When I filmed “Stepford Wives,” Paula Prentiss said to me, “When I don’t like my wardrobe, I cut it up.” While I didn’t have the audacity of Paula Prentiss, I did want to cut out my outfit for a crucial party scene.

Then there was Tina Louise, who did her own hair and makeup. She took over a bedroom in a home in Westport, Conn., which the film company had rented. We were told, “Don’t go into the bedrooms,” but this didn’t stop Tina. She dismissed the hair and makeup team and won praise for being the most beautiful Stepford Wife. Tina Louise and Paula Prentiss had the balls to stand up for what they believed in.

Which brings to mind “Looper,” which stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who gives a stunning portrait of Joe Simon, a bag man. True, he has to play a younger version of Bruce Willis, but still:...

By her own admission, Alana Collins Hamilton Stewart was raised in abject poverty in Nacogdoches, Texas. The early pages of her new memoir, “Rearview Mirror,” are fascinating and touching, as one wonders how she could have escaped her roots to become the celebrity she is today.

Stewart grew up with a mother who was a drug addict at a home where an outhouse served as a bathroom. Once Alana was able to leave, and after a brief stint as a domestic airline hostess, she began modeling in New York City. Here she met playboy types who were looking for young, nubile and gullible flesh to exploit. And Alana was born beautiful. Her beauty could have been a...

Paul Alexander, author of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams: The Life, Times and Legend of James Dean" (Viking) and "Salinger: A Biography," which is about to be made into a documentary by Shane Salerno, has written a memorable novel about a showbiz family.

"Southern Gothic" is a brilliant study of an alcoholic family in the throes of the disease. Alexander’s description of protagonist Carson Greer is on the money: "Carson wore a black sheath dress, black Ferragamo flats, a single strand of white cultured pearls.”

Carson’s mother, Evelyn Greer, is the Oscar-winning actress, Greer Garson. Their home is described so that you know them before meeting them. “Between the two sofas stood a black Steinway baby grand piano, centered in the room near the windows. With its lid closed, the piano was home to a glittering...

In his new book, "Dennis Hopper: The Wild Ride of a Hollywood Rebel," author Peter Winkler writes that during his childhood Dennis Hopper's love of the arts stemmed from staring at the flat horizon in Kansas.

Hopper's first wife, Brooke Hayward. recalls, "His mother was a nightmare. She talked endlessly. You couldn't stop her." In 2004 CBS reported, "Dennis' mother was wild, very emotional, a screamer and a yeller."

“I had total sexual fantasies about my mother," Hopper said. These fantasies remained fantasies.

"Hopper viewed anything less than unconditional love and total compliance with part of his wishes as a continuous pattern of betrayal by women that began with his conflict with his mother," Winkler writes. "He tended to view women as servile sex objects."

Reporter Brad...