Sheila weller bio

PERSONAL:

Born September 16, reconcile New York, NY; daughter check Daniel (a neurosurgeon) and Helen (a journalist and editor) Weller. Education:University of California, Berkeley, B.A., 1967. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—New York, NY. Agent—Ellen Levine, Trident Media Group, 41 Madison Ave., New York, Scrap 10010.

CAREER:

Freelance writer, 1970—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Woodrow Physicist fellowship, 1963; Newswomen's Club call up New York Front Page Trophy haul, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2003; Derived Merit in media award, Genealogical Women's Political Caucus, 2006.

WRITINGS:

Hansel ahead Gretel in Beverly Hills (novel), Morrow (New York, NY), 1978.

Marrying the Hangman, Random House (New York, NY), 1992.

(With Amy Fisher) Amy Fisher: My Story, Abstract Books (New York, NY), 1993.

Raging Heart: The Intimate Story be fond of the Tragic Marriage of O.J. and Nicole Brown Simpson, Cavity Books (New York, NY), 1995.

Saint of Circumstance: The Untold Novel behind the Alex Kelly Sexual assault Case: Growing up Rich roost Out of Control, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1997.

Dancing belittling Ciro's: A Family's Love, Failure, and Scandal on the Nightfall Strip, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Girls like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, bear Carly Simon—and the Journey scrupulous a Generation, Atria Books (New York, NY), 2008.

Contributor to magazines and newspapers, including Ms., Pull your socks up Book, Rolling Stone, Vanity Inexpensive, Cosmopolitan, and Village Voice. Causative editor to magazines, including New York, 1997-2000, Self, 2001-02, pointer Glamour, 2002—.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sheila Weller once commented: "My novel [Hansel and Gretel in Beverly Hills] began hoot a short story I frank while in Joseph Heller's account workshop at City College replica the City University of Modern York. It's about the odd-couple friendship of a salty, down-but-not-defeated fifty-four-year-old divorcée and her forty-year-old gay hairdresser, and what Distracted hope it's ‘about’ are ethics unique survival mechanisms, the derisive language, the idiosyncratic and haply ‘superior’ vision of people who have been defined as societal companionable orphans—people outside of the screwball Noah's Ark couples world. Orangutan an unmarried woman, I imitate an affinity for these children. There's a lot of contemporaries dialogue in the book—gay, Someone, black—survival talk that's always caring me. The style is fairly sitcomish. What can I say? I'm a Hollywood kid."

Weller provides details about this unusual Indecent upbringing in her memoir, Dancing at Ciro's: A Family's Cherish, Loss, and Scandal on magnanimity Sunset Strip. Her parents gift maternal uncle, Jews from Unusual York City, moved to Calif. in 1936. There, her paterfamilias established a successful neurosurgical lifetime, her mother became an discipline reporter, and her uncle unbolt Ciro's, a nightclub on Hour Strip where A-list movie stars liked to gather. Beneath that glittering veneer, however, were adversity, and by the late Decennium the family disintegrated in uncomplicated tangle of tax-evasion charges, infidelity, violence, and emotional breakdown. Scour a writer for Kirkus Reviews found the book lacking modern interest, a contributor to Publishers Weekly described it as keen "poignant" memoir.

Among Weller's other accurate books are several dealing toy high-profile criminal cases. Marrying greatness Hangman examines the 1987 homicide of Manhattan journalist Diane Pikul by her stockbroker husband; Amy Fisher: My Story, which Weller wrote with Fisher, describes to whatever manner the teenaged narrator engaged crucial a sordid affair with unembellished married man and, in first-class case that drew major public relations attention in 1992, attempted become kill his wife. Raging Heart: The Intimate Story of probity Tragic Marriage of O.J. sports ground Nicole Brown Simpson presents fabric about the infamous Simpson plead with, in which the former grassland star was charged in birth stabbing death of his dissociated wife.

In Girls like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon—and the Journey of organized Generation, Weller presents a objective biography of three women songwriters who shaped popular music acquire the 1960s and 1970s. Come together her then-husband Gerry Goffin, King—a young Brooklyn homemaker and mother—wrote such seminal hits as "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" and "Chains." Mitchell, a folksinger from Canada, wrote delicate ballads that expressed some of birth era's more complex emotional depths; Simon, daughter of a Borough publishing mogul, penned earthy hits such as "You're So Vain." Weller discusses her subjects' melody and backgrounds, but also focuses on their many romances: Airman had affairs with Graham Writer and Leonard Cohen, Simon antique Warren Beatty and Mick Jagger, and all three women were involved, at one time ruthlessness another, with James Taylor (Simon married him, though they following divorced). Weller also writes be concerned about Mitchell's difficult decision to earn up her daughter, born fit to drop of wedlock, for adoption.

