Hollywood Star!

Hollywood Star

The Hollywood Star was a highly idiosyncratic gossip tabloid published on an erratic schedule in Hollywood, California by William Kern, who wrote much of the magazine under the pseudonym "Bill Dakota." Initially published in a newspaper format (and sold in newsracks), it appeared in 1976, was turned into a smaller magazine format for two issues, as Hollywood "Confidential" Star Magazine, and the paper was closed down by 1981.

Hollywood Star Magazine, vol. 1 no. 1, 1979.Inspired

Manson

by Confidential and other gossip magazines of the 1950s, The Hollywood Star had a homosexual subtext (Kern's other mid-70s paper was called Gayboy) and printed nude photos and sexually-oriented gossip with a frankness that had never been seen in gossip magazines. In addition to naming stars who were gay or bisexual, for example, the magazine published lists of male celebrities based on whether they were or were not circumcised. Charles Manson went on record with Dakota about various celebrities that he had been involved with, leading Frank Sinatra to threaten Dakota (one of Sinatra's daughters had been named by Manson). The threats, of course, were published in full.