Inside Inside

by James Lipton

Overview

Over the years, Inside the Actors Studio has brought more than 200 of the world’s most celebrated actors, directors, writers and performing artists into 84,000,000 homes in America and 125 countries around the world. Now James Lipton—its host and creator—is offering the reader of this book a backstage pass to the award-winning series—and to his own amazing journey to its stage.
 
You will witness, in unprecedented close-up, the wit, wisdom and candor of a galaxy of stars, from Al Pacino, Barbra Streisand, Robin Williams and Steven Spielberg to Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp and many more. With the same candor he demands of his guests, James Lipton also reveals a life that began under the tutelage of a poet, his father, and a teacher, his mother; continued in the orbit of theatrical giants like Stella Adler; and, as writer and producer, took him to the White House with two presidents, the Great Wall of China with Bob Hope, and legendary days and nights in New York, London, and Paris with “the heroes of his life” and ours. This book is a sincere and passionate celebration of the arts and artists we admire—and thought we knew until this moment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101211991
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/18/2007
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	512
File size:	912 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

James Lipton is the creator, executive producer, writer, and host of Inside the Actors Studio, which is seen in 89 million homes in America on the Bravo network, and in 125 countries, and has received 14 Emmy nominations. He is the author of the novel Mirrors, which he then adapted and produced for the screen. He is also the author of the American literary perennial An Exaltation of Larks, and has written the book and lyrics of two Broadway musicals. His television productions include Jimmy Carter’s Inaugural Gala, the first presidential concert ever televised; 12 Bob Hope birthday specials, reaching record-breaking audiences; and The Road to China, the first American entertainment program from the People’s Republic. He is a vice president of the Actors Studio, is the founder and dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University, has received three honorary PhDs, is a recipient of France’s Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Emmy by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

What People are Saying About This

Gay Talese

"James Lipton brings to us a very considered intelligence and a discerning appreciation of our leading artists in theater and film."--(Gay Talese, author of The Kingdom and the Power and Honor Thy Father)

John Travolta

Once in a blue moon a person comes along whose genuine interest in craft excites an artist, and rekindles his own interest in his craft. In these pages you'll find out how James Lipton does it.

Lee Grant

"Jim Lipton writes the way he talks,-with fluency and passion. His own story is as startling and revealing as his interviews are. We at the Actors Studio treasure him."--(Oscar-winning actress Lee Grant)

Martin Bregman

"I don't know anyone more qualified than Jim Lipton to write a book about actors and their work processes. I consider this book the most comprehensive look into the lives and thoughts of the gifted people that Jim has interviewed. It's wonderful."

Martin Landau

"Every page brings forth revelations, experiences and moments that James Lipton has encountered and embraced, that could not possibly have happened in one single life, but most certainly did and continues to. He has interviewed a virtual Who's Who in theater, film and entertainment over the past decade and sprinkles the book with incisive gems from the mouths of these special people. It's a wonderful book, a joyful read and I highly recommend it!"

Sidney Lumet

"A wonderful book . . . Lipton knows an awful lot about acting and all of it is in this book. Interesting, original, valuable."

Paul Newman

Great, colorful stories about every side of show business. James Lipton lets it all go; his openness about himself, and artists of all stripes, is refreshing.

Billy Crystal

If you have watched the show, you'll love this book... If you haven't seen the show, you'll love this book.

Anthony Hopkins

"James Lipton is the most penetrating and compassionate interviewer I've ever known, but, more importantly, a terrific guy."

Bruce Lundvall

"James Lipton is our cultural insider for all seasons. As an actor, director, playwright, author, host, and friendly provocateur, he has seen it all and indeed lived it all!"--(Bruce Lundvall, President and CEO, Blue Note Label Group)

Editorial Reviews

The second "Inside" in the title belongs to Inside the Actor's Studio, the Bravo TV interview show where author James Lipton serves as executive producer, writer, and host. In Inside Inside, Lipton (who also created the show and is founder and dean of the Actors Studio Drama School) leads us on a tour of the show's star-studded 13-year history, complete with snippets from interviews with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, and Sean Penn. Like his show, Lipton's memoir is a joyful addiction.

