“Not for Book Club: Kitty Kelley Takes on Oprah - Pop Eater” plus 3 more

Not for Book Club: Kitty Kelley Takes on Oprah - Pop Eater
Newspapers should print an obligatory right of reply, says Max Mosley - Journalism.co.uk
Teddy Roosevelt Was Right: Ban ALL Corporate Contributions - Nation
Book Review: Film stars’ stories are insightful - Daily Oklahoman

Not for Book Club: Kitty Kelley Takes on Oprah - Pop Eater

Posted: 22 Jan 2010 05:22 AM PST

Kitty Kelley, the queen of gossipy and unflattering (but extremely best-selling) celebrity biographies, has a new subject that isn't gonna like it: Oprah Winfrey.

The author's publisher announced Thursday that her 544-page unauthorized 'Oprah: A Biography' will be released April 13, with a huge first printing of 500,000 copies. We've got a hunch Oprah won't be adding this biography to her book club.

Kelley says she has high regard for Winfrey, but also felt committed to writing the truth. Kelley says she devoted the past three years to examining Winfrey's life. She says she came away "full of admiration for her accomplishments and fascinated by her complexity."

David Drake of Crown Publishers said it was time to get a closer look at the TV icon.

"Oprah has spent years eliciting intimate confessionals from her subjects, but she herself has a carefully guarded persona," Drake says, according to EW's Shelf Life blog. "This is the first complete portrait of her -- it will reveal Oprah as she has never been seen before."

But what will it actually reveal about her? "It will cover all aspects of her life...It will be evenhanded. Kelley understands Oprah's cultural importance and that is something she covers at length."

Winfrey has apparently known about Kelley's book for some time. Drake says that a few years ago she said "something along the lines of, 'I'm not encouraging it, I'm not discouraging it; this is America.'"

Kelley is known for her salacious biographies about the Kennedys, the Bush's, Nancy Reagan and Frank Sinatra. Critics have called her books "Kitty litter" and she's been accused of libel, but has never been sued.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Newspapers should print an obligatory right of reply, says Max Mosley - Journalism.co.uk

Posted: 22 Jan 2010 06:12 AM PST

Newspapers should print an obligatory right of reply, says Max Mosley

Former Formula One chief Max Mosley has called for a legal right of reply in the UK, during a debate at Cambridge University Union last night.

He said he believes those involved in controversial stories about their private lives should have a legal right of reply in the publication making the allegations.

"The only thing I ask for is the right to reply. At the moment the papers can say anything they like about me and are not obligated to print my response," he said.

"They won't tell you in advance because they know what they are publishing is illegal and you'll go to court to stop it. These are the kind of people we are dealing with."

Mosley, the former head of motorsports governing body the FIA and son of fascist politician Oswald Mosley, was one of the high profile speakers at a debate on the Freedom of the Press held at a packed Cambridge University Union last night [Thursday].

In 2008, he won record damages of £60,000 from the News of the World for breach of privacy after the paper accused him of being involved in a Nazi-themed orgy with five prostitutes.

Mosley spoke in support of the motion being debated, that "the British press has too much freedom."

"We must put our trust in the judges, not tabloid editors," he said.

Joining Mosley in support of the motion were top media lawyer Keith Schilling and another QC, James Price.

Schilling called for the press to act "more responsibly" and said: "It is a fantasy to suggest that all these journalists are motivated by the search for truth.

"The press should not just be allowed to serve up people's private lives on a plate," he said.

Speaking out against the motion were investigative reporter and biographer Tom Bower, the Guardian's investigations editor David Leigh, and Alex Thomson from Channel Four news.

Leigh, who spoke at length about the Jonathan Aitken case and the recent Trafigura super-injunction scandal, described the libel law in the UK as an "international laughing stock".

He said: "The law is weighted so heavily against the press that it has become an international laughing stock. Libel tourists flock here from all around the world because they know the odds of winning are stacked in their favour.

"The media often have to back down because of the inordinate cost of defending a libel action."

Bower, who has written highly critical biographies of the likes of Mohamed Al-Fayed and Conrad Black, and successfully fought a libel case launched by newspaper proprietor Richard Desmond, said: "Just as we mustn't try Mr Mosley for what his father did, we must not judge all newspapers by the actions of a few."

"It's already difficult enough to tell the truth, and we don't need more law to make it even harder," he said.

Got a story? Email our news team: Laura Oliver; Judith Townend or telephone +44 (0)1273 384290. You can also follow us on Twitter: @journalismnews / @LauraOliver / @JTownend.

Comments

No comments

You must be registered in order to post a comment. Click here to register or login below if you are already registered:

Forgotten your password? Please click here

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Teddy Roosevelt Was Right: Ban ALL Corporate Contributions - Nation

Posted: 22 Jan 2010 06:27 AM PST

[fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve full-text content]

What to do about the decision by U.S. Supreme Court to -- in the words of Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold -- "(ignore) important principles of judicial restraint and respect for precedent" in order to make corporations the dominant players in ...

Book Review: Film stars’ stories are insightful - Daily Oklahoman

Posted: 21 Jan 2010 10:27 PM PST

"Bette Davis," "Gary Cooper," "Humphrey Bogart" and "Ingrid Bergman" by David Thomson (Faber & Faber; $14 each).

You can say this for David Thomson — he doesn't rest on his laurels.

And he's got a lot of laurels to rest on.

Born in 1941, Thomson is one of the world's most prolific and creative writers on film. He writes or posts essays, reviews and rants several times a week for the Guardian and Salon.com. He also has written more than 20 novels, biographies and film histories, including, at the tail end of last year, "The Moment of Psycho: How Alfred Hitchcock Taught America to Love Murder," which argues convincingly that the 1960 horror classic changed moviemaking forever.

Thomson has spent much of his career rethinking classic Hollywood, in ways that are both insightful — his "The New Biographical Dictionary of Film" is a reference-shelf staple — and infuriating. Some old-movie fans still haven't forgiven him for "Suspects," a 1985 collection of fictional stories about the lives of iconic screen characters after their movie ended. ("Wait — you're saying Rick and Louis become lovers after Ilsa leaves with Laszlo? Are you crazy ?")

As a writer and thinker, Thomson likes to dive in the deep end. So why is he starting out 2010 with a seemingly safe quartet of biographies of old Hollywood's most familiar stars? Is there something that we still don't know about Humphrey Bogart or Bette Davis? Thomson says maybe there is.

Briskly written, the essay-length biographies — each is 115 to 130 pages long — are equal parts life story and screen resume.

In all four books, Thomson's riffs on the stars' movies are incisive but erratic; whole chunks of the actors' careers often are omitted because, well, Thomson doesn't find them very interesting.

While Thomson's perspective on the stars' work and evolving screen personas is generally spot-on, it's often obscured by his obsession with these screen icons' private lives.

If you're looking for straightforward introductions to Bette, Bogie, Coop or Ingrid, Thomson's monographs aren't it. In fact, if you're not familiar with the stars' major movies, the narratives can be hard to follow.

But if you're a fan of Hollywood's golden age, are looking for some insights into the movies' most famous faces and want to find other classics to DVR, Thomson's mini-biographies are a good start and, as important, a fast, engaging read.

Chris Foran,

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

McClatchy-Tribune

Information Services

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Biographies

Friday, January 22, 2010