Ellroy's novel is more of a riff around reality than a true-crime with the serial numbers filed off. As with most of his books, it's about two LA detectives (and amateur boxers), unalike in temperament, who team together because between them they make a single emotionally-functional human being, if you grade on a curve. The dead woman is very similar to the Short case, although I think the fictional outcome is more, um, fictional than what really happened.

mainly matched in women by them not wearing as much foundation

I do remember, for Dead Man Walking, everyone oohed and aahhed at Susan Sarandon not wearing any makeup when playing a nun. Hello! She is a nun! While I am sure some nuns wear eyeliner, I bet most of them do, in fact, eschew pancake makeup.

(For that matter, the archbishop of Boston eschews pants. But he is particularly strict about his flavor of priest-ish-ness. Priestliness? His flavor of being a priest.)

Ellroy's novel is more of a riff around reality than a true-crime with the serial numbers filed off.

Wasn't Ellroy's mother the victim of some unsolved murder as well? I swear I remember reading that Ellroy had some personal reasons for his interest with the Black Dahlia case.

His mom was killed. Ellroy wrote a book about it--the cover was an actual new photo of Ellroy taken shortly after he learned his mom was murdered.

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Yep, for a while he thought the Black Dahlia killer had done his mother. (Dude, just reading that stuff and I sound like that.Scary.) I'm not sure if he still believes that. Loving Nutty. Actually HS should be able imo to play that...she wasn't as hot a ticket as she thought she was, poor baby.

I don't think Swank is playing the victim.

Yes, Short wasn't the typical glamor pinup girl of 1940s Hollywood, as much as she wanted to be. I just remember being morbidly fascinated by the details of her death (cut it half? Yuck!) and saddened by the fact that the murderer was never caught and punished.

But if you're a woman in Ellroy, you always do, play the victim. And, yeah, wrod, Kathy. And of course, that, um, physical imperfection that she had that I've never been able to find enough brain bleach to scrub.

But if you're a woman in Ellroy, you always do, play the victim.

A victim, or a whore AND a victim. If you're really lucky, you're ugly and can be a secretary.

Well, she's already done that for M$B, hasn't she? But yeah -- the Crow/Clooney/Diesel effort seems to be mainly matched in women by them not wearing as much foundation.

Okay, it's unfair to forget Renee's Bridget, considering how much crap she put up with about her weight.

A victim, or a whore AND a victim. If you're really lucky, you're ugly and can be a secretary.

I am not being enticed to read any of his stuff.

And sorry, Aimee. I really disliked that book, and thus had no interest in watching the TV movie, despite what Oprah and Halle say.

I liked it a lot...wish I'd seen it Aimee. But Halle strikes me as having the wrong appeal for it. I like the way the man writes Nutty but you are so very Wrod.(don't forget the "bull dykes") But at least you're not wondering "Dude, what did your mama do to you?" Cause, duh. Alibelle, he is very talented but, well, frightening. I feel incredibly ambivalent about reading it/him.