Games of Thrones - Inside the episode [2x03]
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'I've never met this woman'
'I've never met this woman': Marilyn Manson denies proposing to aspiring actress
Marilyn Manson has denied claims he's engaged to aspiring actress Seraphim Ward.
The 43-year-old rocker, real name Brian Warner, was reported to have proposed to the 27-year-old on Thursday night.
A spokesperson for Seraphim told America's Life&Style magazine that she was 'over the moon' about her relationship with the star, whom she had allegedly been dating for five weeks.
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But the engagement news came as a surprise to the man himself.
'This is untrue,' Manson's spokesperson tells Us Weekly magazine.
'He has never met this woman.'
Seraphim describes herself as an 'independent filmmaker' and is currently filming her first movie, Speed Dragon.
Marilyn split from his wife of two years, burlesque performer Dita Von Teese, in 2007.
His former fiancés include Charmed actress Rose McGowan and True Blood star Evan Rachel Wood.
source dailymail.co.uk
Marilyn Manson has denied claims he's engaged to aspiring actress Seraphim Ward.
The 43-year-old rocker, real name Brian Warner, was reported to have proposed to the 27-year-old on Thursday night.
A spokesperson for Seraphim told America's Life&Style magazine that she was 'over the moon' about her relationship with the star, whom she had allegedly been dating for five weeks.
But the engagement news came as a surprise to the man himself.
'This is untrue,' Manson's spokesperson tells Us Weekly magazine.
'He has never met this woman.'
Seraphim describes herself as an 'independent filmmaker' and is currently filming her first movie, Speed Dragon.
Marilyn split from his wife of two years, burlesque performer Dita Von Teese, in 2007.
His former fiancés include Charmed actress Rose McGowan and True Blood star Evan Rachel Wood.
source dailymail.co.uk
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HBO Spring 2012
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Matt Bomer filming White Collar
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New Regency Sets Justin Timberlake, Ben Affleck For ‘Runner Runner’
New Regency has set Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck to star in Runner Runner, a drama that will be directed by Lincoln Lawyerhelmer Brad Furman. Production will begin in June.
The drama revolves around the world of offshore online gaming and an increasingly tense relationship between a business founder and his protege. The film will be co-financed by Stone Village, I’m told, and produced by Appian Way.
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Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen Cover 'W' May 2012
Nicole Kidman strikes a pose in Prada with Clive Owen on the cover of W‘s May issue, on newsstands April 24.
Here’s what the Hemingway & Gellhorn co-stars had to share with the mag:
Nicole, on what attracted her to the HBO project: “I knew nothing about Martha [Gellhorn], but I’ve always been drawn to unique women who are willing to take on the world. The exciting thing about this film is that you see her discovering her nature. At the beginning, she’s a lot of talk. She knows that she’s either got to get her hands dirty and become what she pretends to be or she’s a fraud. In the end, Gellhorn out-Hemingways Hemingway.”
Clive, on sex scenes vs. scenes where he dies: “It’s much harder to do a death scene. You’ve got to do it convincingly, and it’s a huge thing to die [laughs]. Sex scenes are only hard if there’s no narrative conveyed through the sex scene. In the Hemingway film, the sex scenes have a story going through them. It’s part of who these people are and what they are.”
Nicole, on husband Keith Urban‘s throat surgery: “All of those things make you closer. It was sort of profound: to go without his voice, and then to finally hear his voice. What if he sounded different? I was there for his first words, and then we cried. How many people experience their husband’s first words? If that doesn’t bring you closer, you’re not breathing.”
For more on Nicole and Clive, check out WMagazine.com!
source
LOVE IT
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SPOILER ALERT? Drag Race Wikipedia Page Leaks Possible Season 4 Winner
If you clicked on this story then you obviously want to know who wins Season 4 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. But to prevent our inbox from flooding with hate mail—well, more hate mail—we’re warning you: Do not read further if you want to wait for the season finale.
According to the RuPaul Drag Race Season 4 Wikipedia page, Phi Phi O’Hara is going to snatch the crown from Sharon Needles and Chad Michaels. The information has since been removed from the page and, though it confirms rumors we’ve been hearing since before the season debuted, we really hope its not true. Sure, Phi Phi is pretty and can bounce around the stage like a firecracker. She’s got nerve and talent, but she’s not creative charismatic or unique. And you can’t spell CUNT without those things.
We’re still chanting that Mother Dust, a.k.a. Chad Michaels, is chosen as the winner. For once, it’d be nice to see a nice girl finish first.
source
if this is true, i am done with ru.
