Most people probably approached Isn't She Great looking for a screaming camp-fest, only to discover a surprisingly sincere love letter to trash-novelist Jacqueline Susann, author of Valley of the Dolls and Once Is Not Enough. Bette Midler plays the brash, self-obsessed Susann, who started as a struggling actress yearning for fame and not too picky about what she was famous for. Fortunately, she catches the eye of personal manager Irving Mansfield (Nathan Lane), who seems to have no particular skills either but who is so passionately devoted to his client that he marries her. It's Irving who first suggests that Susann write a book about the sordid lives of celebrities and beautiful people, and Irving who pushes the book to publisher after publisher with dogged devotion. The movie lurches a bit in Susann's early life--it wants to approach the difficulties of Susann's life (an autistic son, breast cancer) with a mixture of sentimentality and irreverence, which doesn't always mesh--but once Valley of the Dolls finds a publisher, the movie finds its legs. The ever-dependable David Hyde Pierce plays the uptight WASP assigned to edit Susann's manuscript, and much mileage is gotten out of the conflict between Pierce's blue-blood manner and Midler's broad Jewish glitz. John Cleese and Stockard Channing also provide able support. Paul Rudnick's script shows a genuine affection for its heroine; Rudnick also wrote the screenplays for Addams Family Values and In and Out. --Bret Fetzer
2.
From the very beginning, best-selling novelist Jacqueline Susann (Bette Midler) simply wanted her place in the spotlight. With no agent and no one calling for auditions, she scraped by with residuals from the occasional radio jingle, television commercial and game show appearance. Still, with every failure -and there were plenty — she remained undeterred in her quest for fame. A friend once told her that "talent wasn't everything," and for no person was this more true.
Manager and publicist Irving Mansfield (Nathan Lane) knew he was the one who could make Jackie's dreams come true. He also knew that he was in love with the flamboyant actress. It was a relationship made in show business heaven.
With Jackie's career going nowhere, and fast, Irving hit upon an idea. A crazy idea, but an idea which just might make Jacqueline Susann a household name. She would write a book. Never mind the fact that she had never written before. She would write about what she knew: the crazy, steamy lives of drug-addicted, sex-craved movie stars.
With her best friend Florence (Stockard Channing) by her side for inspiration and Irving at her side for advice, encouragement and deliveries of hot Pastrami, Jackie put pen to paper, with a passion that was all-consuming... and a vocabulary that would shock a sailor.
The result was Valley of the Dolls, an inside look at the high's and low's of showbiz as told by someone who had experienced it first-hand. According to Irving, it was "like Gone With The Wind, only filthy."
Finding a publisher was an entirely new challenge however, for Jackie had tackled a subject matter considered entirely too taboo for her time. Eventually, she landed a deal with the suave and debonair publisher Henry Marcus (John Cleese), whose keen sense told him that with a little help, she just might become the greatest storyteller of her generation. But first she would have to do some heavy convincing, for her ultra-WASP-y editor Michael Hastings (David Hyde Pierce) felt her book was "salicious, perverted, soft-core porn" and unfit to print. Jackie's eagerness to learn and a charm that was all her own eventually won him over, and the book was published.
Jacqueline Susann had invented a whole new way of writing books, and once she and Irving hit the road, the publishing world would never be the same. Embarking on a book tour from coast to coast, paying calls on regional booksellers and impressing Mom and Pop shops with her intimate knowledge of all their personal lives, Irving saw to it that everyone was clamoring to read Valley of the Dolls. Together, Jackie and Irving invented a whole new way of selling books.
Decked out in a fabulous Pucci wardrobe with her poodle Josephine in tow, Jackie' perseverance and audacious self-promotion helped make Valley of the Dolls one of the best-selling novels of all time.
Unfortunately, success came to Jackie late in life, and a diagnosis of breast cancer meant that fulfilling her dreams was a race against time. But her deteriorating health was no match for sheer determination and the unfaltering support of an adoring husband. She needed ten more years to achieve all she wanted, and Irving saw to it that she would indeed have it all.
3.
"It's A Party!" -NBC-TV
The hilarious Bette Midler stars in this outrageous comedy based on the life of Jacqueline Susann, an ambitious woman of dubious talent who writes Valley Of The Dolls, the sexy, best-selling novel that takes the world by storm. Jacqueline's irrepressible sense of humor, indomitable spirit and adoring husband Irving Mansfield (Nathan Lane) eventually rocket her from struggling starlet to international celebrity.
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