This first biography of Susan Sarandon highlights the real person behind the screen image, exploring her idealism, values, and combative spirit in the service of higher goals, while also celebrating her stunning film career. Renowned celebrity biographer Marc Shapiro traces Sarandonfs life from her strict Catholic upbringing in suburbia and her early days of protest in high school for civil rights and against the Viet Nam War to her more recent involvement with women and children's rights in Nicaragua, the AIDS quilt project, ACT UP, the disruption of an Academy Awards ceremony to protest the internment of Haitians with HIV, and many other ongoing projects. Shapiro also discusses her first career successes through high-profile roles in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Pretty Baby, Atlantic City, and Thelma and Louise, as well as her openly unconventional relationships with directors Louis Malle and Franco Amuri, and actor Tim Robbins. So motivated is Sarandon by her convictions that she often chooses roles to reflect larger issues. She agreed to play in the film Dry White Season to draw attention to the evils of apartheid, and her opposition to the death penalty resulted in her Academy Award-winning performance in Dead Men Walking. Over the years she has paid a price for her activist positions, and supposedly she has accumulated a sizable FBI file. Nonetheless, she has proved time and again that she is always ready to speak out and act up whenever she believes it will do some good. No ordinary biography, Susan Sarandon is a captivating page-turner about a sexy, alluring, and passionately committed actress who has broken every conventional rule. From the looks of Shapiro's body of work, he plies his trade writing mostly unauthorized biographies of "celebrities of the moment," such as Carlos Santana, Lauryn Hill, Mariah Carey, J.K. Rowling, and Freddie Prinze Jr. Though this is the first biography of Susan Sarandon, it has a mechanical quality, as if it were produced by a machine designed to cash in on a star's current success. Shapiro neatly charts Sarandon's growth from a strict Catholic childhood to accidental actress to activist, but the writing lacks eloquence, and little is here that can't be found in Current Biography and other secondary sources. In fact, the bibliography shows that Shapiro interviewed only one person, Ira Glasser of the American Civil Liberties Union. The rest of the quotes and stories come from previously published books and articles. Unless your patrons are clamoring for a biography of Sarandon, wait until she authorizes one or writes her own book. Rosellen Brewer, Monterey Cty. Free Libs., Salinas, CA Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Veteran celebrity biographer Shapiro limns superstar Sarandon and her activism simply and straightforwardly. Amadou Diallo, Ralph Nader, AIDS--Sarandon's an activist on all fronts and, according to Shapiro, always has been. When she was younger, civil rights and the Vietnam War were her passions, so the fact that she finds time for politics in between such engagements as having an affair with Louis Malle during the filming of Pretty Baby and shooting PC epics like Thelma and Louise should surprise no one. Shapiro takes us back even earlier, to Sarandon's childhood and attendance at an all-girl, all-white Catholic school; "I was asking all the wrong questions even back in the third grade," she told an interviewer in 1995. By the time she costarred in The Rocky Horror Picture Show , she had overcome the whole idea of wrong questions. Moderately revealing, mildly scintillating, with enough movie guff to hold casual readers (e.g., what Tim Robbins is really like), this probably isn't the final word on Sarandon. Mike Tribby Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "...a primer with lessons in how to express one's self and stand up against perceived wrongs..." -- Hollywood Reporter, December 27, 2001 "Most interesting how she readied herself for her Oscar-winning portrayal of death-row spiritual advisor Sister Helen Prejean..." -- Providence Journal, January 6, 2002 "Susan Sarandon is a rarity, a supremely gifted actress who marches to her own music, and to hell with what anyone else things. Her story is both exciting and revelatory. The more you read about her, the better you like and admire her." -- Jack Valenti, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Motion Picture Association, Washington, DC "This engrossing biography portrays Susan Sarandon and her ever evolving blend of being both a superb actress and a courageously engaged citizen. For Susan Sarandon, her fans, and her causes, this book persuades the reader that the best is yet to come." -- Ralph Nader "Susan Sarandon's watchful eye and passion for human rights embodies the mission of the Creative Coalition--educating, advocating, and mobilizing arts and entertainment leaders on behalf of social welfare issues. She has long been setting the standard for c