Author: Vickie Lester

Susannah Corwin is a screenwriter and novelist (under the pen name of “Vickie Lester”). She started her career as a production assistant after studying Film at an east coast university. Her first duties behind the scenes in Hollywood included locating actors who had wandered away from set for romantic assignations. One particularly memorable roundup involved chivying said actors back into the makeup trailer where she picked up a sponge to help reapply their fake tans as they were required onset faster than all hands could paint them. Susannah Corwin’s screenplays have been optioned by David Matalon, Alan Blomquist, A. Kitman Ho, and Kevin Spacey. Her first novel, “It’s In His Kiss”, a modern Hollywood Noir, was published May 2014. She writes the blog “Beguiling Hollywood” (vickielester.com) peeking into the glittering past of Tinseltown with the witty eye of an educated observer. Susannah is now writing her second novel, “You Don’t Own Me” about a Hollywood babysitter who rises to studio boss.

May 3, 2012 /

This week’s guest, a thirty-year veteran behind the scenes, offers a word of caution (actually several words). Mark ye well: In Hollywood it’s always the movement UP that is considered positive. “Climbing the ladder.” “The sky’s the limit.” “A rising star.” “It’s gone through the roof.” But, a warning on…

April 20, 2012 /

As the millennium was about to turn a high rolling actor, after two chaste dates with someone very near and dear to my heart, invited her back East to meet his parents. You know, a girl takes an invitation like that quite seriously. (Although, she might not have been the…

April 14, 2012 /

Hollywood scribes split. Team torn asunder, etc. Here’s the scoop: married fresh out of USC this pair of screenwriters turned their youth and acerbic wit into box office gold. That was thirty years ago. Well into their fifties their interests diverged, to a certain extent, they both had started to…

April 13, 2012 /

. These excerpts are from an amazing and comprehensive interview conducted by Film Critic Henry Sheehan with Vincente Minnelli – the link to his site is at the bottom of the page. Q. Another film I’d like to talk about is a very early one, Madame Bovary (1949). If some…