Wannabe, by Jamie Kennedy with Helen Rapoport

August 1989: Jamie Kennedy arrives in Los Angeles from his home in suburban Pennsylvania with grand plans of becoming a professional extra. He’s determined to make it in Hollywood even if it kills him – which it very nearly does. Soon he’s caught up in the desperate underbelly of showbusiness: playing Bart Simpson at kids’ birthday parties while they pelt him with apples; appearing as a Jerry Lewis strip-a-gram; and auditioning for the part of a dancing yolk in the California Fresh Eggs campaign. But there’s even worse to come. After a disastrous stint at RADA (during which he is forced to steal food from the buttery), having his kidney removed, being mugged for his trousers and sharing a flat with a homicidal nutcase, Jamie winds up sleeping in his car. He’s got two choices: quit and go back to Pennsylvania, or come up with a cunning plan. Ingeniously, Jamie invents fictional agent «Marty Power» in a last-ditch attempt to kickstart his acting career; Jamie plays the roles of agent, personal assistant and even courier, and incredibly the trick pays off. Soon, half the casting agents in Hollywood are claiming to be old friends of Marty’s. His big break – a small role in Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet – leads to a string of appearances in hit films such as Scream, As Good As It Gets and Three Kings.