When the Actors Studio faced possible extinction in 1994, Lipton (An Exaltation of Larks) engineered a partnership between the Studio and the New School for Social Research to create a degree-granting program. Thus was born the Actors Studio Drama School, with Lipton as both founder and dean. The school's craft seminars, in which Lipton interviewed leading actors and directors, became the basis for Bravo's Inside the Actors Studio, and since 1994, he has been that series' executive producer, writer and host. Looking back over the show's parade of personalities, he intercuts autobiographical flashbacks with quotes from the TV interview transcripts. These brief selections, excerpted from his sessions with Tom Hanks, Anthony Hopkins, Jack Lemmon, Mike Nichols, Sean Penn, Julia Roberts, Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep and many more, may leave some readers wishing Lipton had published the transcripts in full. Raising the curtain on his own memories, he traces the path of his multifaceted career as radio actor (The Lone Ranger), TV actor (The Guiding Light), Broadway lyricist (Sherry!) and novelist (Mirrors). Along the way, theatrical truths emerge and amusing anecdotes abound since Lipton is a witty and engaging writer. The free-associative transitions from interviews to autobiography occasionally read like two different books shuffled together, but that only makes this exaltation of Lipton doubly enjoyable. The 48 illustrations include Al Hirschfeld's caricature of Lipton. (Oct. 18)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly

Any thespian worth his gestalt knows that Lipton has been living an enviably charmed professional life. As an actor, he studied with guru Stella Adler, played the Lone Ranger's young nephew on radio's iconic 1940s The Lone Ranger, was directed by Harold Clurman (and then Lillian Hellman) on Broadway, and had a decadelong gig on soap opera Guiding Light. His writing credits include Broadway shows, a novel, and the now classic etymological An Exaltation of Larks. But it is his commanding and ongoing (since 1994) role as producer, writer, and host of Bravo's Inside the Actors Studiofor which he is most widely known and venerated. The protean Lipton, exhibiting the dexterity with which he has combined his lifelong creative endeavors, seamlessly weaves all these artistic pursuits and more into his autobiography. The anecdotes from the fine actors who have appeared on Inside the Actors Studioand the manifold insights into the craftsmanship of acting together justify the purchase of this exemplary book. An unqualified hit among this season's theatrical offerings and a necessary purchase for all performing arts collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ6/1/07.]
—Barry X. Miller

Library Journal

The creator and host of Inside the Actors Studio summarizes his multifaceted career (writer, actor, dancer, academic dean-and more) and rehearses his favorite moments from his award-winning TV show. Lipton begins with some background on the Actors Studio (born in 1947) and the birth of his show in 1994, then outlines his autobiography. When the author was six, his poet father "disappeared one day, just vanished, was gone, without a prior hint or word of warning." His mother, a "proud and independent spirit," was forced to move with her young son back into her parents' house to stay afloat financially. After a brief discussion of his father's poetry and his own nascent literary aspirations, Lipton reviews his early archetypal struggles in the Big Apple and his gradual emergence as a writer and producer during the infancy of television. (And, he notes, he was into pilates way before the rest of us.) If Lipton is a bit fond of self-praise (Leonard Bernstein loved Lipton's book, An Exaltation of Larks; Lipton finessed James Dickey into revising a presentation), he does indeed have much to be proud of. In the longest (and at times, most tedious) portion of this otherwise fascinating memoir, Lipton offers a sort of textual equivalent of a TV highlight reel: Russell Crowe proved to be "an amiable guest, a knowledgeable teacher and a conscious craftsman"; Christopher Reeve remained articulate after his accident; Jennifer Lopez offered "an infusion of spine and guts"; Angelina Jolie possesses "guileless candor." And so on. In the sad conclusion, Lipton tells how and why the Actors Studio program recently left the New School and moved to Pace University. And what is Lipton's response to WillFerrell's famous impersonation of him on Saturday Night Live (which is alluded to throughout the book)? "Upset me! No one waited more eagerly for the next installment."A worthy-perhaps even enviable-life related with passion, certitude and considerable artistry.

Kirkus Reviews