Waiter to the Rich and Shameless
by Paul Hartford
If you pore over gossip magazines and spend more time reading rumors on social media than recipes, you’ll be the perfect audience for Paul Hartford’s tell-all Waiter to the Rich and Shameless. He doesn’t pretend to be an eloquent writer, an excellent citizen, or a man humbly sharing his life that happened to involve celebrities. This is a “shameless” name-dropping gossip rag. Hartford bets on readers’ desire to learn what Johnny Depp, Ozzie Osbourne, Russell Crowe, Rod Stewart, and others order to drink and how much they tip. He uses foul language, pop culture jokes, and an equally thick layer of sarcasm while complimenting people as scathingness when criticizing them. In one section, he lists a bunch of rock stars and his opinions of their drink orders, as if he has the right to judge a man’s character by one evening’s preference of beer or martini.
While you will learn brief anecdotal stories about movie stars, producers, and singers, the majority of the book is in fact, chronicling his floundering adventures. He openly admits to frequenting wild parties, having promiscuous sex, and partaking in massive amounts of alcohol and drugs. He’s not a very likable man, and unless you’re equally as unlikable, you probably won’t enjoy the book or the way he writes it. Obviously, it wasn’t my cup of tea, but I understand there are millions of people who will love it – otherwise the modern mean style of humor wouldn’t have snowballed so quickly.
While you will learn brief anecdotal stories about movie stars, producers, and singers, the majority of the book is in fact, chronicling his floundering adventures. He openly admits to frequenting wild parties, having promiscuous sex, and partaking in massive amounts of alcohol and drugs. He’s not a very likable man, and unless you’re equally as unlikable, you probably won’t enjoy the book or the way he writes it. Obviously, it wasn’t my cup of tea, but I understand there are millions of people who will love it – otherwise the modern mean style of humor wouldn’t have snowballed so quickly.