The Club Rules: Power, Money, Sex, and Fear--How It Works in Hollywood

Likely to please screen fans, this expose of Hollywood's power club, with a shifting membership of 1000, lives up to its promise to be ``dishy, bitchy, pithy and sly.'' A seven-figure income is a prerequisite, according to L.A. Times reporter Rosenfield, for membership among its studio chiefs, bankers, attorneys, agents and the performers around which they revolve. From a roster of 400 names, the author selects a few for astute character profiles--Lucille Ball among them--that include descriptions of mansions, hangouts and getaways to illustrate how careers based on talent, sex, ego and studio-engineered stardom or derived from bloodlines, marriage, personal or business connections won them places in the club. Eternally insecure Hollywood, Rosenfield asserts, depends on exchanges of favors, with everyone keeping score. Cynical as his appraisal is, Rosenfield also gives credit for achievement. (Apr.)