What happens when your teenage celebrity crush becomes a relationship that spans nearly 50 years … and you eventually realize you have to let him go? Nikki Nash began working on TV’s “Mary Hartman,” leading to stints as an associate director on a variety of shows including “Soul Train,” “Love Connection,” “Jeopardy,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” “Ellen,” and over a decade with Conan O’Brien. Now, her candid memoir “Collateral Stardust: Chasing Warren Beatty and Other Foolish Things” (Sibylline Press) offers a wild, funny and deeply personal journey through Old Hollywood, addiction, sobriety, reinvention and the realization that sometimes the person you can’t let go of is the one you need to leave behind.  

Nash explores her extraordinary evolution with actor Warren Beatty (“Bonnie and Clyde,” “Reds,” “Dick Tracy”) from teenage obsession to romance to friendship, and ultimately to the realization that the relationship had become an addiction she needed to break. At 65, a visit with Beatty forces Nash to confront the painful truth that the relationship she'd spent decades chasing no longer existed as she imagined. But her story extends far beyond one famous man. Growing up surrounded by musicians, actors, filmmakers, political activists and eccentrics, and later working behind the scenes in television and at the Oscars, Nash offers a rare, front-row perspective on Hollywood from the 1960s through the 1990s. 

Her memoir is filled with astounding stories and unforgettable characters, but also reveals the less glamorous reality behind the celebrity façade, including alcoholism, depression, an eating disorder, difficult relationships and the struggle to find purpose. Funny, candid, and irreverent, Nash's story is ultimately about more than just Hollywood or one famous relationship: It's about finding purpose when life doesn't follow your own plan for it.