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'The Avengers' Tracking to Open North of $150 Million, Strong as 'Dark Knight'
The Marvel Studios and Disney superhero extravaganza is generating bigger prerelease interest than "The Dark Knight" or "The Hunger Games."
If prerelease tracking is any indication, Joss Whedon's The Avengers could score one of the biggest domestic openings of all time for a superhero pic, if not one of the biggest period.
The first batch of prerelease tracking for the film shows the ensemble extravaganza, which opens May 4 in North America, pacing ahead of Warner Bros.' The Dark Knight in most key categories.
A bold mash-up, Avengers stars Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Chris Evans as Captain America, Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and Tim Hiddleston as Loki.
In July 2008, The Dark Knight bowed to $158.4 million to become the top opener of all time at the domestic box office (it had the advantage of opening in the heart of summer). The pic held the record until fellow Warner Bros. title Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 debuted to nearly $170 million in July 2011.
Avengers also is tracking better than Lionsgate's blockbuster The Hunger Games, which posted a record March bow of $152.5 million to score the third-best opening of all time behind Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Dark Knight, respectively.
Avengers is appearing to be a sizable victory for Disney in the wake of box-office misfire John Carter earlier this year. The superhero pic is the first Marvel title to be distributed and marketed by the studio since it bought Marvel.
Among the movies solely produced by Marvel Studios, Iron Man 2 boasts the biggest domestic opening ($128.1 million).
According to first tracking, unaided awareness in Avengers is 13 percent, compared with 10 percent for Dark Knight and 11 percent for Hunger Games; first choice is 23 percent, tying with Hunger Games and higher than the 19 percent for Dark Knight.
Total awareness is 85 percent, compared with 76 percent for Dark Knight and 74 percent for Hunger Games; definite interest is 61 percent, versus 62 percent for Dark Knight and 54 percent for Hunger Games.
The interest among males in Avengers is surging, though females are likewise expressing more interest than they did in Dark Knight.
Avengers begins rolling out overseas April 27, a week ahead of its domestic launch.
Sauce
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Gaga instantly sells out another huge Stadium in Europe + More London shows added due to high demand
State de France in Paris is the biggest stadium in France and 6th largest in Europe, just behind Twickenham. The max capacity is 80,000 people. Tickets for Lady Gaga's highly anticipated ''Born This Way Ball Tour'' went on sale and less than 3 hours they were completely sold out. After a hysterical rush this morning, tickets were snapped-up within minutes as fans flocked to the Internet to secure their place at the long-awaited shows.
After selling out the 82,000 sea Twickenham Stadium in London within minutes the other day, another show was added at the same venue on September 9th. Tickets go on sale April 20th at 9AM.
source
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True Blood Season 5 promos
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Emily Blunt Joins Tom Cruise in 'All You Need Is Kill'
After a long flirtation with Emily Blunt, Warner Bros. is in talks to pair the actress with Tom Cruise in Doug Liman's sci-fier "All You Need Is Kill."
Based on the graphic novel, the original story is in the vein of "Groundhog Day," with a twist: A soldier in a war against aliens finds himself reliving his last day over and over after being killed. Through the training and battles he experiences in these time loops, he becomes a better soldier. Blunt plays another soldier who fights alongside Cruise.
Erwin Stoff, Tom Lassally and Jason Hoffs are producing through 3 Arts Entertainment. Dante Harper penned the script with Joby Harold, who's doing a rewrite and serving as exec producer.
Last fall, the studio liked Blunt as the femme lead in "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," but the studio halted that project when it couldn't lock a male to topline and helmer Steven Soderbergh fell out. Blunt is also one of a handful of women meeting with helmer Rob Marshall for the female lead in "The Thin Man" opposite Johnny Depp; sources tell Variety that the director and studio view her as one of their top contenders for the part along with Emma Stone and Kristen Wiig.
Studio is seeking an actress with strong comedy chops, and insiders say that Blunt's perf in Universal's "Five Year Engagement," which bows April 27, has the studio believing she can carry off that type of role.
Besides "Five Year Engagement," Blunt, repped by CAA and Ken McReddie Associates, can also be seen later this year in the sci-fi actioner "Looper" alongside Joseph Gordon Levitt and Bruce Willis.
source
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US Weekly: Christina Aguilera is "planning a big hair change!"
