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So my favorite book of all time is Less Than Zero. I Have a first edition copy of the book signed by Bret Easton Ellis. After seeing the movie again late night on cable I thought it would be amazing if I could get the cast of the movie to sign it as well. Do you think it would be possible for me to send my book out to the actors one at a time and see my book again. It would be amazing to get James Spader, Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz and Robert Downey Jr to sign it. Any tips or advice would be appreciated.

Lovely idea, (but crazy).

I really wouldn't do it.

One of the first rules is "don't send out anything you're not prepared to lose", and a signed first edition of Less Than Zero already sounds like something I'd not want to lose. You will lose it.

However, assuming that you've done the research and checked that they all have a record for signing, (I haven't checked, but would imagine with stars of that calibre that they either send Studio Fan Mail pre-prints, secretarials, or throw the stuff in the bin. You'll need to do the research on that, check the "celebrities believed to send secretarials" thread on the "is my autograph authentic" board). To start you on your way, I've never seen a Robert Downey jr success posted.

What I would do, is put together a bookplate using the cover of the book as a template, and send that to each in turn, explaining what you're doing in the letter if you think it'll help, and also send a photo - so if the bookplate gets lost you'll at least have the individual signed photos.

I did that when I wrote to a team of British comedians, and the last of them only sent back the solo picture. I emailed his agent, and he was terribly apologetic. He said he remembered signing it, but must have sent it to somebody else. (He very kindly sorted out a replacement signed by the whole team for me - but I wouldn't expect that to be the outcome in most cases).