Investigation Discovery Explores the Dark - and Lewdly Lighter - Sides of Hollywood with New Series, JAMES ELLROY'S LA: CITY OF DEMONS

SILVER SPRING, Md., Nov. 16, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Bestselling author James Ellroy, who penned "The Black Dahlia," "L.A. Confidential" and "Blood's A Rover," takes a fresh look at some of Hollywood's most nihilistically notorious crimes from the past to the present in JAMES ELLROY'S LA: CITY OF DEMONS.  This new six-part series shamelessly showcases Ellroy's larger-than-life personality and his vivid verbal style as he exhumes, explores and exposes the delicious dirt that cascades behind the silver screen.  Ellroy has insidiously instigated himself with law enforcement sources – and he steroid-stamps these stories as only he can.  You'll get in-depth interviews with witless witnesses, preening prosecutors, insipid investigators and jaded jurors.  Each episode guides viewers through the crevices of crime that demonically define the City of Angels.  Fiercely forcing his way into every episode is the animated, proudly profane bull terrier, Barko.  This gruff K-9 cop corrupts the corruption-prone Ellroy and gives the audience a putrid peek into his own lurid life, dealing dope and peddling payoffs.  Untamed, unfiltered, and narrated by the elephant-ego'd Ellroy himself, JAMES ELLROY'S LA: CITY OF DEMONS premieres Wednesday, January 19 at 10 PM (ET) on Investigation Discovery.  

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"James Ellroy is the preeminent crime writer in the world, today, and provides our audience with an outrageous roller-coaster ride that neither they nor ID ever wants to end," said Henry Schleiff, president and general manager, Investigation Discovery.  "Indeed, while Ellroy has said that crime owns him, what is even more fascinating is how this 'Diogenes of the Dark' captivates millions of readers and our audience through his incredible storytelling."  

Ellroy salivatingly says, "Crime is a palpitatingly perennial gas – and L.A. crime is the craaaazy creme-de-la-crime.  Viewers are terribly tired of the trailer trash tragedies that caustically contaminate documentary TV.  They wantonly want to groove, grok, gravitate and glide toward glamorous crime – and L.A. is where all that shimmering sh…stuff…pervertedly percolates.  This show will be serious, satirical and great fun.  My mad mottoes are 'Tell it like it is' and 'Let it all hang out' – and Barko, the baaaad bull terrier, and I intend to do both."

The series begins with a deeply personal account of the genesis of Ellroy's fascination with crime, the unsolved murder of his mother in 1958.  This harrowing event formed his moral and spiritual attachment to devastated women.  "Murdered women own me," he narrates, and after a looong downward spiral with drugs, booze and petty crime, the obsession provided him with the fire and fury to write his unprecedentedly praised crime novels and memoirs.  Subsequent episodes of the series focus on the hellbent and homicidally hip hives of Hollyweird, shedding sharp shears of light on horrifying historical and coldly contemporary L.A. crime.  You'll learn how the mob and the LAPD shaped the grim side of Los Angeles, made famous in film noir; you'll predator-prowl L.A.'s nightclubs and be tempted by the carcinogenic cocktail of murder and drugs.  Ellroy also explores the 1950's tabloids, which had the power and pizzazz to make or break movie stars en masse.  The series examines serial killers – a stagnating staple of torrid tinseltown – such as the "Hillside Stranglers" and photo fiend Bill Bradford.  Finally, Ellroy tells us how four salacious celebrities sold their soiled souls and ended up morte, muerto, done in and dead – all doomonic deaths inherently indigenous to L.A.

ABOUT JAMES ELLROY

James Ellroy is widely recognized as the world's greatest living crime writer.  After his aforementioned early life, he proceeded to subvert and finally redefine the entire genre.  His L.A. Quartet novels – The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential and White Jazz – have won numerous awards and were international bestsellers.  His Underworld U.S.A. novels – American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, and Blood's A Rover – were even more acclaimed.  American Tabloid was Time Magazine's Novel of the Year for 1995; The Cold Six Thousand was a New York Times Notable Book and a Los Angeles Times Best Book for 2001.  Ellroy's memoir, My Dark Places, was a Time Best Book and a New York Times Notable Book for 1996.  Ellroy's most recent memoir, The Hilliker Curse, was recently published by Alfred A. Knopf.  More information is available at http://www.jamesellroy.net

JAMES ELLROY'S LA: CITY OF DEMONS is produced for Investigation Discovery by Digital Ranch Productions.  For Digital Ranch, Rob Kirk, Rob Lihani and David Cargill are executive producers.  For Investigation Discovery, Sara Kozak is executive producer and vice president of production and Henry Schleiff is president and general manager.

About Investigation Discovery

Investigation Discovery (ID), America's leading investigation network, is the source for fact-based investigative content about culture, history and the human condition.  Providing the highest quality investigative programming focused on fascinating stories of human nature from the past to the present, Investigation Discovery's in-depth documentaries and series challenge viewers on important issues shaping our culture and defining our world.  As the premier authority in real investigations, ID is expanding partnerships with established news organizations and production companies to bring the strongest analytic, factual investigative and current affairs programming to over 63 million U.S. households.  For more information, please visit investigationdiscovery.com

SOURCE Investigation Discovery