Part of the Encore Film Book Classics series, this is a reprint of the original text to The Hollywood Book of Love: An Irreverent Guide to the Films That Raised Our Romantic Expectations by James Robert Parish. If you're still waiting for bells to ring and sparks to fly, for fireworks to explode, and waves to crash upon the shore every time you kiss that special someone, don't hold your breath: you've been bitten-and brainwashed-by the Hollywood love bug From start-up to breakup, only on the big screen is romance so unreal, and in this expansive, cheery, and amusing study you'll find enough smooches and schmaltz to take you from here ... to eternity From Bonnie and Clyde to Harold and Maude and from The African Queen to Titanic, this detailed-filled volume gives you all the steam from the screen in its entertaining exploration of Tinseltown's obsession with love, romance, and heartbreak. Inside this unique volume you'll find: A guide to Hollywood's top tales of romance from "Young Love" to "Marriages on the Rocks" Funny, fact-filled plot scenarios of a slew of Hollywood's great love stories over the decades Spirited sidebars that reveal the reality behind the reel Behind-the-scenes peeks at the love lives of Hollywood's sexiest stars, from Gary Cooper, Charles Boyer, Don Johnson, and Josh Hartnett, to Lupe Velez, Lana Turner, and Madonna"