January 5, 2006

"Jack Abramoff's Lady-and-the-Tramp-style kiss of death."

Ana Marie Cox has an op-ed in today's NYT:
[Jack] Abramoff's connections seem infinite; attempts to follow the money give you something looking less like a flow chart than like spaghetti. Delicious, felonious spaghetti.

But who is actually going to receive Jack Abramoff's Lady-and-the-Tramp-style kiss of death?
That's a nicely complicated image, even if the notion of a kiss of death is absent from "Lady and the Tramp." And even if the use of spaghetti is supposed to evoke the reference to "The Godfather" in an earlier paragraph. One senses Wonkette has become Dowdette.

WAIT THERE'S MORE: The NYT has a second article about Cox today. (Are they regretful about that Janet Maslin review of her novel?) There's also this, on the front-page of the Arts section:
"I have always found [Washington] really intriguing," she said, working her way to the bottom of the giant martini, but following up with coffee so as to be fresh for a commute up to New York for a reading Thursday night. "D.C. wishes it was as boring as it says it is. To be famous in D.C. is the opposite of being famous somewhere else. You can only get and remain famous if you remain boring."

Ms. Cox is not boring, but then, "I'm not really very famous, either," she said; still, in a town full of pasty, overworked faces always framed by a credential around the neck, she sticks out. With a flash of red hair, dark pants demarcated by chalk stripes and a black T-shirt that shows enough arm to reveal a tattoo she got in Reno instead of getting married one wild weekend, she plays a Katharine Hepburn with a severe case of potty mouth.

12 comments:

ALH ipinions said...

Ann, you party-pooper.…So her allusions are flawed.…Cox (like Dowd) writes to provoke sophomoric giggles; not serious thought!

Speaking of which, "Dowdette" – that’s cute. Although, I doubt gray-old lady Maureen would be flattered. But that play on words describes Cox’s work and, one might reasonably infer, her literary aspiration rather well.

Mark Daniels said...

The Maslin review appears to be the only unkind words directed at Cox's work these days.

Last night, I switched over to MSNBC during a commercial break from the Texas-USC football game and saw Joe Scarbourough conducting a real softball interview with her. He alluded to laudatory comments being made about Cox's novel and how it was "shooting up" the Amazon list. I don't think that Joe has read the book.

It's going to be interesting to see how her career unfolds.

Mark Daniels

Mark Daniels said...

By the way, Cox's metaphor is weird. The spaghetti scene in 'Lady and the Tramp' finds the two main characters having a flirtatious encounter behind the Italian restaurant as a tenor sings, "Bella Note."

I get the spaghetti idea. But she took it one pop allusion too far for it to ultimately make sense.

Mark

knox said...

"...a black T-shirt that shows enough arm to reveal a tattoo she got in Reno..."

Oh, she has a tattoo? Then the verdict is in, she's really AS COOL as all these articles keep trying to convince us she is.

who wrote this article, a swooning teenager?

Beth said...

Paris Hilton of the blogosphere? Used up wanna-be party girl? Oh so cool?

Why so hostile? She's funny. Oh, she's liberal. I get it.

Mark Daniels said...

Elizabeth:
Is she a liberal? She seems fairly apolitical to me. And with Scarborough swooning over her the way he did last night, I wouldn't have pegged her for a liberal.

Mark Daniels

Sigivald said...

Elizabeth: She's funny?

Odd. Never noticed. Maybe it's just that jokes about anal sex are not funny to me, when overdone, and not done very well.

Not that jokes about anal sex are themselves inherently un-funny, mind you...

vbspurs said...

Is she a liberal? She seems fairly apolitical to me.

Normally, I would agree, Mark.

But I'm fairly apolitical too, but that doesn't prevent me from being politically conservative.

Cheers,
Victoria

vbspurs said...

Did any of you see Ms. Cox on Scarborough last night?

She looked even younger than I remember her, in the Charlie Rose segment with Andrew Sullivan, and Insty.

Whatever else she is doing, she's ready for the small transition to the small screen.

Cheers,
Victoria

Adam said...

Mark, the book hasn't hit the Amazon Top 100 yet.

She's got a good publicist. That's all.

Mark Daniels said...

Adam:
I was only quoting Scarborough.

Mark

Finn Alexander Kristiansen said...

If she were ugly, would we be paying any attention at all?

(As far as her book deal and attention, I don't begrudge her cause we would all like the very same opportunities).