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Padma Lakshmi’s Daughter Pulls a Britney
Padma Lakshmi's daughter has a new look! The host and judge of Bravo's "Top Chef" was out and about with her 2-year-old daughter, Krishna Lakshmi-Dell, over the weekend and the little girl was sporting a buzz cut.
During their day out in New York City on Saturday, Lakshmi carried Krishna, who sported a brightly decorated vest and some stylish motorcycle boots. The duo appeared to be headed to or from a party, toting a gift bag. No official word as to why Lakshmi's daughter got a crop top, but there is a Hindu tradition in which the hair of a child gets shaved to cleanse them of negativity from past lives. This typically happens within their first few years of life, so Krishna's cut would be right on target.
![Image and video hosting by TinyPic]()
Connecting her daughter with her culture appears to be very important to the single mom, who previously was photographed with the girl while dressed in matching traditional Indian garb and wearing bindis. Not surprisingly, Krishna's first name reflects her roots as well. Before Lakshmi's offspring was born, she talked baby names with People.com, saying, "Don't expect to see an Anglicized name — it will be a classically Indian Sanskrit name." Krishna, meaning dark or blue, is the name of the leading Hindu deity, who himself has 108 names.
Though she's only 2, Krishna's life has already been pretty eventful. Soon after she was born to the model-turned-TV-host in 2010, there was a custody battle over the girl between her famous mother and her father, businessman Adam Dell (his brother founded Dell Computer). Since Lakshmi didn't list Dell's name as the father on their child's birth certificate, he later sued for custody. The case was settled out of court in March and the only information made public was that the girl's last name was changed to reflect both of her parents.
In a recent interview with iVillage, Lakshmi called her daughter "opinionated" and said she has lots to say — in many different languages. "My daughter is bilingual, so she can count to 10 in a few languages, which is always charming when your relatives come over," she said. "They are very happy about that. She speaks my native language, which is Tamil. It's a South Indian language. She's running and dancing and talking. She has her own personality. She's this fully-formed, tiny, opinionated girl." That includes opinions about music. "She is obsessed with Beyonce. She asked for Beyonce on the iPod, saying: 'Beyonce? Beyonce?' She said yesterday, "I'm a single lady."
Lakshmi also noted that she sees a lot of her own mother in her little girl. "She's very fair-skinned, so I see a white version of my mom [laughs]," she told the site. "Physically she has that kind of crazy curly hair like my mom. And, she just looks like my mom — especially when she wakes up in the morning."
Guess it'll be a while until we see that "crazy curly hair" again.
Sauce
ONTD bad hair baby pic post!
During their day out in New York City on Saturday, Lakshmi carried Krishna, who sported a brightly decorated vest and some stylish motorcycle boots. The duo appeared to be headed to or from a party, toting a gift bag. No official word as to why Lakshmi's daughter got a crop top, but there is a Hindu tradition in which the hair of a child gets shaved to cleanse them of negativity from past lives. This typically happens within their first few years of life, so Krishna's cut would be right on target.
Connecting her daughter with her culture appears to be very important to the single mom, who previously was photographed with the girl while dressed in matching traditional Indian garb and wearing bindis. Not surprisingly, Krishna's first name reflects her roots as well. Before Lakshmi's offspring was born, she talked baby names with People.com, saying, "Don't expect to see an Anglicized name — it will be a classically Indian Sanskrit name." Krishna, meaning dark or blue, is the name of the leading Hindu deity, who himself has 108 names.
Though she's only 2, Krishna's life has already been pretty eventful. Soon after she was born to the model-turned-TV-host in 2010, there was a custody battle over the girl between her famous mother and her father, businessman Adam Dell (his brother founded Dell Computer). Since Lakshmi didn't list Dell's name as the father on their child's birth certificate, he later sued for custody. The case was settled out of court in March and the only information made public was that the girl's last name was changed to reflect both of her parents.
In a recent interview with iVillage, Lakshmi called her daughter "opinionated" and said she has lots to say — in many different languages. "My daughter is bilingual, so she can count to 10 in a few languages, which is always charming when your relatives come over," she said. "They are very happy about that. She speaks my native language, which is Tamil. It's a South Indian language. She's running and dancing and talking. She has her own personality. She's this fully-formed, tiny, opinionated girl." That includes opinions about music. "She is obsessed with Beyonce. She asked for Beyonce on the iPod, saying: 'Beyonce? Beyonce?' She said yesterday, "I'm a single lady."
