COLLATERAL STARDUST

Nash reflects on wild times in Hollywood and her relationship with Warren Beatty in this rollicking memoir.

Like many girls in the 1960s, the author was spellbound by Warren Beatty and obsessed with meeting him in real life. Unlike many girls, Nash grew up in Tarzana, California, with eccentric parents whose social circle included radical left-wing politicians and minor Hollywood stars. For her, Warren Beatty would be—in some ways—attainable. By 1974, the author was working at the Sunset Strip’s Old World Restaurant (where she knew Beatty was a patron) and trying to get her acting career off the ground. It was there that she began a decades-long, on-and-off relationship with Beatty, which would endure for the rest of her career as an actor, comedian, and associate director working in television production. Nash uses Beatty as the throughline as she fleshes out wonderfully outlandish stories from her madcap childhood (which featured “typical family stuff” like Black Panther fundraisers and dressing up like a nun to be able to buy liquor underage) and her time as an adventurous young woman in 1970s Los Angeles. The author spent her days on movie sets or skydiving before attending parties at Jack Nicholson’s Mulholland mansion, all while slowly feeling the pull toward addictions to alcohol, quaaludes, and binge-eating. Nash takes readers through the ’80s, ’90s, and up to the current day, chronicling her experiences with recovery and the healing potential of comedy, which led her to finally call out the big star that had been stringing her along for years. The author’s skill as a comedian is on full display here—she peppers every page with perfectly timed punchlines that communicate her quirky personality. (When a producer’s call catches her off guard, she breezily responds that she’s painting, but explains, “I was eating—but I wanted to sound interesting and busy.”) Although she writes with deep emotion about her addiction issues, it may feel that Nash sometimes waves the darker aspects of Hollywood away with jokes; still, her consistent, irreverent voice makes the memoir delightful. Just as she describes one of her encounters with Warren, her wonderful stories feel like “remnant[s] of stardust mixed in with a cozy blanket of nostalgia.”

A dazzling kiss-and-tell that brings vintage Hollywood to life.