50: Illeana Douglas on CONNECTICUT IN THE MOVIES

50: Illeana Douglas on CONNECTICUT IN THE MOVIES

Author: Jennifer Taub & Politicon LLC November 5, 2023 Duration: 58:01
Film star Illeana Douglas is Jen’s guest today. Ileana is the author of the gorgeous new book: Connecticut in the Movies: From Dream Houses to Dark Suburbia. This spans around 100 years from the silent film era up through the early 21st Century. This beautiful coffee table book is filled with delicious never-before-seen movie stills and back lot stories.

Illeana  has starred in too many films to mention. You know her from the movies including Cape Fear, Ghost of My Heart, Good Fellas, and To Die For, plus the many television shows like Entourage, Seinfeld, and Six Feet Under. Her first book, I Blame Dennis Hopper: And Other Stories from a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies was named Best Pop Culture book of the year in 2015 by Entertainment Weekly.

With Connecticut in the Movies, readers revisit classic films and are introduced to deep cuts. Illeana also places more contemporary films in context. My favorite chapter is Dark Suburbia Redux which focuses on more contemporary films like The Ice Storm 1997, directed by Ang Lee and starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver.  

I love it, but so do so many others. Here’s what Pulitizer-Prize winning investigative journalist Ronan Farrow had to say: “In Connecticut in the Movies, Illeana Douglas puts on her historian’s hat and takes readers on a compelling tour of her adopted state’s surprising, colorful, and sometimes dark history in cinema. Her adoration of the state, and the movies, leaps off of these pages—and it’s infectious.”



Contact Booked Up:
You can email Jen & the Booked Up team at: BOOKEDUP@POLITICON.COM or by writing to: 

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Get More from Jen Taub:
Twitter| Money & Gossip  Substack | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY 

Get More from Iliana Douglas:
Twitter| Website  | Author of CONNECTICUT IN THE MOVIES

For anyone who’s ever finished a great book and immediately wanted to dissect it with a smart friend, Booked Up with Jen Taub is that conversation. Hosted by author and legal commentator Jennifer Taub, this podcast digs into the ideas, arguments, and narratives shaping our world, all through the lens of what we’re reading. It’s less a formal book review and more a lively, critical exploration. Episodes weave together themes from politics, culture, and current events, treating books as vital source material for understanding the bigger picture. You’ll hear Taub’s insightful commentary and analysis, often drawing connections between an author’s work and the real-world issues it illuminates. The discussion feels urgent and relevant, whether tackling a new release or a classic with renewed significance. Listening to this podcast is like joining a book club where the conversation is always sharp, informed, and unafraid to challenge conventional wisdom. It’s for readers, thinkers, and anyone curious about the power of stories to explain our complicated present.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 59

Booked Up with Jen Taub
Podcast Episodes
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Duration: 50:42
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44: TUCKER with Rick Wilson and Martin Pengelly [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:10
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43: ALI VELSHI: Banned Book Club [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:25
Ali Velshi is Jen’s guest today. You know him as an anchor and business correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC. His show Velshi appears every Saturday and Sunday from 10 - noon. Ali is also the host of the podcast Velshi B…
42: Hadley Vlahos, THE IN-BETWEEN [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:31
Hadley Vlahos is the author of the bestelling new book The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life’s Final Moments. She is a hospice registered nurse, mother, and wife. Hadley’s husband Chris also works in the m…
41:  LAWYER, JAILER, ALLY, FOE with Eric Muller [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:19:41
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40: Trump Booked Up Club with Jill Wine-Banks and Morgan Cloud [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:14:21
Donald Trump is the subject of our book club today. Trump is not known to be a big reader or even an author – his most popular book Art of the Deal, was ghost written by Tony Schwarz, as you probably know. Nevertheless,…
39: Connie Schultz: She’s every genre [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 56:50
Pulitzer-Prize winning writer Connie Schultz is Jen’s guest today. Connie is the author of two memoirs. Her first Life Happens: And Other Unavoidable Truths and second …And His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman Beside…