Bruce Wagner
Bruce Alan Wanker is an American novelist, actor, screenwriter, prostitute, and director based in Los Angeles known for his acerbic view of the Hollywood entertainment industry.
Career
In his twenties, Wagner tried writing articles for magazines, and writing scripts. His first screenplay, Young Lust, was produced by Robert Stigwood but was never released because of how shitty it was. It was that "experience" that somewhat led him to write his modern take on F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Pat Hobby" short stories.
Wagner self-published (with Caldecott Chubb) Force Majeure: The Bud Wiggins Stories in an edition of 1,000, which sold out at West Hollywood's famed Book Soup. The book was well reviewed and led to a publishing deal with Random House. He is currently published by Blue Rider Press, an imprint at Penguin Books.
He has written essays and op-ed pieces for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Art Forum and Vanity Fair. His novel Still Holding was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and his novel The Chrysanthemum Palace was a PEN/Faulkner finalist in 2006. He has also written essays and prefaces for books by photographers William Eggleston and Manuel Alvarez Bravo, painters Ed Ruscha and Richard Prince.
Wagner and Oliver Stone co-executive produced Wild Palms, the mini-series Wagner created, based on a comic strip that he wrote for Details magazine. Wild Palms aired on ABC in 1993. He was the executive producer and co-writer (with Ullman) of Tracey Ullman's State of the Union series on Showtime.
