You're so Vain, Warren Beatty

A new biography on Warren Beatty has recently been written by Peter Biskind and published by Simon and Schuster. "Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America" will appear in bookstores across the nation next week, and like most celebrity biographies, will be one of those tell-all books along with the ubiquitous question of how many women Warren Beatty, the perceived not-so-attractive film star has had sex with. Biskind documents approximately 12,775 women (this was back before the day of AIDS) but is this a guess on the star's part?

Like so many other men, regardless if they are famous or not, bragging about prowess is considered normal in the male world. It seems to be even more common among men who are inadequate in other physical areas, as in Beatty's case. He is no Rock Hudson but then he is no Nick Adams, either. Beatty also claimed there is not a woman anywhere on the planet he would not have sex with. Well, that's maybe stretching it a bit since there are so many more good looking women out there than there are men who look like Beatty. It is possible that there are some very handsome men who do not have problems or feelings of inadequacy and therefore do not need to brag about how many women they have had sex with.12,775 women? I don't think even Dustin Hoffman can make that claim, and he is much shorter than Beatty (Hoffman stands 5'5" tall; Beatty is 6' tall). When the two worked together in "Ishtar", they exchanged the type of information men are not afraid to disclose each other. Beatty probably also mentioned how he looks like a blue-eyed Burt Reynolds to poor Dustin, who was feeling really inadequate at the time. Well, most people might say the two deserve each other, but I personally think that is too harsh. At least Beatty isn't to be found to be a potential endorser of animal crackers.

Maybe the most intriguing thing about Warren Beatty is this: even though he has not made a movie since 2001 and made than less than 30 movies in a 40 year period, it makes one wonder why he is not a big box office star compared to, say, Tony Curtis. It's because of one reason: Beatty's ego is much fatter than any Hollywood production budget thus far. Beatty is not all he is cracked up to be, but hopefully Biskind's new biography will pull in a bigger profit than any of Beatty's films to date.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-book7-2010jan07,0,5800634.story