The Devil’s Candy cover art

The Devil’s Candy

The Anatomy of a Hollywood Fiasco

 Preview
Free with 30-day trial
A 30-day trial plus your first audiobook free.
1 credit/month after trial—to buy any title you like, yours to keep.
Listen all you want to a selection of thousands of Audible Originals, audiobooks and podcasts.
$16.45 a month after 30 day trial. Cancel anytime.

The Devil’s Candy

By: Julie Salamon
Narrated by: Julie Salamon
Free with 30-day trial

$16.45/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $29.99

Buy Now for $29.99

About this listen

When Brian De Palma agreed to allow Julie Salamon unlimited access to the film production of Tom Wolfe's best-selling book The Bonfire of the Vanities, both director and journalist must have felt like they were on to something big. How could it lose? But instead Salamon got a front-row seat at the Hollywood disaster of the decade. She shadowed the film from its early stages through the last of the eviscerating reviews, and met everyone from the actors to the technicians to the studio executives. They'd all signed on for a blockbuster, but there was a sense of impending doom from the start - heart-of-gold characters replaced Wolfe's satiric creations; affable Tom Hanks was cast as the patrician heel; Melanie Griffith appeared mid-shoot with new, bigger breasts. With a keen eye and ear, Salamon shows us how the best of intentions turned into a legendary Hollywood debacle.

The Devil's Candy joins John Gregory Dunne's The Studio, Steven Bach's Final Cut, and William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade as a classic for anyone interested in the workings of Hollywood.

©1991, 2002 Julie Salamon (P)2021 Tantor Direction & Production Entertainment & Performing Arts Film & TV History & Criticism Entertainment Heartfelt Celebrity
All stars
Most relevant  
Loved this behind the scenes dissection of movie making in the early 90s. A little bit of gossip, a large part fascinating, and at times jawdropping. Expertly written. Really well told.

Hollywood at its best kinda worst

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.