Showbiz reporter Sandro Monetti: From the Tower to the heights of Hollywood his new book Confessions of a Hollywood Insider tells all

It is may come across a surprising opening question to one of Hollywood’s hottest stars of the moment Margot Robbie but one showbiz reporter Sandro Monetti felt compelled to ask.

He says: “I can’t tell you how just down to earth, she is .

“She rocked up to our interview with a plastic bag of goods, so down to earth , full of northern banter - she could easily be mistaken as a Lancashire lass.”

For the record, the Tinseltown favourite does not hail from northern England but Queensland, Australia. She grew up on a farm in Dalby, to be precise.

But it is one of many amusing anecdotes entertainments reporter and ultimate Hollywood insider Sandro Monetti, originally from the Fylde, has to share. Interviewing Margot was ‘a joy’. He has nothing but praise for her down to earth nature, and a sunny deposition, so in tune with his own Lancashire roots

He admits his life in Beverley Hills is a privileged one, having for the past 20 years had a front row seat and an exclusive pass to such conversations with the world’s biggest superstars.

The award-winning British journalist based in Los Angeles, is a regular CNN contributor, has co-hosted BBC Radio’s Academy Awards coverage and works with many major media outlets.

How do these icons react to such questions from a humble Lancashire lad?

“My go to question that has served me well is asking ‘How do you like to spend a Saturday night?’ Celebrities, even in the bubble of Hollywood, are just people, they’ve heard it all before, so finding common ground is the place to start,” he explains. “I have often found it’s the ones you wouldn’t expect to surprise you - who do.”

Sandro, reached the heights of Hollywood after working his way through national papers, magazines as both an entertainments reporter and Royal correspondent before landing his first showbiz broadcast role with Sky, as the appetite for big American TV shows grew bigger in the UK.

Sandro was the representative on the ground of sets for hits such as 24 to Lost.

But it is the foundations of his career, built in Lancashire first at the Blackpool Gazette, as a trainee in the late 1980s, he gives credit to as the scene setter and the makings of the journalist, broadcaster and script writer, he was destined to become.

The story of these beginnings, and many more exciting and exclusive ones besides, can now be enjoyed by audiences both sides of the pond in his new book Confessions of a Hollywood Insider.

He says: “I’m someone whose labour is their love and as a result I would be out every night at premieres or film parties, enjoying every minute.”

However, the buzz and excitement of LA, like much of the world, has been much quieter in 2020, even glittering awards ceremonies went virtual and Sandro, along with the majority of the entertainment industry, had time on his hands.

He says: “This was finally the opportunity to knuckle down and write the book that I have been promising myself for years that I would do. It was the 20th anniversary as a showbiz correspondent in Hollywood so it seemed appropriate.

“I thought I could document it, give people a laugh, like I have my friends for many years and also show what I have learnt along the way about the nature of fame and what it takes to stay at the top.”

The book is available now, lifting the lid on some hysterical, awkward, heart-warming and endearing moments.

From headbutting Tom Cruise, getting knocked back by Britney Spears to interviewing his idol Sylvester Stallone on stage in front of thousands, and a bizarre meeting with Samuel L Jackson... all the real life goings on in and around Hollywood, outside the daily grind of making blockbuster movies. The hours are long but never dull .

“It’s a 24 hour, 100mph lifestyle as a celebrity interviewer - I didn’t ever have time for journals or diaries of encounters with stars. Mums are better than Google. My mum back in Blackpool, provided some of my best research. She has kept so many of my old cuttings of meetings and interviews and that was a lovely way of reliving the memories.

“Looking through all the press cuttings, stories I’d written at the time - I was able to reflect. I’m so incredibly lucky to meet so many people famous of our lifetime, I have such a unique job as a celebrity interviewer.

“But there have been so many awkward moments - it seems so cool but actually I’m a bit of an idiot.”

In writing the book Sandro started with a list of 100 of the world’s biggest stars. There are nearer 140 stories in the final edition.

“When I had written the initial names I realised, my goodness I’ve met every single one of them.

“When you’ve met Donald Trump or Princess Diana or Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Sandra Bullock and Margot Robbie it’s not like you’re going to forget it. What tends to retain in my brain is these meetings with these iconic stars, a meeting from 10 years ago with a celebrity is crystal clear.

"Research was a bit of memory, a bit of Mum and the book is the result.”

Ironically one of the few negative stories in the book features Sandro’s mum Virginia, fulfilling a lifetime ambition of meeting with her idol Barry Manilow at a concert in Las Vegas.

It was one of the those experiences which follows the adage ‘you should never meet your heroes’.

“So addressing the audience, Barry called my mother to go and join him on stage. She got to the front and that is when he leaned to her and said ‘no, not you, the pretty one behind you’.

My mum has never listened to a Barry Manilow record since and who can blame her.”

Sandro explains growing up in the entertainment capital Blackpool brought ‘stars to his eyes’, in his early years.

“I was always star struck by celebrity. I’ve got a bit better about it over the years but it’s still very difficult to hold it together when you’re face-to-face with an icon, someone you’ve admired.

The book features more than 100 celebrities but in a way I’m writing about myself, my own journey and its interesting to note the progression,the lessons I learned starting out my journalism career on the Blackpool Gazette and that still sustains me today, in terms of how to interview, how to handle yourself, how to get the story.

“It’s just the faces and the names of the people. It felt it could have been a missed opportunity if I didn’t put this down.

“I heard a phrase when I first moved to Hollywood ‘the bigger the star, the nicer they are’ and one of my first ever major interviews was with Sir Paul McCartney and there was no reason for a Beatle to be nice to me but he was unfailingly polite and professional.

And that was something I realised that most of the big stars have in common, the ones that have endured, is they know how to handle themselves with fans and press, always kind and generous.

“It tends to be, the ones that are rude and dismissive who are the ones that very quickly disappear but the vast majority of huge stars are really nice, when you meet them.

“I used to be a bit dismissive of the phrase ‘the press can make you or break you’ but certainly now in recent years, how the internet and social media has evolved, it can be true.

The nicer you are when dealing with the press, the less likely they’re going to be writing nasty things about you.”

Sandro Monetti’s book Confessions of a Hollywood Insider is available now from Amazon, Blackwell’s and The Book Depository.