The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at the Chateau Marmont

Levy (Rat Pack Confidential) recounts the evolution of Chateau Marmont from bohemian haven to glitterati hot spot in this engrossing account of the L.A. hotel’s 90-year history of decadence. Weaving together historical research and firsthand accounts, the author examines the transformation of the high-end apartment building into a world-famous hotel often inhabited by itinerant Hollywood directors and actors: “The Chateau has spent nearly a century perched on the eastern edge of the Sunset Strip like the Rock of Gibraltar, a landmark defining a transition, a way station giving harbor to vagabonds, a milestone, a sentinel, a keep.” It’s served as the repository of gossip and innuendo for decades: director Nicholas Ray stayed there while creating Rebel Without a Cause and sleeping with 16-year-old Natalie Wood; rising stars Tab Hunter and Anthony Perkins met poolside and began a secret love affair; and rocker Jim Morrison swung from balconies while drunk. More recently, the hotel has attracted the likes of troubled actress Lindsay Lohan and filmmaker Sofia Coppola, who filmed Somewhere there. This eye-popping and entertainingly lurid tale of Hollywood scandal and intrigue will delight readers. (May)