"Laura is interviewing publishers who are bidding on her memoirs." [Post]
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In perfect sync with some apparently genuine positive news out of Iraq, Judith Miller is yet again delivering spoonfed reports on America's glorious strategy there, just as she did before she was disgraced at the Times. It seems we are finally being greeted as liberators — within the massive prison camps we have constructed. Miller, now employed by the neocons at the Manhattan Institute, reports in Reader's Digest that Iraq's "Camp Bucca" has been transformed from a riot zone into a super-empowering bakery, gym and mini-University, except for the 20 percent of prisoners sent to some sort of inner prison too terrifying to detail:
...thousands of once illiterate detainees have learned how to read and write. Hundreds more are now studying math, science, geography, civics, Arabic, and English and learning carpentry, bricklaying, and other skills that may enable them to feed their families after their release. They play soccer and Ping-Pong, visit their families, pray, and debate how to accurately interpret the Koran they can now read for themselves.
...after monitoring and assessing the detainees, his team began separating the hard-core Al Qaeda and other militants from the 80 percent or more who had joined the insurgency simply to feed their families or because they had been threatened into cooperating.
The story is built around quotes from the major-general in charge of the prison, his friend/subordinate, a military flack and the major-general's superior officer. Arthur Sulzberger must be so proud of how Miller has bounced back!
[Reader's Digest via Huffington Post]
Franz Kafka wrote dark, brilliant, surreal works of souls in crisis, bureaucracy run amuck, dehumanizing class systems—and a lot of dirty, sexy smut. Researches have discovered a bounty of porn in the great writer's notebooks, and they mean for you to read it. "Experts have unearthed a stash of explicit pornographic material belonging to German author Franz Kafka. The erotic material has been ignored by scholars anxious to preserve the writer’s image. James Hawes, an academic and Kafka expert came across the material in copies of Kafka’s journals in the British Library in London and the Bodleian in Oxford. Hawes said that the author’s stash shows him as more human than a popular quasi-saintly writer. 'These are not naughty postcards from the beach. They are undoubtedly porn, pure and simple. Some of it is quite dark. It’s quite unpleasant.'"
“Academics have pretended it did not exist. The Kafka industry doesn’t want to know such things about its idol.
“Of the world’s authors, only Shakespeare generates more PhDs, more biographies, more coffee table books. Everything Kafka wrote, every postcard he ever sent, every page of his diary is regarded as a potential Ark of the Covenant. Yet no one has ever shown his readers Kafka’s porn,” he added.
Some of the author’s erotic material would be published in Excavating Kafka this month. [Hindustan Times]
Alec Niedenthal is the 17-year-old Alabama novelist who became suddenly prominent thanks to a cheeky letter in the Times Book Review last month. The missive promised a new wave of fiction from a "MySpace-addled" generation, called out well-known older authors and included many large words. This attracted interest from publishers HarperCollins and Grove/Atlantic and an inquiry from Jonathan Franzen’s literary agent. But of this group, only one party, HarperCollins, deigned to meet with Niedenthal on his trip to New York this past weekend, and the ambitious young writer left town with a tote bag rather than any deal. He'll presumably have a more fruitful tour after finishing his own edition of the collective "manuscript" alluded to in his Times letter. Until then, the hordes of older novelists struggling to get published have no reason to gouge their eyes out with a fork. After the jump, Niedenthal recalls for the Observer his HarperCollins meeting.
“I was kind of anxious and nervous to meet important people,” he recalled that night. “At first we just talked about books, mostly stuff that he had published in his division. He gave me a couple books that he had published.” Alec paused after he said this for about 30 seconds to finish typing out a text message. “He also gave me this,” he added, indicating a totebag, “which is really cool. I’ve never really had a totebag before.”
As for the novel, part of which Mr. Callahan had read: “It follows three impressionable, sort of naive, romantic kids who go on this sort of introspective road trip...
“We didn’t discuss it too much. He just told me he liked it but that I needed to tighten it up.”
[Observer] (photo via Facebook via Observer)
The Los Angeles Times interviewed internet gossip belcher Perez Hilton for the "How I Made It" feature in its business section. The newspaper does its best to puff Hilton up, saying he charges "up to" $54,000 for a one-day ad package and noting he once wrote for Star magazine — without mentioning that Hilton was fired from that same job, per the LA Times' own reporting. The not-so-subtle message to readers: If this guy in bunny slippers can make $50k per day off his crayon-illustrated website, why is the recession kicking your ass? That's OK, since Hilton takes himself down a peg, by talking about his sex life:
What fame hasn't brought: Hilton dishes that "in 2007, I got laid once. One time. Which, for a gay man, is unheard of. That's like, celibate."
How sad and cringe-inducing. But maybe Perez just got way too picky after his 2006 makeout session with John Mayer. He had at least one really, really desperate groupie sending him a sex tape and everything! Now is no time to start holding yourself to "standards" or whatever, Perez.
[LA Times]
It all began back on November 5th, 2007 when members of the Writer’s Guild of America walked away from their jobs and began a strike. And 100 days later, it’s over.
Yesterday’s vote by 3,775 writers showed that 90% of them were willing to accept the new contract between the WGA and the entertainment industry studios they work for. Reportedly the big issue was income from Internet sources.
At this year’s Golden Globe Awards, there won’t be any actors to present or accept the awards. How weird!
The show, set to take place January 13th, will be devoid of any Screen Actors Guild members, meaning that all the nominees and most audience members will be staying home.
It’s been going on for too long, and the Hollywood writers’ strike is starting to have a deep impact on the entertainment industry.
And celebrities like “Heroes” actress Ali Larter have joined the striking writers, lending support and encouragement (and in some cases pizza and doughnuts) during this time of industry unrest.
It’s hard times right now in Los Angeles, California for entertainment workers. The Writers’ Strike is putting people out of work, and celebrities are doing what they can to support the picketers.
America Ferrera and Rebecca Romijn from the hit show “Ugly Betty” were on the scene, showing love to their fellow workers. And the Governor of California, former actor Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced plans to bring the strike to an end.