Books like The actress by Elizabeth Sims

"Tori Sinclair has found a sense of home with the Sweet Briar Ladies Society Sewing Circle. During their get-togethers, she can relax with her sewing and listen in on Sweet Briar's latest gossip. Bet when the town is chosen to be the setting of Warren Shoemaker's movie, the sewing circle gets cought up in bigger drama. With dreams of stardom, everyone is hoping to be cast as an extra - which lucky Tori is. But fame has its price, as they learn when Anita Belise, the film's leading actress, is found murdered"--Publisher.

Studying to be a lawyer, Rita takes dreggy acting jobs to pay the bills. Dressed in police uniform as an extra on a movie shoot, she wanders into a rough part of town only to be pulled into a vicious assault. Rita chases off the men but the boy they attacked isn’t out of danger yet. Rita’s heart goes out to him and his grandmother Amaryllis B. Cubitt, the director of an urban mission that Rita had turned to for help years ago. But the mission has changed from its unassuming past, and is now flush with private donations and gruff guards posted at the doors. Rita can’t help but wonder if now Amaryllis is too proud to ask for the help she needs.

With his friend Charlotte, twelve-year-old William Eng, a Chinese-American boy, escapes from a Seattle orphanage determined to find his mother Willow and discover his connection to the exotic film star.

The California dream weavers have invaded Charm City with their cameras, their stars, and their controversy... .When private investigator Tess Monaghan literally runs into the crew of the fledgling TV series Mann of Steel while sculling, she expects sharp words and evil looks, not an assignment. But the company has been plagued by a series of disturbing incidents since its arrival on location in Baltimore: bad press, union threats, and small, costly on-set "accidents" that have wreaked havoc with its shooting schedule. As a result, Mann's creator, Flip Tumulty, the son of a Hollywood legend, is worried for the safety of his young female lead, Selene Waites, and asks Tess to serve as her bodyguard/babysitter. Tumulty's concern may be well founded. Not long ago a Baltimore man was discovered dead in his own home, surrounded by photos of the beautiful, difficult superstar-in-the-making.In the past, Tess has had enough trouble guarding her own body. Keeping a spoiled movie princess under wraps may be more than she can handle—even with the help of Tess's icily unflappable friend Whitney—since Selene is not as naive as everyone seems to think, and far more devious than she initially appears to be. This is not Tess's world. And these are not her kind of people, with their vanities, their self-serving agendas and invented personas, and their remarkably skewed visions of reality—from the series' aging, shallow, former pretty-boy leading man to its resentful, always-on-the-make cowriter to the officious young assistant who may be too hungry for her own good.But the fish-out-of-water P.I. is abruptly pulled back in by an occurrence she's all too familiar with—murder. Suddenly the wall of secrets around Mann of Steel is in danger of toppling, leaving shattered dreams, careers, and lives scattered among the ruins—a catastrophe that threatens the people Tess cares about...and the city she loves.

"[Vaudeville actress turned Hollywood insider] Jessie's thrilled when Bruno Heilmann, a movie studio bigwig, invites her to a party. Shes even more delighted to run into a face from her past at that party. But the following day, Jessie learns that sometime in the wee hours of the morning both her old friend and Bruno Heilmann were brutally murdered. She's devastated, but with her skill as an actress, access to the wardrobes and resources of a film studio, and a face not yet famous enough to be recognized, Jessie is uniquely positioned to dig into the circumstances surrounding these deaths"--Amazon.com.