Drawing on more than twenty years of interviews, anecdotes, and personal experiences, Uninvited: Confessions of a Hollywood Party Crasher recounts the unique journey of a former Los Angeles Times reporter who, struggling with the collapse of his industry and personal tragedies, falls in with a group of intrepid gatecrashers who routinely pierce Tinseltown’s celebrity party circuit. Author Adrian Maher is the first to chronicle this unique subterranean culture in La La Land—a group of social strivers, ambitious outliers, compulsive risk-takers, and dysfunctional characters seeking access to a famous and exclusive society from which they’ve been banned. Uninvited uses all the author’s skills as a veteran reporter, television producer, private investigator, archivist, and humorous storyteller to reveal the unseen capers, snafus, and mishaps behind Hollywood’s palace gates against a backdrop of America’s fascination with celebrity culture. And it exposes the personal struggles of an adrenaline-addicted gatecrasher facing perpetual moral challenges, physical dangers, and psychological stressors that culminate in near disaster.
Industry Reviews
"Adrian Maher's gate-crasher capers would make any paparazzi proud: an ear for confrontation, a nose for action, and an eye for exquisite details. Nervy, amusing, and surreal. His Hollywood is a ceaseless and hair-raising series of nightly exploits and daily reckonings." Jennifer Buhl, author of Shooting Stars: My Unexpected Life Shooting Hollywood's Most Famous
"A wackadoodle journey over, under, and around the velvet rope. A laugh-a-minute page-turner as dramatic as any multi-million dollar blockbuster. Hilarious, gripping, and revealing." Bill Kalmenson, Comedian, Actor, and Host of the hit podcast, "A Rebel Without Applause"
"Adrian Maher's Uninvited is an uproarious account of his party-crashing adventures--and the quirky characters that shared his compulsions. It's also a forthright exploration of his own motives, a keen commentary on celebrity culture, and an offbeat anthropology of contemporary Los Angeles. Consider this your formal invitation to enjoy his madcap memoir." Peter Richardson, author of No Simple Highway: A Cultural History of the Grateful Dead
"Aided by a Halloween gallery of fellow rogues and adrenaline junkies, Adrian Maher takes us on a joyous romp through backstage Hollywood dodging security, public relations flacks, and his own conscience. You'll be amazed at the chameleon disguises and side-door antics that put an everyman behind the hedge gates and face to face with Clint, Hef, Arianna, and the rest of Tinseltown's high and mighty. Deliciously subversive." James Rainey, Senior Reporter, Los Angeles Times
"Used to think great gonzo journalism was dead until I picked up this magnificent trip through the world of hilarious party-crashing wackos and their obsessive weekly tango with class, fame, and hors d'oeuvres. I feel better now about gonzo journalism, though the country may be doomed." Sam Quinones, author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic
"A rollicking tale about a bunch of social wannabes busting down Hollywood's closed-door industry, pushing boundaries, confronting obstacles, and nonstop risk-taking. Witty and illuminating . . . priceless moments and scenes. A grand narrative more bizarre than any movie script." Rick King, Film Producer, Point Break
