Did Sarah Jessica Parker Get Rid of Her Mole?

Photo evidence would suggest that the prim little bump on her chin, often called the "sixth lady" on 'Sex and the City,' has gone missing.

Posted 07/16/08 in Daily Intel : In Other News

Tags: alanis morrissette, critics, In Other News, moles, nicholas cage, rex reed, sarah jessica parker, sex and the city, sexandthecitymania!

At PEN Gala, Rushdie (With Lakshmi!) and Shteyngart Bemoan Demise of Book Reviews

The T. Rex cantilevered over the famous writerly heads at the PEN gala last week at the Museum of Natural History supplied a metaphor too crushingly obvious for any of the assembled literary luminaries to use. Which didn’t make it any less valid: With one daily newspaper after another dropping book coverage, the world of letters hasn't felt this vulnerable since the first TVs flickered on. “Literature is going the way of this dinosaur!” proclaimed a very trim Gary Shteyngart. “Wait, Salman Rushdie has already said something like that, ” he continued. “Let’s elaborate. Hang on. If the literature is the dinosaur, then the creeping national illiteracy is the meteoric event that … Okay, this is not working. I can’t be pithy with my clothes on.” Within minutes, Rushdie himself arrived, accompanied by supposedly estranged wife Padma Lakshmi. His take on the book-critic shortage: “When I was starting out, any novelist’s debut, no matter how small, would get reviewed across the country. I would hate to be a young writer right now.” Letting Lakshmi get momentarily lost in the crowd while he finished his point, Rushdie added, “But let me tell you, it’s a dangerous game. The newspapers that are cutting people’s attention to reading may be cutting their own throats.” —Michael Idov

Posted 05/07/07 in Daily Intel : Party Lines

Tags: books, critics, events, gary shteyngart, padma lakshmi, party lines, salman rushdie

‘30 Rock’: Two Thumbs Finally Up, Way Up

Dedicated Daily Intel readers no doubt remember Emily Nussbaum and Adam Sternbergh's IM review of 30 Rock's premiere. Emily liked it; Adam not so much. (He likened it to wallpaper.) Five months later, how do their first impressions stand up? They checked in with each other on IM after last night's episode to find out.

Sternbergh: I'm so excited to tell everyone to run to their TVs and watch 30 Rock — oh, wait. It's being yanked off the schedule for six weeks.
Nussbaum: What??
Nussbaum: Oh, man.
Sternbergh: Didn't you see the promos for Andy Richter's new show?
Sternbergh: Andy Barker P.I.?
Nussbaum: No, I was too out of it. Oh, the sorrow of it all.
Nussbaum: People! You're watching the wrong TV!
Sternbergh: NBC finally comes up with two shows you want to watch.
Sternbergh: And schedules them IN THE SAME TIME SLOT.

Posted 03/09/07 in Daily Intel : Cultural Capital

Tags: 30 rock, adam sternbergh, alec baldwin, critics, Cultural Capital, emily nussbaum, nbc, tina fey, tracy morgan, tv

The Book Reviewer's Song

In all the brouhaha over Christopher Hitchens's paean to poop jokes in the new Vanity Fair, you might have missed the Proust Questionnaire with literary warhorse Norman Mailer. The venerable writer-cum-political agitator dishes on his hatred for Reagan, Bush, Hitler, and — oh, yeah — Pulitzer-winning Times book critic Michiko Kakutani:

What is your greatest fear?
That I will never meet Michiko Kakutani and so not be able to tell her what I think of her. She has an unseemly haste to rush into print with the first very bad review of any book I write. She does this ahead of publication. That is a strategy. If the first review of a book is dreadful, an author needs at least three good ones to change that first impression.

Hitler, in comparison, gets off easy. Not that we're surprised: We hear he thought pretty highly of The Naked and the Dead. Proust Questionnaire: Normal Mailer [VF]

Posted 12/13/06 in Daily Intel : Cultural Capital

Tags: books, critics, Cultural Capital, michiko kakutani, norman mailer, the new york times, vanity fair

New York Critics Honor ‘United 93,’ Doom Its Best Picture Hopes

New York Film Critics Circle has picked Paul Greengrass's United 93 as the best picture of the year. ("Should Hollywood be in the 9/11 business?" wondered New York's David Edelstein, one of the Circle's 27 members, when the film came out. "Only if it can make movies like United 93." He went on to call it "brilliant, tightly focused, and momentous.") But here's the question: Does the picture — a stark, minimalist retelling of the passenger revolt that brought down the flight — stand a chance at the big awards show on the other coast? For now, we can only go on the Circle's track record.

Posted 12/12/06 in Daily Intel : Cultural Capital

Tags: 9/11, critics, Cultural Capital, movies

‘Time Out’ Likes Our Critics! They Really Like Our Critics!

So Time Out New York is out today with a big cover story rating and ranking all the city's cultural critics. It must be said: We give two thumbs up to this review of the reviews. Of course, why wouldn't we? New York's critics fared well (if not quite as well as Time Out's own critics, who did — surprise! — fabulously). Our Peter G. Davis was the No. 2 classical-music reviewer, Adam Platt came in third for foodies, Jeremy McCarter was named the fourth best theater critic, and Mark Stevens was No. 6 among the art experts. The one exception was our esteemed film reviewer, David Edelstein, who ranked an unimpressive eleventh. Why is that? Well, according to his Zagatian write-up, it's because he's insufficiently attentive to independent film. "If you were to read only his column, you'd never know that foreign-language films and independent documentaries were opening," wrote one panelist. "A fine critic for first-run films. I wish he was able to write more about off-the-beaten-path films," wrote another. And just what industry experts came to these damning conclusions? Well, from the roster of reviewer-reviewers provided, we can pick out the director of the Film Forum; the publicist for the Film Forum; the publicist for the IFC Center, who was formerly at the Film Forum; the publicist for the Museum of the Moving Image; and two independent publicists of indie films. Hey, at least they know about indie film. Judgment Day [TONY]

Posted 12/07/06 in Daily Intel : In Other News

Tags: critics, In Other News, movies, time out new york