The late L.A. author Eve Babitz has a cult fanbase in Hollywood, because of her cheeky prose and her chronicling of a few of the key popular culture figures of the Sixties, ’70s and ’80s. That enduring legacy was celebrated Tuesday evening on the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, the place a bevy of Hollywood actresses took activates the mic. They learn beforehand unpublished letters penned by Babitz, as sourced by author Lili Anolik.
Anolik — celebrating the discharge of her new e book “Didion and Babitz” — hosted the occasion in partnership with Belletrist, the e book membership based by Emma Roberts and Karah Preiss. Roberts was among the many readers within the room, joined by Beverly D’Angelo, Da’Vine Pleasure Randolph, Nicole Richie and Elizabeth Olsen. The viewers included Babitz’s sister, Mirandi; Dustin Lance Black; Tinx; Alexi Wasser; Cleo Wade; Gillian Jacobs; Jen Statsky; Bruce Wagner; Naomi Fry; Simone Harrouche; Jamie Mizrahi, and Carlos Lopez. They sipped tequila cocktails and martinis as they listened attentively to the phrases.
Anolik’s e book, out now, explores the difficult relationship between Babitz, who died in December of 2021 at 78 years outdated, and the late Joan Didion, who handed away lower than every week later at 87. It particulars their friendship, rivalry and the affect the 2 writers and California natives have had on tradition.
In her analysis, Anolik got here throughout papers that had been sitting in sealed packing containers and located by Mirandi behind a closet. Anolik was impressed by an unsent letter from Babitz to Didion written in 1972.
“It was the primary letter I pulled,” Anolik defined. “I knew that was it. I used to be again in.”
Anolik had already written about Babitz, releasing “Hollywood’s Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret Historical past of L.A.” in 2019. Previous to that, she made her debut with “Darkish Rooms: A Novel” in 2015.
Appropriately, the evening ended with a efficiency by Lily Kershaw, who sang a canopy of The Mamas & the Papas’ “California Dreamin’.”
