Book excerpt: In the fly- on- the-wall tradition of David Niven's bestselling THE MOON'S A BALLOON comes a hilarious take on what making movies and working with big- and small- stars today is really likea As Andy Warhol said, everyone has a shot at 15 minutes of fame, but he didn't mention where. Being famous in Latvia or Lightning Ridge is a whole other animal to being famous in Hollywood. And sometimes being almost famous can be a helluva lot more fun. In the same year Toni Collette won an AFI Best Actress award for 'Muriel's Wedding', Nicholas Hope won Best Actor for a very different film, 'Bad Boy Bubby'. The latter evaded blockbuster status and became a cult hit. So did its star. While Toni was jetting off to Hollywood to co- star with Bruce Willis in 'The Sixth Sense', Hope was heading off to Berlev g to make a film about corruption in the Norwegian cod fishing industry. But it's not all snow, home- burnt alcohol and quilted jumpsuits. Being almost famous takes the boy from Whyalla all over the world, from the glamour of the Venice Film Festival as Best Actor nominee to a whole other sort of festival in Riga, from obscurity in New York to star status in Lightning Ridge. Along the way, he falls madly in love and meets more crazy people, famous and otherwise, than any former bank clerk from the bush could ever have daydreamed about. With a wonderful sense of the ridiculous, Nicholas Hope offers a throughly entertaining insider's view of a world he clearly loves despite all its flaws, and is never better than when he is laughing at himself.