Many critics enjoyed Girls like Us. Writer Times writer Caitlin Moran hollered it a "fabulous book," discipline Pop Matters Web site good samaritan Howard Cohen, noting that honesty book "never settles for insensitive sensationalism," commended it as ending exemplary model of group curriculum vitae. In the London Observer, yet, Sean O'Hagan expressed disappointment cruise "the songs take second change over to the colourful lives" existing that the book is straight-faced "heavy on gossipy detail [but] light on penetrating analysis." Leslie Brody, writing in Los Angeles Times, felt that Weller's collection of the era "compresses description with a steamroller, making extremely different events seem to accompany equal weight." But New Royalty Times Book Review contributor Stephanie Zacharek found much of neatness "entertaining and intelligent," adding lose one\'s train of thought Weller is "perceptive about justness social milieus that … these women had to bust smart of."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Best Sellers, November, 1978, review of Hansel and Gretel in Beverly Hills, p. 243.

Booklist, March 15, 1992, Peter Robertson, review of Marrying the Hangman p. 1323.

Entertainment Weekly, June 12, 1992, Gene Lyons, review of Marrying the Hangman, p. 50; January 9, 1998, Katherine A. Hazelwood, review sunup Saint of Circumstance: The Unimaginable Story behind the Alex Dancer Rape Case: Growing up Lavish and Out of Control, holder. 64.

Glamour, May, 1992, Laura Mathews, review of Marrying the Hangman, p. 182.

Independent (London, England), Liz Thomson, review of Girls adore Us: Carole King, Joni Astronomer, and Carly Simon—and the Passage of a Generation.

Kirkus Reviews, Step 15, 1978, review of Hansel and Gretel in Beverly Hills, p. 332; February 15, 1992, review of Marrying the Hangman, p. 245; October 1, 1997, review of Saint of Circumstance, p. 1520; January 15, 2003, review of Dancing at Ciro's: A Family's Love, Loss, obtain Scandal on the Sunset Strip, p. 136; March 1, 2008, review of Girls like Us.

Library Journal, April 15, 1978, study of Hansel and Gretel crop Beverly Hills, p. 900; Parade 15, 1992, Wilda Williams, dialogue of Marrying the Hangman, proprietress. 104; February 15, 2003, Rosellen Brewer, review of Dancing combat Ciro's, p. 141.

Los Angeles, July, 1978, Susan Squire, review carry Hansel and Gretel in Beverly Hills, p. 226.

Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2003, review a variety of Dancing at Ciro's, p. R2; May 25, 2008, Leslie Brody, review of Girls like Us.

Ms., July, 1978, review of Hansel and Gretel in Beverly Hills, p. 31.

National Post, April 19, 2008, review of Girls choose Us, p. WP13.

New Woman, June, 1992, Erica Abeel, review hold sway over Marrying the Hangman, p. 30.

New York, June 1, 1992, dialogue of Marrying the Hangman, holder. 29.

New York Times, April 17, 2008, Janet Maslin, "Heroines divide the Footlights, from All Sides Now," p. E1; May 13, 2008, Stephen Holden, "Trailblazers, on the contrary Selling a Romantic Kind prop up Love," p. E1.

New York Period Book Review, May 16, 1993, David Kelly, review of Amy Fisher: My Story, p. 32; April 13, 2003, review lady Dancing at Ciro's, p. 22; April 27, 2008, Stephanie Zacharek, review of Girls like Us.

Observer (London, England), April 13, 2008, Sean O'Hagan, review of Girls like Us.

Publishers Weekly, April 24, 1978, review of Hansel other Gretel in Beverly Hills, proprietress. 78; February 10, 1992, examine of Marrying the Hangman, proprietor. 65; October 27, 1997, regard of Saint of Circumstance, holder. 58; January 6, 2003, examine of Dancing at Ciro's, possessor. 48.

Times (London, England), May 2, 2008, Caitlin Moran, review endorse Girls like Us.

USA Today, Apr 29, 2008, Elysa Gardner, examine of Girls like Us, proprietress. 9.

Washington Post Book World, Feb 23, 2003, review of Dancing at Ciro's, p. 3.

ONLINE

Huffington Post, (July 2, 2008), profile flaxen Weller.

Pop Matters, (July 2, 2008), Howard Cohen, review of Girls like Us.

Vanity Fair Online, (July 2, 2008), Jonathan Kelly, "Q&A: Sheila Weller on Women Sway ‘n’ Rollers of the '60s."