Lakshmi also noted that she sees a lot of her own mother in her little girl. "She's very fair-skinned, so I see a white version of my mom [laughs]," she told the site. "Physically she has that kind of crazy curly hair like my mom. And, she just looks like my mom — especially when she wakes up in the morning."
Guess it'll be a while until we see that "crazy curly hair" again.
Sauce
ONTD bad hair baby pic post!
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Dance Break: Snippets from Adam Lambert's Trespassing Released
Thanks to iTunes Australia, 90 second snippets for the 12 tracks on the standard edition of Adam Lambert's upcoming release Trespassing have hit the internet. From the catchy hooks to the pounding beats to the mouthwatering vocals there is something for everyone in this mix and they will leave you craving more. So get up out your seat and get your freak on as you listen to Adam throw down the dance-pop gauntlet by clicking the links below.
ETA: YouTube of the 8 new snippets
ETA2: SoundCloud Link
Source
I know ONTD has issues with SoundCloud so I'm trying out the Box.net player. If this is a total fail, I'll upload them all to YouTube because you gotta hear this shit, dudes.
ETA: So, the Box player only works for me I guess. OkayGuy.gif
BRB dance breaking for the thousandth time today...
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ETA: YouTube of the 8 new snippets
ETA2: SoundCloud Link
Source
ETA: So, the Box player only works for me I guess. OkayGuy.gif
BRB dance breaking for the thousandth time today...
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''The Amazing Spider-Man' photocall in Cancun (April 16)
Ready for Andrew/Emma bingo? Aaaaand GO.
Fake, forced, don't buy this couple, 'wonder how long they'll be together' followed by snarky ass 'let's see how the movie does first', Emma should go back to red, Why is Emma blonde?, LINDSAY LOHAN, eat a cheeseburger, too skinny, neck too long, head too small, giraffe, stupid hair, this remake is unnecessary, Tobey, Kirsten, flop, Shannon, I like them separately but not together, like Andrew but not Emma, like Emma but not Andrew, used to be a fan but not anymore.
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Fifi & Jules Exclusives w/ One Direction
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OctoMom is open to doing masturbation pornos!
The notorious mother of fourteen has signed on for a new gig with ‘Dial-A-Star,’ a phone chat line that lets regular people call “celebrities” like Nadya Suleman for a hefty per-minute fee. Howard Stern couldn’t resist the bait, and dialed the former HSS guest as part of his satellite morning radio broadcast.
“I’m a conversationalist,” Suleman told Stern.
Octomom landed the gig through Dial-A-Star creator Gina Rodriguez. The service charges callers $14/minute to speak to Suleman. Other “stars” available for chatting include AJ Benza ($10/minute), Howard Stern Show Tiger Woods Mistress Beauty Pageant runner up Loredana Jolie ($20) and both of Lindsay Lohan’s parents ($18/minute for Michael, $25/minute for Dina).
While Dial-A-Star isn’t a phone sex line, Gina says she has been encouraging Octomom to pursue some other sex-centric endeavors in exchange for cash—namely, masturbating on camera.
“I don’t know yet,” Suleman told Stern of the potential one-woman show. “I’d have to really reflect on that. It depends on how much I’m offered.”
As for porn with multiple participants, Octomom says that’s 100% out of the question:
“The only thing I’ll never do is give my body to another for money,” tittered Suleman nervously. “That’s one thing I’ll never do…I don’t want them to have any resentment 20 years from now.”
Examiner
“I’m a conversationalist,” Suleman told Stern.
Octomom landed the gig through Dial-A-Star creator Gina Rodriguez. The service charges callers $14/minute to speak to Suleman. Other “stars” available for chatting include AJ Benza ($10/minute), Howard Stern Show Tiger Woods Mistress Beauty Pageant runner up Loredana Jolie ($20) and both of Lindsay Lohan’s parents ($18/minute for Michael, $25/minute for Dina).
While Dial-A-Star isn’t a phone sex line, Gina says she has been encouraging Octomom to pursue some other sex-centric endeavors in exchange for cash—namely, masturbating on camera.
“I don’t know yet,” Suleman told Stern of the potential one-woman show. “I’d have to really reflect on that. It depends on how much I’m offered.”
As for porn with multiple participants, Octomom says that’s 100% out of the question:
“The only thing I’ll never do is give my body to another for money,” tittered Suleman nervously. “That’s one thing I’ll never do…I don’t want them to have any resentment 20 years from now.”
