Hollywood

Billionaire filmmaker Howard Hughes has long been regarded as one of Hollywood's most eccentric and prolific playboys. A few years back, writer and film critic Karina Longworth stumbled onto an online message board, listing women Hughes had had sexual relationships with — just a list of names, no other information.

"In each of these names there's a whole life and a whole story," says Longworth, who hosts the film podcast You Must Remember This.

With the Breaking Bad spinoff about to begin its fourth season, Fresh Air presents archival interviews with star Bob Odenkirk, co-creator Peter Gould and actors Giancarlo Esposito and Jonathan Banks.

The Room (2003) has been called the Citizen Kane of bad movies. Eccentric filmmaker Tommy Wiseau wrote, directed and starred in the movie, and it has since developed a cult following. Around the country, fans flock to midnight screenings.

Director Damien Chazelle talks about his movie La La Land, a love story set in the present day, but the influence of old Hollywood and musicals of the past is all around.

The new period comedy by Joel and Ethan Coen takes place backstage at a 1950s Hollywood studio. Reviewer David Edelstein says that despite flashes of brilliance, the film "feels thin."

In the Showtime series, Schreiber plays a Hollywood fixer with some personal problems of his own. While TV is newish territory for Schreiber, playing a man plagued by inner demons is not. He talks with Dave Davies about acting the heavy — and how his face has shaped his career.

Critic at large John Powers has been watching the HBO show Entourage -- about a handsome young movie star and his buddies -- and has some thoughts on the way the rich and powerful are often protected from reality.

Wagner hangs out with the rich and famous, and then writes satirical novels based on Los Angeles life. His new book is The Chrysanthemum Palace. The three main characters are actors who are the children of wealthy, successful parents. Wagner is known for his dark wit and nasty portrayals of show business elite.

His new book, I, Fatty tells the story of vaudeville and early film actor Fatty Arbuckle. In the early 1900s, he was more popular than Charlie Chaplin and became the first screen actor to make $1 million a year. But in 1921, Arbuckle was accused of the rape and murder of a young actress. Many have called the crime, Arbuckle's presumed guilt, the subsequent trial, and his eventual acquittal Hollywood's first celebrity scandal. Stahl is also the author of the best selling memoir Permanent Midnight, which was adapted into a film by the same name.

As an actress, she's best-known for her portrayal of Princess Leia in the Star Wars movies. She's also the author of the bestsellers Postcards From the Edge (which she adapted into a screenplay for the film of the same name), and Surrender the Pink. Like Postcards from the Edge, Fisher's new book The Best Awful is based on her own life. In it, Hollywood actress Suzanne Vale's husband leaves her for another man, and then she is diagnosed with bipolar illness.

Film critic Henry Sheehan reviews Full Frontal, the new Steven Soderbergh film starring Julia Roberts, Blair Underwood and David Duchovny.

Two guests discuss their work in Hollywood.

Screenwriter and novelist Bruce Wagner. He wrote the screenplays for "Nightmare on Elm Street 3," and "Scenes from The Class Struggle in Beverly Hills." He's just come out with his first novel, a black comedy, "Force Majeure." It's a collection of his "Bud Wiggins" stories. Wiggins is a struggling screenwriter, actor, and some time chauffeur who is "circling the drain." (published by Random House). (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Peter Bart was a senior vice president of the MGM/United Artists studio, and has just written a new book called "Fade Out." He discusses his efforts to turn the company around as the Hollywood studio system came to a close.

Scholar and writer Thomas Schatz has a new book about the studio era of Hollywood. While efficient, the film industry during the first half of the century limited the roles available to actors and actresses, and tightly controlled the content and style of the movies it produced.

The writer's new book, An Empire of Their Own, examines the long-neglected history of how a group of Jewish European emigrees created the screen's idea of the American Dream, and how America adopted that dream.

Writer Michael Tolkin's novel The Player is based on his experiences as a screenwriter interacting with film executives in Hollywood.

Book critic John Leonard reviews The New Confessions, a novel by the British writer William Boyd. Boyd's earlier novels include Stars and Bars and An Ice Cream War.