Between all the self-aggrandizing and payback that Willy skillfully disguises as friendly banter, he throws in some screenwriting advice.

He finds page space to belittle the auteur theory and anyone who subscribes to it, insisting that all movies are a team effort, while still blaming his failed movies on everybody else that worked on them. If your passion and enthusiasm are unfazed after wading through Goldman's horror stories and cautionary tales, it might just be for you.

PS-The title of this book is a PUN on the title: " Adventures in the Skin Trade, a collection of stories by Dylan Thomas. If survival in the Hollywood film industry is possible, then there is no better "survival guide" than this book, because Goldman tells it like it is. I'm really fond of Philip Kaufman's script and direction of The Right Stuff, which is faithful to Tom Wolfe's book, so it's probably fortuitous that Goldman was fired, particularly since he had no interest in Chuck Yeager, the most compelling character from Wolfe's book. After reading this very good look at how movies get made, it is kind of amazing that any truly good movies ever make it to the finish line.

Goldman could almost have saved us the 400-pages of what is still one of the most insightful books about the movie-industry, and just printed his Law on a single page at the front.

His first novel, The Temple of Gold (1957), was followed by the script for the Broadway army comedy Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole (1961). BTW, I was saddened to learn in this book that Goldman regrets his involvement with All the President's Men, for which he won his second Academy Award for adapted screenplay in 1977.

I'm curious as to what Goldman thought of Hoffman's Oscar-winning performance six years later as an almost helpless savant in Rain Man. I came away from the book convinced that no one in Hollywood can be trusted, and everyone acts in their self interest, especially famous stars like Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. However, the inclusion of the screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid makes the book even more valuable, especially since he also analyzes the screenplay and what works and what doesn't.I think they should consider giving Oscars for meetings: Best Meeting of the Year, Best Supporting Meeting, Best Meeting Based on Material from Another Meeting. He talks a lot about Hollywood and there are some darling little stories about particular stars and directors, then he shows you the actual screenplay for the movie with directions to the actors etc. What impressed me most while reading, beyond Goldman's frank and brutally honest discussion of Hollywood, was how relevant so much if it seems to the business today.