Examiner
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Gossip Girl 5x21 Promo & Stills | "Despicable B"
ELIZABETH HURLEY, BILLY BALDWIN AND NEW YORK SOCIAL DIARY’S DAVID PATRICK COLUMBIA GUEST STAR — Blair (Leighton Meester) feels like her Upper East Side status might be slipping away and devises a plan to assure that doesn’t happen. Meanwhile, Lily (Kelly Rutherford) throws a family gathering – including William (guest star Baldwin), Carol (guest star Sheila Kelly) and Lola (guest star Ella Rae Peck) – in an attempt to prove the van der Woodsen family is as united as ever. Finally, Nate (Chace Crawford) digs into Diana’s (guest star Hurley) past and is surprised by what he discovers. Blake Lively, Penn Badgley, Ed Westwick, Kaylee DeFer and Matthew Settle also star. New York Social Diary’s David Patrick Columbia appears in the episode as himself. David Warren directed the episode written by Austin Winsberg (#521).
ugh
Source un deux trois
Confession: I found tonight's ep kinda...good? Dair were perfect as usual, I love Lola for snatching Serena's wig (tho I wish she would have told Nate), and I even sympathized with Chuck. I really want to see more of him and Diana together (lol o god but I hate both of them what is happening)
Keep it up GG Writers
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Miss Representation Doc Director on Why the Media (Still) Hates Women
The documentary Miss Representation, which premiered to sold-out screenings at Sundance last year, addresses the lack of positive portrayals of women in the media through statistics, damning clips and interviews with talking heads like Condoleeza Rice, Nancy Pelosi and Katie Couric. The film is also part of a larger educational advocacy project that aims to break the link between the media’s treatment of women and the way girls see themselves. Although the movie screened at festivals throughout the year and was broadcast on OWN, today’s DVD release marks the first time the film will be available to many audiences. Writer-director Jennifer Siebel Newsom spoke to TIME about reality television, how the world has changed since her film first aired and saving the next generation of girls.
Why do you think the film received such strong reactions at festivals?
People really recognize there’s been a backlash against women’s rights in our country and that the media is perpetuating it.
We’ve been hearing a lot this election cycle about the ‘war on women.’ Do you think more people are interested in the depiction of women since you first screened the film?
I knew that there was a problem a long time ago but even so, a lot of people questioned why I was making this film. Do I think things are worse than when I started? No, it’s more obvious now. People have started to see more reality stars becoming “celebrities,” making millions of dollars from sex tapes. I think people are seeing the impact this is having on their kids — especially on their young girls.
What first brought the problem to your attention?
I was a tomboy growing up and really believed that the world was my oyster — that I could do and be and achieve everything. I did experience some sexism when I lived and worked in Africa so I naively thought sexism was a third-world phenomenon. But back at Stanford Business School I noticed the boys’ world — the faculty was mostly men — and then in Hollywood I found such a boys’ club. The problem is Hollywood influences the rest of the world. People are so curious about our culture in America. Both men and women worldwide are being fed these notions of what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman, and you’re seeing it not just in make-believe reality TV, you’re seeing it in news media, you’re seeing it in radio, you’re seeing it in all forms of media — and that’s the danger.
Tell us about the educational curriculum you’ve created along with the documentary.
We always knew we were going to do education advocacy. I just didn’t realize how intense our education curriculum was going to be. Most education curricula are literally the documentary and some questions; ours is little age-appropriate modules with four different age groups being taught gender and media literacy. The only way to change what’s going on in our culture is to change culture, and how do you do that? You have to educate people and inspire them to recognize their power as consumers.
Do you think we’ll see more documentaries in the future with intense cross-platform work?
Yes. We’re all learning from each other. I do come from the nonprofit world and I’m married to a public servant [California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom] so I’m more comfortable in the advocacy realm. And we’re going to continue to get behind and make films of this nature.
What do you think is the role of social media?
It’s interesting. I made this movie with a lot of people’s input and that’s what social media affords us. The next film will be much easier for me because I have a ready-made community that I can ask to provide me with thoughts and feedback.
What are your hopes for the DVD?
I hope that there’s real change. It really starts at the home with saying, ‘There’s no media out there for our teenage daughter, so we’re going to encourage our daughter to play sports,’ or ‘We’re going to have a screening and make sure that all the parents buy into this, we’re not going to buy into this limiting notion of what it is to be a girl.’ It starts with the individual, and individual action has that snowball effect that leads to communal action.
What’s the next step for the project?
