Charlotte is a natural horseperson, and now she has the chance to try out for the Junior Olympic Equestrian Squad! But the academy head already disapproves of her, and Charlotte's roommates aren't above playing dirty tricks to get ahead. Then Charlotte meets the horse she'll be riding in the try-outs . . . Leila is a movie star horse with a diva...
Charlotte is a natural horseperson, and now she has the chance to try out for the Junior Olympic Equestrian Squad! But the academy head already disapproves of her, and Charlotte's roommates aren't above playing dirty tricks to get ahead. Then Charlotte meets the horse she'll be riding in the try-outs... Leila is a movie star horse with a diva attitude. But Leila gets the shock of her life when she's kidnapped and ends up at a girls' riding academy in Australia. Her only way back to Hollywood is to reveal her big secret to her rider -- yes, Leila can talk. Can the two work together to achieve their dreams? Will Charlotte gain a place in the squad, or is running away her only option? And will Leila find her way back to her beloved film set?
The third book of the hilarious misadventures of an outback girl and a Hollywood horse. When Thornton Downs academy is sued by one of the Evil Three, there is only one solution: Leila must return to her beloved Hollywood and make a movie to save the academy. Luckily, Charlotte gets to tag along. But Hollywood has its own problems – snobby stars, superstitious writers, disgruntled employees and the lure of glamorous parties to tempt Leila away from the job at hand. Filming grinds to a stand still when Leila’s co-star, Sarah-Jane, is kidnapped. Charlotte, with the help of Todd, Leila and Feathers, needs to undercover who is jeopardising the film and why, before it is cancelled and the academy is shut down.
When a big Hollywood movie studio comes to New Orleans and wants to use Bitsy Duhe's gorgeous Victorian house for a shoot, Bitsy consents--as long as Charlotte La Rue, owner of Maid for a Day, agrees to take care of her beloved home during filming. . . Soon Charlotte meets the cast and crew, including Hollywood ingénue Angel Martinique. The movie seems to be going well--until a body is found dead in Angel's dressing room, a bloody letter opener just a few feet away. To Charlotte, there's no shortage of suspects. But when the police zero in on Angel, Charlotte does a little digging into Angel's past, and comes up with a bit more dirt than she bargained for--enough to put her in the crosshairs of danger if she doesn't watch her step. . . "Leaves the reader wanting more." --Romantic Times "This cozy series gets better with each book." --Library Journal
Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003) brings two Americans together in Tokyo, each experiencing a personal crisis. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), a recent graduate in philosophy, faces an uncertain professional future, while Bob Harris (Bill Murray), an established celebrity, questions his choices at midlife. Both are distant - emotionally and spatially - from their spouses. They are lost until they develop an intimate connection. In the film's poignant, famously ambiguous closing scene, they find each other, only to separate. In this close look at the multi-award-winning film, Suzanne Ferriss mirrors Lost in Translation's structuring device of travel: her analysis takes the form of a trip, from planning to departure. She details the complexities of filming (a 27-day shoot with no permits in Tokyo), explores Coppola's allusions to fine art, subtle colour palette and use of music over words, and examines the characters' experiences of the Park Hyatt Tokyo and excursions outside, together and alone. She also re-evaluates the film in relation to Coppola's other features, as the product of an established director with a distinctive cinematic signature: 'Coppolism'. Fundamentally, Ferriss argues that Lost in Translation is not only a cinema classic, but classic Coppola too.
In a Freakonomics meets Hollywood saga, veteran investigative reporter Edward Jay Epstein goes undercover to explore Hollywood’s “invisible money machine,” probing the dazzlingly complicated finances behind the hits and the flops, while he answers the surprisingly puzzling question: How do the studios make their money? Along the way we also learn much about star system and what makes the business tick: + What it costs to insure Nicole Kidman’s right knee ... + How and why the studios harvest silver from old film prints ... + Why stars do—or don’t do—their own stunts ... + Why Arnold Schwarzenegger is considered a contract genius ... + How Hollywood goes about doping outside investors and hedge fund managers ... + Why Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is considered a “masterpiece” of financing ...
