The Manhattan Beach Project

By: Peter Lefcourt

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Barely four years after winning an Oscar, Charlie has sunken into the ranks of Hollywood bottom-feeders. But one day at his weekly Debtors Anonymous meeting, he meets a mysterious ex-CIA agent who proposes to resuscitate Charlie's foundering career in the beyond-surreal world of reality TV.

Charlie puts his tap shoes on to sell a show about a ruthless Uzbek warlord and his family - "The Osbournes meets The Sopranos" - to a rogue division of ABC known as ABCD, whose mandate is to develop, under top secret cover, extreme reality TV shows to bolster the network's ratings.

When Warlord becomes a breakout hit, it not only sends one of America's largest entertainment conglomerates into full damage-control mode, but shifts the balance of power in Central Asia, proving that in show business, it's not over till the mouse sings.

©2005 Chiaroscuro Productions (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Peter Lefcourt does for Hollywood what Christopher Buckley does for Washington: stick pins in all the right places." (The New York Times)
"In this boisterous, laugh-out-loud spoof, Lefcourt manages to skewer every aspect of both Hollywood inanity and foreign-policy insanity." (Booklist)
"The heady, winning blend of sly satire and fast-paced storytelling makes for serious fun." (Publishers Weekly)