‘Wired’ Argues that ‘The Nielsen Family Is Dead’Wired has a piece out this week called “The Nielsen Family Is Dead,” exploring the ways in which TV has left the Nielsen ratings system behind, […]
ByBradford Evans
The Other Belushi Biographer Breaks Down ‘Wired’
Journalist Bob Woodward’s journalistic tactics were called into question a couple weeks ago over a dispute with the White House, and Tanner […]
The Trouble with Comedian BiopicsBiopics are a Hollywood mainstay, with films based upon an inspiring public figure’s life being a tried-and-true path for stars and filmmakers […]
ByBradford Evans
On The Science Of HumorIn Wired’s Humor Issue, Professor Peter McGraw postulates that all comedy operates as a kind of benign violation, which I am reserving as an […]
Fox News Sicced Bill O’Reilly on NBC’s Punk AssThin-skinned media bigwigs trade insults, Microsoft and Yahoo continue to make eyes at each other across the boardroom table, and a mysterious, rich felon moves into the Plaza … all in today’s roundup of media, finance, law and real-estate news.
company town
Dog Sculptor Jeff Koons Is in the DoghouseJeff Koons’s porn star ex-wife says he’s a deadbeat dad, protestors storm Bear Stearns ineffectively, and Vogue is in all kinds of trouble in our daily roundup of Law, Finance, and Media news.
The In-box
If Wylie Dufresne Is So Original, Why Didn’t He Write a Book?Note: Readers with only a limited appetite for endless Talmudic hairsplitting over chef etiquette might want to quickly scan this exchange between us and the Gurgling Cod, a blogger even more fascinated by the Marcel Egg Scandal than we are.
Grub Street,While Marcel Vigneron certainly rips off Wylie Dufresne, the charge of plagiarism does not make sense. There’s no assertion of the work’s origination with Vigneron anywhere in the Wired piece that started this whole fuss. If you attend a musical performance, there is no such expectation that, say, Yo-Yo Ma wrote the cello suite he is performing. In this context, cooking is more like playing the cello than writing a book. If Dufresne wants to protect his intellectual property, he should write a book, which would be copyright protected. Like all artists, cooks rip each other off all the time. I suspect that the current mania for molecular gastronomy may work to create a notion of the molecular chef as auteur, rather than artisan, and thus these allegations of plagiarism.The Gurgling Cod
grub street
‘Top Chef’s Marcel Still Viewed as Bad Guy
Remember Marcel Vigneron, the foamy villain from last season of Top Chef? He may not be on TV anymore, but he’s still causing trouble in the kitchen. The staff of wd-50 believes Vigneron ripped off a Wylie Dufresne dish in a recent issue of Wired. Grub Street has all the dirt. Or foam.
Did Marcel From ‘Top Chef’ Really Just Rip Off Wylie Dufresne? [Grub Street]
company town
Investment Banks Mull New Trading FloorsFINANCE
• JP Morgan, Lehman, and Merrill are in talks with developers to build new trading floors in Manhattan. [Bloomberg]
• Donald Trump set a new low last night, defeating WWF owner Vince McMahon in a “Battle of the Billionaires.” [AP via Yahoo]
• The SEC celebrates April Fools’ Day with a prank press release about new disclosure rules. [Financial Times via MSNBC]
