Collateral Stardust: Chasing Warren Beatty and Other Foolish Things

WARREN BEATTY WALKS THROUGH THE DOOR...

In this offbeat memoir, Nikki Nash tells the story of an obsession that starts with a young girl’s movie-star fantasy. At fourteen, longing for excitement and something of her own, Nikki fixates on superstar Warren Beatty. She’s determined to find him and have him in her life forever. She creates a solid plan that she initiates four years later at the age of eighteen when she gets a job as a restaurant hostess where Beatty frequents. A year later, on a warm Sunday evening in April, after breaking a finger in a judo class and looking her worst—dirty hair pulled back, no make-up, broken finger in a glass of ice—Warren Beatty walks through the door and her plan comes to fruition. In this entertaining and genuine account of the inner workings of Hollywood, Nash pursues a vibrant career as a TV associate director, comic, writer, and actress. Her celebrity-infused journey is also a dance with drugs, religion, Hollywood culture, and other volatile mysteries in the city of angels, including her own metamorphosis.

Growing up in Hollywood, Nikki Nash studied acting, took piano lessons, and wore a nun’s habit to buy alcohol so she wouldn’t get carded. She began working in TV as a gofer on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and ended up as an associate director on a variety of shows including Soul Train, Love Connection, Jimmy Kimmel, The Kennedy Center Honors, Ellen, Jeopardy, and twelve years with Conan O’Brien. When she wasn’t working or napping, she tried skydiving, playwriting, screenwriting, standup comedy, swing dancing, poker, and painting. She likes eating toast and still watches a lot of TV.