Catch a Fallen Star

Catch a Fallen Star is an insider’s look at Hollywood, where hype often takes precedence over substance and careers rise and fall and rise again like pork bellies on the Commodities Market. This is the story of Layton Cross, a man who fails upward: a private look at the Belushi-like fast-paced life of an actor who achieved stardom after marrying a superstar. But his career unraveled as she outshone him. His downward spiral touches all bases: drugs, divorce, violence, megalomania. Cross’s career is dramatically chronicled, as he sinks from bad films to worse TV and an embarrassing stint in the theater--yet his fame and popularity steadily rise. We’re privy to all the sordid events: how Cross publicly slugged his first wife; how he drove his second wife to drink, divorce, and attempted murder; how his daughter suffers; and how the head of a movie studio cost Cross his return to glory. Lawrence Grobel has written books about Marlon Brando, John Huston, Al Pacino, and Robert Evans, and has interviewed stars for Playboy, Movieline, Premiere, and Rolling Stone, so he’s on familiar territory with this novel.