A review by sireno8
Gold Digger: The Outrageous Life and Times of Peggy Hopkins Joyce by Constance Rosenblum

4.0

I ran across Peggy Hopkins Joyce in the film INTERNATIONAL HOUSE. She was playing herself, had top billing (over WC Fields) and everyone seemed to know who she was. Having never heard of her, I was intrigued. This book not only explain who she was but also why she was -- in glittering and giddy detail. It's refreshing to note that this current phenomena of reality tv "stars" is not a new thing--that PHJ was perhaps the first media created celebrity. The author gives depth and scope to her subject (no mean feat given PHJ's admitted shallowness) and returns her place in pop culture and social history. PHJ may not have had much more going on than her beauty and her need for attention but since her exploits seem more blatantly fortune hunting than merely headline grabbing, she comes across as a bit more savvy than our current crop of vapid Paris Hiltons and brainless Kardashians.