| Acknowledgments | v |
| Introduction | vii |
| 1. | 1900-1929 | 1 |
| Rudolph Valentino: Hollywood's "Greatest" Lover | 2 |
| Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle: Tinseltown's Big Loser | 10 |
| William Desmond Taylor: The Man No One Really Knew | 18 |
| Wallace Reid: The Tragic Matinee Idol | 26 |
| 2. | 1930-1949 | 33 |
| The Mob: Taking on Hollywood | 34 |
| Clara Bow: When Being "It" Was No Longer Enough | 42 |
| Jean Harlow and Paul Bern: A Deadly Marriage | 50 |
| Thelma Todd: The Tragic Ice Cream Blonde | 58 |
| Loretta Young and Clark Gable: The Baby That "Wasn't" | 66 |
| Joan Crawford: The Demon Mother | 74 |
| Errol Flynn: The Relentless Swordsman | 83 |
| The Blacklist: Shame of a Nation | 92 |
| Robert Mitchum: Hollywood's Literate Rebel | 101 |
| Ingrid Bergman: Tarnished Saint | 110 |
| 3. | 1950-1979 | 121 |
| Lana Turner: One Man Too Many | 122 |
| Liberace: Playing the Hollywood Game | 130 |
| Elizabeth Taylor vs. Debbie Reynolds: Hollywood's Messy Circle of Love | 138 |
| Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton: A Love Not for the Ages | 146 |
| Marilyn Monroe: The Tragic Siren | 155 |
| Judy Garland: The Public Meltdown | 163 |
| Roman Polanski: The Exiled Oscar Winner | 173 |
| Bob Crane: The Lustful Photographer | 181 |
| 4. | 1980-Present | 189 |
| Natalie Wood: Tragic Goddess | 190 |
| Rock Hudson: The Reluctant Good Samaritan | 198 |
| Saturday Night Live: The Curse | 205 |
| Rob Lowe: Surviving His Candid Camera Escapade | 214 |
| Woody Allen and Mia Farrow: The Warring Lovebirds | 219 |
| Heidi Fleiss: Ex-Madam to the Stars | 228 |
| O.J. Simpson: The Trial of the Century | 236 |
| Tupac Shakur: Dying Too Young | 244 |
| Robert Blake: Baretta on the Loose | 252 |
| Winona Ryder: Shopping Till It Hurts | 262 |
| Bibliography | 271 |
| Index | 281 |
