A new book by Cooper Lawrence is dishing a lot of fabulous dirt on Hollywood. In it, he says that superstar Julia Roberts was labeled as being "too trailer park" when she was first arrived in Tinseltown.
His book, "The Cult of Celebrity," says that Celebrity agent Robert Attermann told the author that his Abrams Artists Agency made the mistake of not signing Roberts - and many other stars in their early days.
"Julia Roberts came in years ago, and the commercial agent who met with her at the time said, 'Nah, she's too trailer park,' Attermann told Cooper.
"As a matter of fact, when we moved offices, we were going through old rejection files, and in there was Annette Bening, Robin Givens, Julia Roberts and a couple of others."
Lawrence also dishes on the diva behavior of music icons like David Bowie, Janet Jackson and Sean "Diddy" Combs.
Publicist Susan Blond told the author that Diddy once wanted a seat at a Versace fashion show. Blond related: "He said if we didn't get him in, we would be fired. We called, but it was the middle of this East Coast-West Coast rap war when everyone was being shot. They didn't want [any rappers there] and we were fired the next day."
The dish on Janet Jackson is equally good: "When I met with Janet, she'd say, 'I just want to be in the columns,' and she wanted 60 [mentions] in the columns," Blond recalled. "She just wanted to keep hot, and that's what she wanted - to just keep that name on Page Six."
Bowie was a nobody when he arrived in New York but played it up until fame arrived - the old "Fake It Until You Make It' Routine.
Lawrence says that singer-songwriter Edwin McCain told him: "When Bowie and his manager came to New York, they were riding around in a limo wearing furs, staying at the Waldorf, creating the image that he was a star, even though they were flat broke."
