In America, Hollywood is the promised land—a sun-kissed Mediterranean playground with the weather of a modern-day Eden. For much of its history, Hollywood was the place where the old rules no longer applied. If one was beautiful enough, or talented enough, or simply talked a good game, one could cast off the Protestant work ethic like a ratty winter coat and join the gilded throngs of a new American aristocracy. Hollywood was enticement personified; anything and everything could be bought, nothing was out of reach. Money flowed like water from its jeweled grottoes, and sex was in all around, as palpable as the scent of eucalyptus wafting down through Benedict Canyon. Through the twists and turns of its history, the California town named Hollywood has remained America's capital of glamour non pareil (even after downtown Hollywood had become a sleazy mixture of tourist attractions and dilapidated office...