Pages

Friday, June 17, 2005

You Know You've Made It When....

...Julia Roberts calls you to work up a script. At least if your Michael Cunningham, that is.

Nestled between articles on obscure film awards and an inflated promtion of War of the Worlds, there's a very odd interview with Cunningham in the June 17 issue of Entertainment Weekly. The article starts on page 35 with this:

"I just left a message for Julia," says Michael Cunningham blithely, settling down for an interview in his closet-size Greenwich Village writing studio, where a framed, unhung poster of The Hours, autographed by Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Julianne Moore, rests in an overcrowded corner. Julia, of course, is Julia Roberts, adn Cunningham is the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of both The Hours and a peculiar and sometimes beautiful new novel called Specimen Days.

Although the article talks briefly about his writing life and success in the last couple of years, most of it reads like he's a new rockstar, going into detail on his celebrity status and what's it like to be Michael Cunningham, hollywood insider. It just struck me as kind of odd, considering an article in just about any other publication would highlight his artistic achievements, his struggle prior to his huge success, and on and on. I imagine it's the angle of a publicist trying to promote his new novel, which appears to be very different from The Hours, but it's an odd tactic I never would have considered.

Not sure where I'm going with this. It just struck as me as odd. Any way to sell a book, I suppose.

Excelsior.

2 comments:

Jen said...

I actually liked the adaptation of the movie "The Hours" better than Cunningham's book. I think that's about the only time that has happened to me. Nonetheless, I am interested in reading his new book.

Hebdomeros said...

I still have yet to see the movie. I liked the book, for the most part.

The new one is supposed to be very different, though. It even has a love affair between a human and a lizard-type space creature. I have a review copy from the magazine, and will probably get to it sometime in the next month.