By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Before any celebrities walk the red carpet at the Academy Awards on Sunday, they should have been primped, preened and "Polaroided," according to a new novel satirizing the glamour world of Hollywood.


Although fictional, "Celebutantes" is written by two people with inside knowledge: Amanda Goldberg, daughter of Emmy award-winning film and television producer Leonard, and Ruthanna Hopper, daughter of former Oscar nominee actor Dennis.

The pair challenge readers to work out the real-life inspirations for their Hollywood tale of Lola Santisi, the daughter of an Academy Award winning director who was born on Oscar night.

"All of the stories are sort of true stories that have been fictionalized," Hopper said. "There's sort of amalgamations of various characters there but all based in true stories."

Goldberg said their publisher asked them to "tone down the reality."

"Celebutantes," currently No. 25 on The New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list, begins with Lola walking the red carpet at the famed Vanity Fair post-Oscar party, lamenting not having "Polaroided."

"You never really know how you look until you see yourself in a photograph. That's why you should always Polaroid your party dress before you walk out the front door," Lola laments.

"You're in major denial if you think the mirror tells you the truth. A mirror is a bad relationship. It reflects what it thinks you want in the moment, only to screw you with the truth later on," she says.

Hopper and Goldberg, who met during an Oscar week party several years ago, describe a celebutante as "someone who's famous for being famous."

"She walks a fine line around what exactly her talent is -- other than wearing good clothes and being beautiful clothes and having a famous last name and, perhaps on occasion, a sex tape or a DUI (drunk-driving arrest)," they say.

But they are not without some respect for Hollywood starlets who might find some of Lola's experiences familiar.

"How dumb are you when you are able to create a mega-image and mega-enterprise around yourself? It takes some savvy to get to that kind of a place," Hopper said.
© Copyright 2007 Reuters.