Studio City Woman Is 'Dark Lady of Hollywood'

By Beth Dalbey

Patch Editor

Diane Haithman, a freelance author and journalist living in Studio City just released a new novel, “Dark Lady of Hollywood,” based on her experiences as an arts and entertainment writer.

Haithman, who grew up in downtown Detroit’s Lafayette Park, began her career as a staff writer covering arts and entertainment for the Detroit Free Press, later becoming the newspaper’s West Coast Bureau chief covering Hollywood. Later, she was a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times.

A finalist in the William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition and published by Harvard Square Editions, “Dark Lady of Hollywood” draws from her experiences as a journalist covering the entertainment industry.

In a news release, she described it as “a merry mashup of the worlds of Shakespeare and the television industry that tells the story of a dying TV executive’s murderous search for a soul mate akin to Shakespeare’s mysterious Dark Lady of the Sonnets.”

The novel has won rave reviews.

Writes Jill Allen of ForeWord Reviews, “It takes a special kind of talent to simultaneously skewer Hollywood and Shakespeare while writing a thought provoking novel, and “Dark Lady of Hollywood proves Diane Haithman has this genius.”

More reviews:

» Jill Allen, ForeWord Reviews

» Ray Richmond, Burbank Leader

» Ellen Dostal, Broadway World Los Angeles

» Carol Gladstein, Booklist

More about the author and the book”

» DianeHaithman.com

The novel is available at Barnes & Noble, at Harvard Square Editions, as well as at Ingram, Gardner’s, Amazon, Kindle, and others.

Photo: Diane Haithman and her dog, Heidi, shared a byline in a column on Studio City Patch called “A Paw in the Door.”