We knew Judith Miller was icy, but who knew Eggers was a Wild Thing?
We couldn't resist. We picked up the New York Times on both Saturday and Sunday, despite an enormous sense of guilt. We feel unethical giving them our money, since they still haven’t fired Judith Miller, but we must confess, it’s been fun watching Keller and Miller squirm. But since Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich cannot be accessed online anymore, we'll sullenly continue to shell out our hard earned dollars to read their words of wisdom. Dowd's Saturday column on Miller was a jewel. Here's a highlight:
Once when I was covering the first Bush White House, I was in The Times' seat in the crowded White House press room, listening to an administration official's background briefing. Judy had moved on from her tempestuous tenure as a Washington editor to be a reporter based in New York, but she showed up at this national security affairs briefing.At first she leaned against the wall near where I was sitting, but I noticed that she seemed agitated about something. Midway through the briefing, she came over and whispered to me, "I think I should be sitting in the Times seat."
It was such an outrageous move, I could only laugh. I got up and stood in the back of the room, while Judy claimed what she felt was her rightful power perch.
And on Sunday, we learned that wonder boy Dave Eggers and meta-director poster boy Spike Jonze are in pre-production of Where the Wild Things Are. (Which could either be genius or a train wreck).
Pre-production is well under way. Animatronic "wild things" - six- and eight-foot-tall monsters that are operated from the inside by actors, and which will eventually be given computer-generated faces - have been tested for cinematic impact. So have exotic locations in New Zealand and Australia. Pending approval by Mr. Sendak and Universal executives of a screenplay draft due within a week or two, a 2006 start date is likely. A budget of "well under $100 million" has been roughly agreed upon...The pair have also brought to the material a fresh twist on Max's relationships with the "wild things," in particular one of them...
"I don't know what to make of it, exactly, but I am so for it," said Mr. Sendak [author of the children's book].
We don't know what to make of it either. This "fresh take on Max's relationships with the 'wild things,'" sounds HOT. We especially don't know what to make of this closing quote from Sendek:
Mr. Jonze and Mr. Eggers have remained in close contact. "They call, they write, they send postcards, they show me script changes, they send me pornographic pictures and models of the monsters," Mr. Sendak said. "They're very attentive.
Eggers and Jonze are sending a 77 year-old children's author pornographic pictures? WTF? That is attentive indeed. Forget the movie, we want to know what Eggers is into. Our guess is low budget, Seventies, FFM MILF porn. He's campy like that.
See you next week, we're taking a little vacation from blogging this week to celebrate the impending indictments and to tie up loose deadlines.
