Well, it looks as if it’s time once again for my more or less annual piece about Joan Didion. I didn’t set out to make this a yearly tradition. Way back in 2007, I wrote what I thought was a…
Gabi Zuniga allegedly petitioned Shannon Sharpe to “put a big black baby in me.” Then, not long after that, she accused the Hall of Fame tight end of rape. What derailed a love story so promising? The text messages between…
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is about as rock ‘n’ roll as Wilford Brimley. It inducts this month to its crass cash scam 14 nominated acts, to include the talented but not-rock Mariah Carey, which inspires a revision…
Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops By Tim Robey (Hanover Square Press, 334 pages, $33) No institution in America takes itself as seriously as Hollywood — think George Clooney who hasn’t made a significant film in…
We are nearing the culmination of my course in medieval literature at Thales College, reading Dante’s La Vita Nuova, to be followed by his Purgatory, the second of the three divisions of the Divine Comedy, and the one most keenly…
When covering last year’s Academy Awards, I described the Academy as “playing safe” by bringing back Jimmy Kimmel as the master of ceremonies. Given that the late-night host famously became embroiled in a fiery social media exchange with then presidential…
It started, as ever, with the red carpet. Since I live in Norway, I watched it on TV2 Denmark. Asked by the Danish reporter why so many of the nominated movies this year are about politics — Trump, transgenderism, etc….
Deceive my parents? On the contrary, I was the most well-behaved of teens. But in a desperate moment as a 15-year-old, I deliberately disobeyed my mother. I’d been dropped off at Atlanta’s new multiplex movie theater — “multiplex” in those…
Over the years, Jeff Bezos has undergone a rather striking evolution — physically, mentally, and culturally. Once a pale, nerdy book salesman, he has transformed into “Buff Bezos,” a figure emblematic of discipline and reinvention. Today, his biceps are as…
