Richard Horgan writes at FilmStew that Peter Biskind's new book, Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film, will be the talk of the parties at this month's Sundance Film Festival.

Agents, publicists and studio executives are morbidly fascinated by the spectacle of that rare journalist able to break through the tightly controlled, acquiescent, tit-for-tat rules that govern modern era entertainment journalism. Thanks to the success of his previous Hollywood tome, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls… and the unimpeachable nature of an east coast advance, Biskind once again lifts the industry gossip veil up high, much like Amy Wallace did a few years ago with her Los Angeles Magazine profile of Variety chief Peter Bart.

Biskind used to be the executive editor of Premiere and the editor in chief of American Film.