What's a celeb to do between red-carpet events? Why, write a book, of course!
According to Publishers Weekly, the jack-of-all-trades James Franco has just sold his debut poetry collection to Graywolf Press, and it's set to be released in 2014.
Franco is already a published prose author whose 2010 book of short stories, Palo Alto, is, according to The New York Times, filled with "nihilistic violence and gratuitous gore."
But Franco is hardly the first A-lister (or C-lister, for that matter) to take up his pen. Here, a look at six other celebrities who wrote fiction, with varying degrees of success.
1. The English Roses, by Madonna
What it's about: The Material Girl's 2003 debut, a children's picture book, concerns an outsider girl named Binah who inspires jealousy in four other girls because they believe she leads the perfect life.
But the "moral" of the story is that Binah, who was based on Madonna's daughter Lourdes, is neither rich nor spoiled, and is actually quite lonely.
What the critics said: The Guardian's Kate Kellaway criticizes the book for its mediocrity and superfluity, arguing that The English Roses is little more than "an accessory for those curious about Madonna."
Why, wonders Kellaway, would the pop diva want to impersonate a "fragile primary-school teacher in a flowery frock?" Madge should "stick to what she knows best."
2. Junior, or Oscar De La Mancha, The Wembling Warrior, and the People I Like the Least. Not a Novel. A written project from the normal, well adjusted and 'No I don't have issues with my father!' mind of … junior (meaning me), by Macaulay Culkin
What it's about: Less a novel than a post-modern series of vignettes that include detours into comics, poetry, quizzes, and an open letter to Britney Spears, 2006's Junior is very, very loosely held together by a series of anecdotes documenting the life of "Money Monkey Boy," a former child star.
What the critics said:Publisher's Weekly calls Junior a "self-indulgently infantile book" that "looks and reads more like a book-length zine."
Though Culkin insists that Junior the character is different than Culkin the author, they have quite a lot in common, and Junior's only real value is as a "calculated piece of celebrity implosion" that offers a "weirdly compelling" look into Culkin's mind.
3. L.A. Candy, by Lauren Conrad
What it's about: This novel, which follows "Jane Roberts" as she moves to Hollywood and eventually gets her own reality show — is a juicy, thinly-veiled account of Conrad's stint as one of the stars of the MTV reality show The Hills.
Released in 2009, the book is the first of the quick-to-cash-in L.A. Candy series. Its sequel, Sweet Little Lies, and the series' final installment, Sugar and Spice, were both released in 2010.
What the critics said: Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum calls the novel a "dismal portent of the future of pop culture, disguised as escapist fiction," adding that Conrad's young fans "might like a book-shaped object as a keepsake."
L.C. may think she can do anything, says Schwarzbaum, but the one thing she can't do is write a "novel."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider