Starstruck

The too-wild-to-believe story of how Mexico’s queen of pop became involved in a sex cult

In 2000, an international manhunt was underway for Mexican superstar Gloria Trevi, her manager Sergio Andrade, and the young girls in their entourage. They had gone on the run after Trevi and Andrade were accused of the abuse and rape of the girls in their care. How had a superstar gotten involved in a sex cult with nearly a dozen teenage girls?

Andrade founded a performing arts school that plucked young girls out of obscurity and promised to cultivate them into stars. His first recruit was Gloria Trevi. For many girls and their parents, the opportunity was too tempting to pass up. When a known hitmaker and Mexico’s most famous singer promised they could leave their hard life behind, how could they say no? But already, whispers of abuse had been circulating, and finally, the allegations caught up to them—resulting in a two-year, international chase for the pair and the girls they had taken with them. Finally apprehended in Brazil and imprisoned there, Gloria and Sergio still had tricks up their sleeves.

In this hair-raising, masterful investigation, bestselling author and journalist Christopher McDougall uncovers the dark secrets of the “supreme diva of Mexican pop” and her mercurial manager, catching us up on this remarkable case and the civil suit that has recently been brought against them in Los Angeles. Starstruck is an eye-opening story about the allure of fame and the corrupting influence of power.“A propulsive, horrifying account of the sexual abuse scandal involving Mexican pop singer Gloria Trevi and her manager, Sergio Andrade. . . . McDougall constructs an appalling cautionary tale about craving fame and the mechanics of abuse. It’s riveting.”
—Publishers WeeklyCHRISTOPHER McDOUGALL covered wars in Rwanda and Angola as a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press before writing his bestselling book Born to Run. His fascination with the limits of human potential led to his next works Running with Sherman and Natural Born Heroes, and his Outside magazine web series, “Art of the Hero.”