Kathleen McGowan,author of The Expected One,recieved a nice write-up and her own headline in the NY Times this morning in an article about BookExpo America(please click title link above) which was held in Washington D.C. over the weekend. C-Span had some coverage of the convention on their BookTV line-up. They showed an early morning breakfast with Barack Obama(who left the room right after he spoke)Amy Sedaris and John Updike. Updike didn't talk about his new novel,Terrorist,but instead made a nice speech about the importance of booksellers. I'm not a big Updike person myself(only read The Witches of Eastwick and actually liked the movie better)but it was cool of him to give props to the book folk out there in the trenches.
Amy Sedaris(sister of David and star of "Strangers With Candy")gave one wacky speech about her upcoming book which will be called "I Like You",sort of a parody of Martha Stewart Living type of books,I'm guessing. She was damn funny but I'm not sure everyone got her sense of humor-there were some confused faces in the crowd.
The Da Vinci Code blew the roof off of the box office by making $224 million worldwide-77 million came from the U.S. alone. I knew this movie was review-proof but ye gods and little fishes,that's one hell of a haul! Over the Hedge came in at second and yep,MI:III made it to third(awwww!). I didn't see DVC but from the box office numbers,it's probaly best that I didn't cram myself into a theater and fight off protestors for it yet. It'll be interesting to see how DVC takes on X-Men:The Last Stand over Memorial Day weekend-finally,some movies worth our attention!
Madonna's Confessions tour opened on Sunday with her usual attempts at shock; she came out on a mirrored cross(wearing a crown of thorns)to sing "Live To Tell" and then later during a costume change,treated the audience to a video montage of images of Bush,Tony Blair,Osama Bin Laden and Hitler. Other highlights include her dressing up in a Saturday Night Fever disco suit,wearing a white cape that had "Dancing Queen" on the back and running around in an S&M suit while whipping dancers who had ball gags in their mouths.
I have a confession to make:I am so over Madonna. She's become a walking,talking cliche of celebrity self-involvement and her attempts to freak people out are as tired as a Surreal Life marathon. One of her great strengths was her chameleon skills at upgrading her style but she can't turn the trick anymore than Blanche Dubois could by the time she got abroad that streetcar named Desire. Her children's books were a waste of space(yes,I read them and consider it a form of child abuse to add them to any kid's library)and like Howard Stern,she's holding on to her fame by the core of die-hard fans who will remain loyal to the end. That's fine but I prefer to remember her back when she was still fun. Hell,even her songs for the Dick Tracy movie were better than some of the crap she's shilling now.
Well,that's all for now. Tune in next time for more book news,movie highlights and celebrity bashing(only if they're really asking for it)right here at LRG!
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