By Lubna Abdel-Aziz Living in Hollywood may be hazardous to your health! In fact, it can be downright fatal. Behind the glamour and glitz, the fame and fortune, lurks a dark side to tinseltown, filled with corruption, conspiracy, passion and greed -- even murder and death. Though not too proud of this seedy side, Hollywood still finds it irresistible. Every now and then it dips into its repertoire of horror stories for further exploitation on the silver screen. Many are lost in the shuffle, some evolve into cinematic classics like Chinatown and LA Confidential. This fall season it has pulled out not one, but two skeletons from its closet, that continue to shock and shame the Hollywood community. The first bloody thriller Hollywoodland stars Ben Affleck as George Reeves who starred in the successful 1950s series The Adventures of Superman. Before there was Christopher Reeve, or Brendan Routh, there was George Reeves, the most famous red-cloaked Krypton of his time. Following the cancellation of his show, George was frustrated and despondent for being a painfully type-cast, unemployed actor. He attaches himself to the beautiful Tony Mannix (Diane Lane) rich, flamboyant, powerful, and wife to the tough scary MGM Studio boss Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins). Their open affair was the tittle-tattle of tinseltown. One fine 1 July, 1959, 45 year old George Reeves was found dead in his home of a gunshot wound. Though his death was officially declared a suicide, many believe he was murdered by the scorned husband. Oscar winner Adrien Brody ( The Pianist ) plays private investigator Louis Simo, hired by Reeves's mother to seek the truth behind her son's death. Hollywoodland is the first feature film effort for TV director Allen Coulter ( Sopranos ). It has received critical praise at the Venice Film Festival (30 Aug-9 Sep), garnering a Golden Lion award for Best Actor for Ben Affleck. Though an Oscar winner for co-writing Good Will Hunting (1997), Affleck's acting to date, has never been praiseworthy. This effort should be worth seeing. Diane Lane is always worth seeing, so is the rest of the cast of Hollywoodland 's unsolved murder. Director Brian de Palma ( Dressed to Kill, Scarface ) has always been considered heir apparent to the legendary Alfred Hitchcock. He returns with another grisly Hollywood murder that remains unresolved for over half a century. On 15 January, 1947, the mutilated body of 22 year-old Elizabeth Short was discovered on a vacant lot in Hollywood. A fledgling starlet, Elizabeth's body was bisected in two; the shocking images were kept from a horrified public. Theories abound as to the hows and whys, but her murder remains a mystery. Many prominent Hollywood figures were suspect, including folk singer, Woody Guthrie, and Hollywood genius, Orson Welles. The gruesome mystery inspired numerous books, articles, novels, feature films, and TV productions. The recent film adaptation, also an official entry at the Venice Film Festival is based on the book by James Elroy The Black Dahlia. It weaves a fictionalised tale of obsession, love, corruption, greed, depravity, all the stuff that Hollywood is made of. The film boasts a stellar cast -- Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart, two boxers turned policemen, Scarlett Johannson, the woman who loves them both. Mia Kirshner portrays Elizabeth Short, and two-time Oscar winner Hillary Swank, the enigmatic Madeleine Linscott, daughter of a prominent family, who amuses herself by dressing as the Black Dahlia! Short received the nickname the Black Dahlia after her death. It was invented by the newspaper reporters covering the crime, probably inspired by a then popular Alan Ladd/Veronica Lake movie, The Blue Dahlia. The art of film mesmerised the children of the 20th century. In a dark and silent theatre, they forgot their troublesome mundane lives and identified with the divine creatures, shining brightly in the silvery light of a magical screen. Because many of these films were made in Hollywood, it became a generic name for the home of all films, regardless of their place of origin. Its very quintessence captured our imagination transforming Hollywood into that mystical land of affluence, romance, glamour, as well as sex and scandal, mystery and murder. Behind the glossy façade, Hollywood is a scary town, run by ruthless, cold- blooded cut-throats with little mercy, less intelligence, and no heart. Those two recent screen interpretations only skim the surface of the deep labyrinth of real-life Hollywood machinations. Whatever happened to the sex goddess of the century? How did Marilyn Monroe die? Why was she lying naked, face down, clutching a telephone? Was President Kennedy involved? Was his brother? Was it suicide? Murder? An error? An overdose? The debate continues 40 years after her death in 1964. She was 36. Rumours still abound over the mysterious death of another Hollywood belle, 42 year-old Natalie Wood, who was found floating face down, 200 yards from her yacht, Splendour, off the coast of California in 1981. What about actor Robert Blake's wife? Blake returned to his car to find his wife shot in the head. Blake was acquitted, so "who dunit?" Since 1922, the mystery death of director William Desmond Taylor, shot by an unknown, remains unsolved. So is that of Hollywood producer William Ince, who dropped dead on William Randolph Hearst's yacht, Oneida. Though officially ruled an accident, suspicious theories have been circulating for the last 70 years. With so much pampering and attention, spoiled Hollywoodians are prone to excesses, among them alcohol and drugs. Drug-related deaths have become common, such as that of comedian John Belushi, rising star River Phoenix, and on and on, and we still do not know if O J Simpson killed wife Nicole? Or do we? Hollywood's captivating screen stories were matched by the juicy tales of the real town itself. "Everyone dreams of Hollywood." Every aspiring artist worldwide, actor, director, writer, producer, singer,dancer longs for the razzle dazzle of tinsel town and the fame and fortune that awaits them. There is also that remote chance that a mysterious destiny may well be part of the magical formula of life and death in Hollywoodland. Every country gets the circus it deserves... America gets Hollywood -- Author: Erica Jong (b. 1942)
