Nine books that take you inside the entertainment industry

Daniel D’Addario is chief correspondent at Variety. He has won awards from the Los Angeles Press Club for profile writing and for political commentary and is among the moderators of Variety’s Actors on Actors video series. He was previously the television critic for Variety and for Time. A graduate of Columbia University, he lives with his husband and two daughters in Brooklyn.

D’Addario's new novel is The Talent.

At Electric Lit he tagged nine books that shed "light on what kind of temperament it takes to make art, and what pressures artists face as they try to express something genuine." One title on the list:

Inside Out by Demi Moore

Moore’s memoir is likely the most accomplished in a while — thanks in part to New Yorker writer Ariel Levy’s work on the manuscript, but also to Moore’s willingness to dive deep into her work and life and reflect on what it all meant. For much of her career, Moore was treated more as object than as artist (a state of affairs that has happily concluded with the release of The Substance, a film that makes explicit comment on the way our culture chews up actresses). After walking away from the spotlight, Moore found herself the subject of tabloid scrutiny once again during her marriage to and divorce from Ashton Kutcher. Her reflections on the experience, on the trauma and addiction that haunted her early career, and on what movie stardom meant to her make for a moving, haunting read.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue