Ah, the glamorous life of a Hollywood star.

Make-up call at 5:30 a.m. Run a few lines with a hunky co-star while somebody dresses you in an outfit that rivals anything the average person would ever find at a local discount store. Go out and act like someone else for a few hours. Rake in the cash.

Uh huh. Where do I sign up?

In the new book “Made for Each Other” by Bronwyn Cosgrave, you’ll read about the stars who are paid handsomely for being beautiful, the people who clothe them in finery, and the thirteen-and-a-half inch reason why they do it.

Back when Hollywood was a baby, film mogul Louis B. Mayer decided what studios needed was an awards ceremony. In 1928, he handpicked judges to determine prize winners. Actress Janet Gaynor was notified that she was chosen to be the first winner of the Best Actress Award.

On the morning of the first ceremony, Cosgrave says that Gaynor woke at 5 a.m., drove herself to Fox Studios and worked all day on a new movie. Just before the ceremony, she grabbed from her own closet a knit, knee-length dress that Cosgrave says was likely purchased at a children’s clothing store because Gaynor was a mere 5 feet tall and less than a hundred pounds.

By the 1930’s, Best Actress Oscar winners, most of whom labored under the studio contract system, raided their own studio costume designer’s collection or they allowed the studio to create something special, dramatic and glamorous.

Spangles and sequins were downplayed during World War II, but when the war ended, Hollywood was eager to return to the old glamour. Best Actress nominees went to their favorite designers and boutiques, sometimes personally flying to Paris to find that one-of-a-kind Oscar gown.

How times have changed. Now, in the days leading up to Oscar Night, designers compete for stars, stars choose from hundreds of dresses that arrive shipped to their homes, fashion professionals are hired to pull together a “look”, and millions of dollars are at stake. Courtney Love once said about the ceremony, “[It] isn’t about who wins, it’s about who wears the best dress!”

I haven’t missed an Oscars telecast since forever, so I was a little frustrated in this book at first. Author Bronwyn Cosgrave starts out hesitant and kind of dry, and what I wanted was some good old-fashioned Hollywood cattiness and gossip.

I wasn’t disappointed for long.

“Made for Each Other” dishes delightful dirt, including tales of the actress who accepted her award in her nightgown, Elizabeth Taylor’s heartbreak as Joanne Woodward accepted the Oscar in a homemade dress, why Streisand mooned the audience, why Cher wore a mohawk, the meaning behind the Uma / Oprah joke, the jealousies, the rivalries, the pretend-friendliness, the almost-disasters, and why in the world Bjork wore that unbelievable swan dress.

If Academy Awards night is sacred in your house, then by all means, add this book to your collection. “Made for Each Other” is a book made purely for Oscar addicts.

•••

“Made for Each Other”

By Bronwyn Cosgrave

c.2007, Bloomsbury USA

$29.95

308 pages, includes notes and index

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Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book. She lives in West Salem, Wis., with her two dogs and 9,800 books.

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