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Drumrolls are beginning about Michael Gross’ Unreal Estate: Money, Ambition and the Lust for Land in Los Angeles, destined for the bestseller lists in November.

“This is fresh turf for Michael,” reveals his Broadway Books editor Peter Gethers. “To say that Michael lives to promote his work is an understatement. No one works harder to garner attention for his books. The book’s 488 pages and photographs will drive the media mad, thinking that they know this story, but they don’t. "

We've always appreciated and admired Michael's literary oeuvre, and with Unreal Estate he'll have a field day stripping bare the glamorous West Coast. From Beverly Hills to Bel-Air, Holmby Hills, Beverly Park, etc.

“Michael headed West to explore the secret history of Los Angeles through real estate," says Peter Gethers. "He exposes the world’s richest enclaves of wealth – and the fascinating folk who created them and live there.

“Gay Talese finds that Michael’s carved out a niche for himself, not only with substantial and consistent sales, but as a chronicler of the rich. He tackles the powerful – up close and personal – with meticulous reporting and writing that’s commercial and entertaining. A potent combination.”

Written over two years, Unreal Estate’s cast of characters includes knowns and should-be-knowns and the dearly departed. Oil men, and the merely oily. Pimps and playgirls. Stars and moguls and business titans. From high-lifers to low and those infamously in-between.

Included are Nancy and Ronald Reagan, Cher, Sylvester Stallone, Barbara and Marvin Davis, Betsy and Alfred Bloomingdale, Candy and Aaron Spelling, Prince Rainier, Tony Curtis, Bugsy Siegel, Mark Wahlberg, Kenny Rogers, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Howard Hughes, Hugh Hefner, Magic Johnson, Gregory Peck, Gary Winnick, Ted Field, David Murdock.

Also: Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Elvis Presley, Barry Bonds, Bernie Cornfeld. Sidney Korshak, Heidi Fleiss, Larry Flynt, the Boy Prince of Porn, Sheikh Mohammed al Fassi (The Saudi Sovereign of Kitsch of Sunset Boulevard).

Assisted by his hired college students, Michael’s research remains spot-on. A Vassar graduate, Michael embraced journalism, as did his family. Sister Jane Gross is a retired reporter from the New York Times, and his father Milt wrote about sports for the New York Post.

Michael’s never been a lap dog of his subjects. And he never holds back the dish. Recently, the New York Post’s Emily Smith in her Page Six column was privy to a leak from Michael’s publisher. That billionaire Ron Burkle, who owns the manorial Greenacres in Beverly Hills, complained to Michael that hiring former President Bill Clinton as a consultant to his investment firm Yucaipa Cos. was “the dumbest thing I ever did.”

“We were friends the whole time he was in the White House,” Burkle told Michael about the Clinton relationship, which is now kaput. Burkle houseguested at the White House and Camp David, and Clinton houseguested 80 times with Burkle. Clinton flew on his private planes and Burkle became unhappy about being made fodder for the tabloids. “I didn’t create Clinton’s reputation for issues with women, but became part of the media scrutiny.”

Michael’s published the unauthorized social history of 740 Park Avenue, the World’s Richest Apartment Building (2005), followed by the engrossing (albeit controversial) Rogue’s Gallery: The Secret Story of the Lust, Lies, Greed and Betrayals, that’s subtitled The Secret History of the Moguls and the Money That Made the Metropolitan Museum (2009). He’s written the provocative Genuine Authentic: The Real Life of Ralph Lauren (2002), and Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women (1995). All remain in print, and are selling.

Next up? The luxury real estate market in New York.

They came. Throngs. They cried. At the worldwide premiere in London for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the seventh and final of J.K. Rowling’s epic series about the young Hogwarts wizard. The most successful movie franchise in history, the Potter films have grossed more than $6.3 billion.

An overwhelming ovation greeted J. K. Rowling. With Vogue editor Anna Wintour flying in for the premiere, and departing after for Paris’ couture week. The film’s Emma Watson is Vogue’s cover girl this month.

J. K. Rowling (pronounced “rolling”) began writing children’s tales when she was “five or six” about a rabbit who got measles and a giant bee named Miss Bee. Devouring books early on, she became a lifelong reader, who now contributes millions from her billionaire estate to reading foundations.

When Warner Bros. bought the Potter rights, J. K. asked that Coca-Cola, the winner of product placement for the films, contribute $18 million to the American charity Reading Is Fundamental, along with other community programs. She supports reading plans in prisons across Britain, which help and give tutoring to prisoners who cannot read.

“I don’t believe in the kind of magic that’s in my books,” she says, “but I do believe something magical happens when you read a book.”

A global brand, the Potter books are the fastest selling books in literary history, they’ve been translated in 65 languages. The first Harry Potter novel was rejected 12 times.

“There aren’t many people who have written seven-book series that have taken 17 years,” she’s reflected. “In truth, finishing was the most remarkable feeling I’ve ever had, but I couldn’t tell what was uppermost. Euphoria, or feeling devastated. I toasted Harry with champagne.”