They Can Kill You-- But They Can't Eat You: Lessons from the Front

In this candid saga, Steel tells what it took to become the first female head of a major movie studio (Columbia Pictures). As a young woman in the '70s, she was oblivious to prevailing feminism because ``I have the kind of personality that discourages discrimination.'' Her big start was at Penthouse magazine where she ``could make my mark creating overtly sexist advertising and selling hand-knit `Cock Socks.' '' With her then-husband, Steel went into business marketing such dazzlers as ``designer toilet paper'' printed with a Gucci-like logo, and amaryllis bulbs, bought for 30? and resold as ``Penis Plants'' for $6.98. After her divorce, Steel became vice-president of merchandising at Paramount before eventually becoming president of production, where she would make not only Star Trek III but Fatal Attraction , Flashdance and other films. Having survived Hollywood backstabbing, it would seem she now has it all: she is the head of her own studio, is rich, and a wife and mother besides. In hindsight, she presents herself through a prism of psychological buzzwords (``low self-esteem,'' ``dysfunctional family'') that sometimes seem at odds with the record, but her tough wit pulls it off entertainingly. (Oct.)