Pop Culture Friday

I’m drowning in a sea of crap and unimportant facts that mean nothing to my life.

I thought you’d want to share in it. Not right to hog all the crap for myself…

While immersed in an article about Nicole Richie and her amazing themed birthday party that was hosted by and written up in OK! magazine I was stunned to read this: “The next project that’s coming out is your novel. Tell us a bit about that.”

Huh? Novel? Nicole Richie? Okay, maybe she’s been secretly aspiring to write her entire life but was sidetracked by shiny bling and famous cohorts…OK! I can buy that…Then I read the following: “Well, I was first approached to do a ‘Big Sisters Guide,” kind of an inspirational book.”

Huh?

“I didn’t feel at liberty to tell other people what to do with their lives, since I was learning so much myself and still am.”

Smart girl. I’m sure the part about her dreaming to be a writer is coming…

“When I declined, HarperCollins asked me if I would like to try writing a novel. At first I wasn’t sure what to write about, but they just said, ‘Write what you know.'”

Cringe. Cringe. Cringe.

“Do you think you’ll write more in the future?” OK! asks. “It will be perfect for me when I’m ready to slow my life down and stay at home with the kids (laughs).” Nicole responds.

Shoulders reaching my ears, face screwed up as though I’ve ingested twelve lemons…Arrrgh!

Why does this bother me? I’m not quite sure. When my book is published and OK! is interviewing me…Scratch that…just another bizzare dream. Along the lines of flying…

Seriously the idea that so many writers who’ve sweat and bled over manuscripts (a little dramatic liscence, please), their souls knowing every word of the story before their heads sort it out and put fingers to the keyboard… have trouble finding agents, I can’t help but get pruny and old-ladyish.

And book deals, etc., waiting for a publisher to offer one sign of interest, let alone to be begged to put fingers to keyboard…makes me pause. Okay, I blacked out for a few moments and the kids lit the house on fire.

Really, I can’t help being a little disgusted. I’m not even opposed to nepotism. And I get the whole business/marketing stuff involved. Of course publishers want a slam dunk.

But I’d like to believe when you do someone a favor it’s because they have shown they can do a certain job or are good at something or have killed themselves working toward a particular goal or SOMETHING other than having been born into a particular family, partied like it’s 1999 wearing almost nothing, having your dramatic weight loss chronicled as though you’re curing cancer…

I’m not bitter. Though I sound it, I know. I don’t begrudge Nic and her ilk their lifestyle… I read about it because something about it fascinates me…and it does seem fun, but at least have the where-with-all to realize that a publisher practically, physically putting your fingers to keyboard for you is too much…at least pretend you have something to say.

Britney Spears…

Yes old Brit is another one with an exciting life where every fart is outlined for its duration, possible food origin and volume…And now she’s a mom…I read in Us magazine, I think it was Us, that she had lost her baby weight in five weeks or something and the mag. presented this as though it was the most shocking news ever to come out…I can do this article in three simple points:

1. first baby
2. she’s in her barely twenties
3. first baby

No puzzle to solve here, folks.

I’m not really bitter. I swear.

13 thoughts on “Pop Culture Friday

  1. Kathie and friends,
    My new favorite is Angelina Jolie. Fly your own plane, adopt two kids, feed one while walking down 5th Avenue in Manhattan while holding the older child’s hand, Goodwill Ambassador for the UN, looks great in jeans and stilettos, great head of hair, and earns a couple mil per movie…..oh yeah, I forgot, husband stealer, 4th ex-wife of her second husband Billy Bob, tattoo guru, and former vampirella girl (some blood necklace thing with Billy Bob)…okay now– all of this information was gather by two independent sources, US weekly and People (some Vanity Fair perhaps- but, that was Jen’s biased view of events). I hope that I didn’t leak anyone’s undercover identity…toodles…Mimi

  2. Okay-
    It’s friday, my husband just got home ….and I am writing on a blog…my third entry in 20 minutes. Boy, am I getting old!…and speaking of getting old, as an aside to the “pop culture” theme, I am really getting old when (as I watch the evening news on both CNN and FOX), I am starting to think that the likes of John Roberts and Patrick Fitzgerald are much better looking than Brad Pitt and Ashton Kutcher. George Clooney is safe for now. He already has gray hair..hehehe.

  3. You are going over the edge Mimi…pull yourself up before it’s too late…I’ve heard several people say they have a crush on Fitz…Don’t know if it’s his politics/lack thereof or his looks….hmmm will have to investigate.

  4. Ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh!

    You know, back in June, I was sitting at a seminar of a lovely woman who is a top-notch speaker on literature-based learning in the homeschooling movement. I really like this woman. Anyway, in the context of whatever it was she was talking about (I really did take notes), she mentioned that someone had approached her to write a book (a publisher, obviously). She declined, stating that the books had already been written and she didn’t have anything else to say.

    So, I’m sitting there in the audience, and I just wanted to grab her by the neck and shake her silly. “Are you MAD, woman?? You were APPROACHED by a publisher and you said NO????”

    All that to say, I hear ya, kathie. 🙂

  5. That’s funny Jill, I can’t imagine saying no…there’s always something more to be said…I have a neat project I’m working on that we are going to target to home schoolers…I’ll tell you about it if you want to hear!

  6. Don’t forget to include the likely “personal nuitrionist and trainer” in your article on Britney. Damn those wealthy 20 year olds.

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