The World According to Wonder is the premier publication from the Hollywood-based production company World of Wonder, purveyors of fine documentaries and balls-y original programming including Million Dollar Listing, RuPaul's Drag Race, The Fabulous Beekman Boys, Party Monster, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Inside Deep Throat, Monica in Black and White, Tori and Dean, and Becoming Chaz. They have created a book jam-packed with hundreds of photos detailing the often hilarious history of the company and the provenance of its productions.
The eleven chapters spread out over 390 pages are filled with pop culture anecdotes, illustrated with 290 never-before-seen original portraits of "wowlebrities," principally shot by photographers Idris Rheubottom and Tony Craig.
Written by co-founders and award-winning filmmakers Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, the book is not only a celebration of 21 years of production and people, but also has a story to tell: When they began it was the dawn of reality TV and they track the rise and rise of this revolutionary genre through their modest triumphs and abysmal failures, sharing their passion for telling the stories of those on the margins of society.
Some of those featured include Pamela Anderson, Chaz Bono, Andy Cohen, Macaulay Culkin, the Duchess of York, Elvira, Linda Evangelista, Carrie Fisher, Heidi Fleiss, Larry Flynt, Perez Hilton, La Toya Jackson, Kato Kaelin, Lady Bunny, Marilyn Manson, Imelda Marcos, Kelly Osbourne, Camille Paglia, Joey Ramone, RuPaul, Chloe Sevigny, Ultra Naté, Dita von Teese, John Waters, Carnie Wilson, Holly Woodlawn, and many, many more.
"World of Wonder is a rank, twisted Bauhaus of perverse creativity, dedicated to celebrating everything which is squalid and marginal. It is the ultimate antidote to the smarmy, prosaic naff-ness of red-carpet Hollywood." - Simon Doonan
Weighing in at 8 pounds, the tasty tome comes in a cardboard case that opens to reveal a 396-page burst of...well, wonder. Its cover, a play on television s candy-colored test pattern with a bar of Day-Glo orange inserted, signals the intentions of high-wire art director Trey Speegle and the vivid recollections that flow within, compliments of Bailey, Barbato and their in-house wordsmiths, James St. James and Stephen Saban...Charting our highest aspirations and lowest common denominators, their work has explored (some might say, exploited) the arable land where the saccharine and the profane intersect. If, as they write, Warhol was the chief architect of the time we live in, then Bailey and Barbato lay claim to being its architectural historians, as they told me, using video (and film) to document the cultural builders of our time. --- Tom Eubanks, Kirkus Reviews
The book includes never-before-seen photos and exclusive stories from controversial personalities including Chaz Bono, Andy Cohen, Larry Flynt, Chloe Sevigny and John Waters and that s only scratching the surface, believe me. --- Michael Starr, New York Post
For over two decades, the filmmaking duo behind WOW, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, who mostly create reality-based programs, have actively charted a course away from mainstream tastes, instead scouring the margins of culture. If you had to map the terrain they navigate, it would be the latitude between Tammy Faye Bakker and extremists who believe the world is run by a race of lizard people. A small but representative sampling of their titles includes: Party Monster, Pornography: The Secret History of Civilisation, Gay Republicans, 101 Rent Boys, TransGeneration, Angelina: Saint or Sinner?, The Hidden Führer: Debating the Enigmas of Hitler s Sexuality, and 10 Kids 2 Dads. --- Natasha Vargas-Cooper, OUT Magazine
