James Franco Journeys to the End of Taste
(a.k.a. Strangest Day Ever)
I woke up this morning to various emails and frantic Facebook "wall messages" conveying the news that James Franco (Sean Penn's boyfriend in Milk, Peter Parker's frenemy in Spider-Man and, of course, bad-boy Daniel in Freaks and Geeks) name-checked my book on the Oscars red carpet last night. Turns out that not only did he mention it, he gave it a more on-point quick summary than almost any of the reviewers.
Now, besides acting and preparing for his bar mitzvah (as he discussed earlier in that interview), Franco's currently doing simultaneous MFA's at Columbia and NYU, so it's not really so weird (however it feels to me!) that he's plugged into stuff like this. I hope he passes the book along to a few of his Hollywood friends - the movie industry could stand to unthink some of its assumptions about the "mass" audience versus the "prestige" audience, no?
PS: Apologies to Idolator for ripping off their headline, but I just loved it too much.
General | Posted by zoilus on Monday, February 23 at 2:22 PM | Linking Posts | Comments (14)
COMMENTS
This is awesome, Carl! Have fun on Colbert — don't be distracted if he starts talking about Foghat for no reason.
Posted by Alex Ross on February 25, 2009 12:56 AM
here's to your book, soaring, like Celine's voice, over the heads of millions
and inspiring the rest
Posted by wr on February 24, 2009 1:12 PM
With Franco on board, you could get a movie deal green lit.
(Dig in your heels on creative, or they're going to cast Michael Cera to play you.)
Posted by Mike on February 24, 2009 12:42 PM
This makes up for Apatow's stoner set-piece he did during the actual awards.
Posted by barclay on February 24, 2009 10:25 AM
somewhere elliott smith is smiling
Posted by david on February 24, 2009 1:06 AM
I'm so excited for you! Fucking amazing!
Posted by peli grietzer on February 23, 2009 10:24 PM
Of course, what a perfect answer to the question "What's your guilty pleasure?" while standing on the red carpet under the questioner's assumption that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the High art in the scenario.
..did i just out myself as a snob?
Oh well. Awesome-O Wh-Oa! Carl.
Posted by Margaux on February 23, 2009 8:57 PM
Carl,
Know so many many guys who are just desperate to be plugged by James Franco. And then he plugs you royally--and on the red carpet, no less.
You da man!
Gordon M
Posted by Gordon M on February 23, 2009 7:47 PM
It's not every book that gets namechecked on the red carpet at the Academy Awards. Congratulations, Carl! I hope the endorsement has a positive effect on your sales.
Posted by Carl Z. on February 23, 2009 6:45 PM
This was so cool that I actually Tweeted about it on JamesFrancoNews TWICE last night. Ironically, I had created my microblog "for James Franco fans who are more interested in what he's reading than who he's dating". So this was perfect. And I want to read the book now too. Cheers!
Posted by abfrancophile on February 23, 2009 6:30 PM
Fuck yeah in the general direction of Mr. Franco.
Posted by Brad Nelson on February 23, 2009 5:35 PM
that is amazing and hilarious! from the oscars' red carpet!
Posted by sean on February 23, 2009 3:50 PM
Heh, happy to be of service. I was unaware of Franco's intellectual cred!
Posted by Mike B. on February 23, 2009 3:42 PM
Wow. Right fuckin-truckin' on.
Now that's putting some "public" behind "public intellectual"!
Posted by john on February 23, 2009 3:23 PM