There’s the educational and empowerment component and a campaign to celebrate the good media and calling out or shaming the bad media. I want to do it in as peaceful a way as possible. I just want to shake people a little and remind them that whether they like it or not, someone is looking up to them.
Source
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Book Post! Pulitzer jury declines to give award in the fiction category.
Pulitzer Prize board doesn't choose a fiction winner. That's all kinds of wrong.
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For the first time in 35 years, no Pulitzer Prize was awarded in the fiction category. The message from the committee to any author who published a novel or short story collection in 2011 seems to be: Sorry, you’re just not good enough. The Pulitzer Board failed to reach a necessary majority to determine a winner based on the three fiction finalists determined by a panel of three jurors.*
The fiction jurors were Susan Larson, former book editor of The Times-Picayune, Maureen Corrigan, book critic for Fresh Air on NPR, and the novelist Michael Cunningham, who won the 1999 Pulitzer for his novel The Hours.
The jurors chose three finalists — Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, Swamplandia! by Karen Russell, and The Pale King by David Foster Wallace — and it was up to the Pulitzer Board to make the final decision. To be fair to the Board, the jurors may have made the decision more difficult than it should have been. Johnson’s Train Dreams is a novella that was re-issued from 2002, and the board may have felt as though it was something they’d seen before. The posthumously published, incomplete The Pale King wasn’t the late Wallace’s best work. But why not give the award to Russell? Swamplandia! isn’t the typical Pulitzer winner, but it’s an intelligent, inventive, and thoroughly entertaining read. In a time when people aren’t buying books — especially literary adult novels — it seems counterproductive and insulting not to hand out a Pulitzer Prize, which translates into sales. Last year’s winner, Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, got a huge boost in paperback after the announcement.
Getting a mass audience to buy a challenging literary novel is an uphill battle, and there better be a good reason for depriving the reading public of a quality recommendation. My mother, whose first language is not English, would always buy and spend a painstakingly long time to read and understand the Pulitzer-winning novel each year. For her and a lot of other readers, the Pulitzer Prize is the ultimate, authoritative stamp of approval, and it got her to read books she wouldn’t normally read — and she gained a huge sense of accomplishment from finishing them.
There were plenty of worthy books in 2011: The Submission by Amy Waldman, Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta, and The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht come to mind. What books do you think were deserving? Was the Pulitzer Board just being curmudgeonly, or do you agree with its decision?
Source
i dare you to post an excerpt of your writing, ontd writers
For the first time in 35 years, no Pulitzer Prize was awarded in the fiction category. The message from the committee to any author who published a novel or short story collection in 2011 seems to be: Sorry, you’re just not good enough. The Pulitzer Board failed to reach a necessary majority to determine a winner based on the three fiction finalists determined by a panel of three jurors.*
The fiction jurors were Susan Larson, former book editor of The Times-Picayune, Maureen Corrigan, book critic for Fresh Air on NPR, and the novelist Michael Cunningham, who won the 1999 Pulitzer for his novel The Hours.
The jurors chose three finalists — Train Dreams by Denis Johnson, Swamplandia! by Karen Russell, and The Pale King by David Foster Wallace — and it was up to the Pulitzer Board to make the final decision. To be fair to the Board, the jurors may have made the decision more difficult than it should have been. Johnson’s Train Dreams is a novella that was re-issued from 2002, and the board may have felt as though it was something they’d seen before. The posthumously published, incomplete The Pale King wasn’t the late Wallace’s best work. But why not give the award to Russell? Swamplandia! isn’t the typical Pulitzer winner, but it’s an intelligent, inventive, and thoroughly entertaining read. In a time when people aren’t buying books — especially literary adult novels — it seems counterproductive and insulting not to hand out a Pulitzer Prize, which translates into sales. Last year’s winner, Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, got a huge boost in paperback after the announcement.
Getting a mass audience to buy a challenging literary novel is an uphill battle, and there better be a good reason for depriving the reading public of a quality recommendation. My mother, whose first language is not English, would always buy and spend a painstakingly long time to read and understand the Pulitzer-winning novel each year. For her and a lot of other readers, the Pulitzer Prize is the ultimate, authoritative stamp of approval, and it got her to read books she wouldn’t normally read — and she gained a huge sense of accomplishment from finishing them.
There were plenty of worthy books in 2011: The Submission by Amy Waldman, Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta, and The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht come to mind. What books do you think were deserving? Was the Pulitzer Board just being curmudgeonly, or do you agree with its decision?
Source
i dare you to post an excerpt of your writing, ontd writers
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More Pages to Explore .....
