Not Much New In ‘Cameron’

Sun., March 26, 2000

By Dan Webster danw@spokesman.com

“James Cameron: An Unauthorized Biography of the Filmmaker” (Renaissance Books, 350 pages, $22.95) by Marc Shapiro

We’ve all heard the stories about moviemaker James Cameron. How he’s such an ogre on his film sets that crew members take to wearing t-shirts saying “You Can’t Scare Me, I Work for Jim Cameron!” How he seeks out strong women to marry (four so far) just to clash with and divorce them. How he has an ego the size of, and as fragile as, the San Andreas Fault.

In his “unauthorized biography” simply titled “James Cameron,” entertainment journalist Marc Shapiro relates these stories and… well, I was going to type “more.” But that isn’t exactly the truth.

Shapiro mostly retells tales already printed in such publications as Esquire magazine, the Los Angeles Times, TV Guide - along with Starlog, Fangoria and even Sci Fi Teen.

All the rumors are covered, but not much is covered in-depth. Shapiro, who has written other quick-hit celebrity bios of such stars as Lucy Lawless, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Goldie Hawn, glosses over a lot and barely punctuates the rest.

He did 10, count them, 10 personal interviews to write this book. In contrast, the list of articles that he cribbed from runs seven full pages.

My suggestion: Consult his bibliography, go to the original sources and save yourself $25 (which includes tax).

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