she explores are David O. Russell, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, Spike Jonze, and David Fincher. Initially, Waxman had set out to write a book about why Hollywood produces such mediocre films, but changed her mind. "I realized that an exciting new group who aspired to make great movies … were emerging toward the end of the 1990s, and they were battling a corporate system, a Hollywood bought up by big corporations," Waxman told Joel Hirschhorn in an interview in Publishers Weekly. In an interview with Jeff Bercovici for Women's Wear Daily, the author noted, "I really write about these guys because I think their movies are going to last. When we look back in 30 years and say, 'Which are the movies that felt like that period of time, that felt like the Nineties,' I think theirs are going to be those movies."

Rebels on the Backlot traces the directors' careers and examines how some of their groundbreaking films were produced. In addition to detailing the actual shooting of some of the films, the author also delves into the films' financing and how the directors overcame the corporate Hollywood system early in their careers and then how some eventually joined it. The book also includes personal details on the directors' lives, loves, and habits. In addition to Tarrentino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Waxman discusses movies such as Soderbergh's highly acclaimed film sex, lies, and videotape, Russell's Spanking the Monkey and Three Kings, Jonzes's Being John Malkovich, Anderson's Boogie Nights, and Fincher's Fight Club.

Writing in Variety, Wendy Smith commented: "Want to know which hot young director prefers which recreational drug? Which one bathes and changes his clothes so infrequently that he smells bad? Which one hates his mother? New York Times Hollywood correspondent Sharon Waxman zestfully provides the answers in her enjoyably dishy book." In a review in Entertainment Weekly, Benjamin Svetkey noted that the book contains "riveting tales of Hollywood hubris." A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that the directors profiled "possess a daring vision, which the author skillfully depicts, simultaneously offering an illuminating view of motion picture politics." Another contributor writing in Kirkus Reviews commented that "Waxman's grasp of the interior of the studio world, and her ability to make the workings of closed-door deals comprehensible, raise her work from text book to something truly absorbing." In his review for the Hollywood Reporter, Gregory McNamee called Rebels on the Backlot "a candid, critical look at some of the young directors who stormed the gates of the major studios and brought about an unexpected renaissance in the late 1990s."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 1, 2005, Gordon Flagg, review of Rebels on the Backlot: Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered the Hollywood Studio System, p. 928.

Daily Variety, October 27, 2003, Gabriel Snyder, "N.Y. Times Taps Waxman to Cover H'wood Beat," p. 3.

Entertainment Weekly, January 28, 2005, Benjamin Svetkey, review of Rebels on the Backlot, p. 88.

Hollywood Reporter, February 1, 2005, Gregory McNamee, review of Rebels on the Backlot, p. 21.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2004, review of Rebels on the Backlot, p. 1195.

Library Journal, February 15, 2005, Stephen Rees, review of Rebels on the Backlot, p. 134.

Publishers Weekly, January 24, 2005, review of Rebels on the Backlot, p. 233; January 24, 2005, Joel Hirschhorn, "Who Needs Film School, Anyway?," interview with author, p. 230.

Variety, January 31, 2005, Wendy Smith, review of Rebels on the Backlot, p. 57.

Women's Wear Daily, February 4, 2005, Jeff Bercovici, "Waxing Rebellious," interview with author, p. 16.

ONLINE

Felixsalmon.com, http://www.felixsalmon.com/ (December 31, 2003), "Sharon Waxman Shames the New York Times."

Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/ (March 26, 2005).

LA Observed Online, http://www.laobserved.com/ (February 3, 2005), Via Romenesko, "Sharon Waxman's Roots."

Media Bistro, http://www.mediabistro.com/ (March 9, 2005), Jill Singer, "The New York Times' Hollywood Reporter on Her New Book, Her Career History, and Navigating Her New Audience."