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Bill Givens is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and television writer. He is the author of seven books and is a regular contributor to a variety of entertainment publications, including Premiere, Animation, Video Software, Arts & Entertainment, Memphis Magazine, and more. His articles have been syndicated by The New York Times Feature Syndicate and Universal Features.
He is a popular college lecturer and radio talk-show guest, and has appeared regularly on Dateline NBC, along with appearances on The Today Show, Entertainment Tonight, E!, Extra, Inside Edition, CNN Showbiz Today, ABC World News with Peter Jennings, and a number of local television programs.
After growing up in Northern Mississippi, Mr. Givens spent a number of years in advertising and public relations, largely in Memphis, TN. Realizing one day that "I had never had a job that I really liked," he embarked on a free-lance writing career, and his works began to appear in local and regional publications. After obtaining his Private Pilot's License, he wrote his first book, Flying With Loran-C (Tab Books/McGraw Hill 1985).
In 1984, he headed for California. Since that time he has interviewed and profiled a number of major celebrities, edited Animation Magazine, developed segments for several national television shows and entertainment-related video projects, and wrote Hollywood Stuntmakers, starring James Coburn, for The Discovery Channel.
He was a First-Place Winner in the Southern Literary Festival and his aviation book won First Place, Non-Fiction, in the Aviation/Space Writers Award competition.
His Film Flubs books originated with an article he wrote for Premiere Magazine in 1988. The first Film Flubs book was published in 1990, followed by Son of Film Flubs, Film Flubs: The Sequel, and Roman Soldiers Don't Wear Watches. Two of his books were published recently: Film Flubs 1999, a continuation of the popular series, and Reel Gags, a companion volume which outlines Inside Jokes in movies.
Articles about his work have appeared in The New York Post, The New York Daily News, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, as well as virtually every major-market newspaper in America. He is profiled in the October, 1999 issue of Biography Magazine.
A popular radio guest, he does approximately 150 interviews each year, and has made repeated appearances on the British Broadcasting System and the CBS Late, Late Radio Show with Tom Synder and Mark Summers.
His Film Flubs books are published in France as Cinemato Gaffes (Editions Ramsay, Paris).
He was a founder of the Los Angeles Historic Theater Foundation, a group dedicated to preserving the city's spectacular movie palaces, and is a communications advisor to the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.
