Newspaper journalism, the new appearing-in-a-low-budget-indie-film

Two celebrities took the plunge into newspaper journalism this week. Nick Lachey contributed a column to the Cincinnati Enquirer about the University of Cincinnati basketball program, and Sean Penn is in the midst of a five-parter SF Chronicle piece about his trip to Iran. (“I stepped into the water closet, grateful to just have to piss. If I’d had more serious business there, it would’ve been a squat job with no hook for one’s jacket.”)

To be honest, I don’t follow college sports, so I can’t understand a word of Lachey’s piece, and Penn’s travelogue kind of seems like filler even though I’m usually a sucker for those sorts of things. Although I doubt that the Chronicle would let a real journalist allude to his or her bodily functions, so I don’t know why we have to read about Sean Penn’s bathroom habits. Nonetheless, I’m glad to see celebrity-on-newspaper action. Maybe this will save the industry!

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