The $3.7 Million Joke

Gawker has posted what they claim is a copy of Lena “Girls” Dunham’s book proposal, the one that got her a $3.7 million advance from Random House.

It reads like a narcissistic and vulgar parody of what you’d expect Dunham’s book proposal to be.  If it’s a parody, the joke’s on Gawker.

But if, as I believe, this is the actual book proposal, the joke is on Random House.  It’s not funny, it’s not interesting, it’s just crap.  Very, very expensive crap.

The sad thing is I’m sure there’s something brilliant buried in the slush pile at Random House tonight that will never bring its overlooked author even $3.70.

The Fox Mole Is Back

If you’ve been wondering about (or worrying about) the Fox Mole, he is alive and well and still living in Brooklyn (maybe he’ll be on the next season of Girls).

Muto has a sharp piece up on Slate critiquing Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO show The Newsroom.  Muto details what Sorkin gets right and what he gets wrong about cable news.

Muto also references his own “quiet, dignified” exit from eight years at Fox as a producer for Bill O’Reilly.  I can’t imagine working for O’Reilly for eight minutes.  Not enough Prozac in the world….

Review of Game Change

David Frum, former speechwriter for Bush 43, has an excellent review of Game Change (the Palin-is-a-moron movie on HBO this Saturday, March 10) up at The Daily Beast.  Here’s a morsel:

“Game Change the movie shows a Palin of almost unfathomable ignorance.  Staffers discover that she has never heard of the Federal Reserve and does not know why there are two Koreas; she answers a prep question about the military alliance with Britain by saluting John McCain’s excellent relationship with Queen Elizabeth.

“Efforts to instruct her send Palin into what one staffer describes as a ‘catatonic stupor.’

“The professionals soon discover their mistake.  ‘I don’t even like to say this, but has it occurred to you guys that she might be mentally unstable?’ asks one staffer about the woman the McCain campaign proposed to put next in line to America’s nuclear codes.  As they come to know Palin, the campaign professionals begin to  feel an awakening of conscience:  first qualms, then fears, and finally revulsion — not for the campaign, not for their careers, but for their country.

“Some of the best acting in the film is in the looks of unspoken dread that flit about the faces of Sarah Paulson’s [Nicolle] Wallace and Harrelson’s [Steve] Schmidt as they react to  Palin’s wilder and wilder provocations.  What have they done?  And if this campaign somehow wins — and Palin is put within reach of the presidency — what might they have done?”

There’s much more, all of it very scary.  Think about this.  Ron Paul is dangerous enough because he wants to abolish the Federal Reserve.  But at least he’s heard of it.