The Hills are Alive With the Sound of Media Minutiae
We have never been more jealous of Cameron Diaz, and it has nothing to do with Justin Timberlake: Julie Andrews plays one of our favorite games, namely "cast your dream remake of "The Sound of Music!" Julie's pick for the demure young Fraülein is Cameron Diaz, which would be good for the pratfalling (sitting on a pinecone! Falling out of a canoe!) but maybe she's a little past the whole super-innocent-nun thing. Ooh! I've got it! Rachel MacAdams. Innocent, lovely, AND Canadian. Pre-Syriana weight gain Clooney for the captain, perhaps, maybe with his "Good Night and Good Luck" buddy Jeff Daniels as Uncle Max? Whoopi Goldberg as the Mother Abbess? Alexis Bledel as Liesl? (AJ Jacobs would like that). And is it me or is Ryan Phillipe a perfect Rolf?). I think sometimes we all need someone older and wiser telling us what to do (those who need someone sixteen going on seventeen, best keep those impulses in check. AJ Jacobs, I'm talkin' to you). [NYDN]
CJR's Steve Lovelady takes NYT crack biz reporter Gretchen Morgenstern to task for alarmist predictions that she can't back up. Fortunately, her article is behind the TimesSelect subscription wall so only 135,000 people really have any reason to panic. [CJR]
Defending AndyCoop: Over at TVSquad there was apparently quite a hue and cry over CNN's replacement of Aaron Brown with Anderson Cooper, so much so that editor Bob Sassone felt compelled to defend poor Anderson's honor. I actually did not know that Anderson started as a private citizen hoofing it through war-torn regions with just his video camera. It's an interesting piece, not only for its content but for what prompted it. I wonder if Jon Klein anticipated this kind of sustained reaction to the dissolution of "fire and ice." I'm guessing no. [TVSquad]
Newspaper Death Knell #4,285,723: The Village Voice'sSyd Schanberg muses about where newspaper dreams go to die and isn't too concerned: good journalism, he thinks, will always thrive, because there will always be the need. He then goes on to laud some particularly fine work in his field, from the LAT to the NYT to The Nation to Celebrity Living. Wait, you mean Jessica Simpson's NOT pregnant? I feel so betrayed. [Village Voice, also WWD and Boldface Names]
Amanda Ernst
