Tony Jones, curse you. Why couldn’t I have interviewed Maureen Dowd? I’ve got more quals, and I’m sure I’d have smiled even more often and even more idiotically. The red hair falling Elvis-like across the right eye, the sexy mouth, the smart tongue, the Irishness, the intelligence, the gonzo track record, the self imagination as Emma Peel: let me count the ways. Pity about that ingrained New York accent, although I’m sure we’d manage it. The red-headed Geena Davis also did well tonight, fighting right-wing male arseholes and steering cleverly across a pile of gender issues, despite her own daughter and the wonderful Donald Sutherland. Dick Cheney, eat shit.
82 Responses to “Commanders-in-chieftesses”
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Leave the real world to us, then.
Wasn’t she fabulous, Chris?
I loved the story about Bush being too busy on his ranch losing weight to attend to Christina.
And she idolises Emma Peel!
I’m totally going to buy the book!
She’s a dream, Kim.
Yes, back to your labyrinth, would-be Theseus, and battle the Cretan Minotaur (aka John Howard). Be mindful of Icarus’ fate, however.
How was Geena? Unfortunately my ch. 7 reception is terrible, and set top boxes don’t work in apartment buildings with old aerials. She’s another goddess!
Why the awkward smile at the end of the interview? Does she have false teeth?
Actually, I found the accent very sexy.
“Pity about that ingrained New York accent” Augh. Not even New York. Even CL can’t complaing about JG after listening to that.
And men are an indulgence like icecream? Is Maureen Dowd necessary?
Could Dowd’s constant whining and whinging about not being able to get a date have something to do with well, all that pitiful whining and whinging? Could she perhaps learn something from her mother and that maid? Like family? Service to others?
It was a good interview but I still think Dowd is a twat.
On the evidence of this episode, the show appears to be The West Wing with a female president and 99% of the political wonkery (which was most of the fun) taken out.
Give me Veronica Mars any day.
saint – pshaw! nuts!
“….the obvious intelligence….”
Well I suppose if one were not that bright one could think this. To me she’s just a Valley-Girl airhead.
Well, pshaw to you too Comrade!
Next you’ll be denying that Emma Peel is the sexy hotness! (Let’s not forget she was as well known for her papers on theoretical physics)…
I like this:
And this:
http://news2000.libero.it/img2/gallery/15/15246/2004/12/Agente-Speciale-(Emma-Peel).jpg
Sheesh, what’s with that link. Try this.
Well I suppose if one were not that bright one could think this. To me she’s just a Valley-Girl airhead.
Maureen, whatever you may thing of her predisposition from your own extremely and very wierd (have you been told that lately?) political position, is a wordsmith – no argment.
Kim, as I suspect you know better than me, Mrs Peel is a male female archetype. Not the only nor the most noble male tendency, by any imagination, but a base, a media base. What is at the heart of male mythologising here?
An interesting question, Chris, and one for which I don’t have a simple answer.
“…is a wordsmith – no argment….”
A mediocre one. The Pullitzer brand-name is still there. But the quality of prize-winners no longer seems assured. Its a bit like the Nobel Peace prize I’m assuming. Or the medal of freedom now that the American President has been handing them out to people who did not show a great deal of success in Iraq (to say the least).
“Next you’ll be denying that Emma Peel is the sexy hotness! (Let’s not forget she was as well known for her papers on theoretical physics)…”
Yeah she’s sexy for her age alright. I’ll give her that. And I don’t want to make out she can’t write at all. But I’m watching her now on video. And she is up there with Tom Friedman.
In America Tom Friedman would probably be centre-left. Here he might be judged centre-left. But he’s just terrific. Always worth reading. An ideas man. And if I see someone like Maureen pitched as being at that same high standard as him thats pushing her up too high. And she is not flattered by the comparison.
Tom Friedman is like what I thought about Hitchens in the old days. Someone far more left then me who is a must read. Well almost at that level anyway. It would have been the same with Orwell. It was the same with Gore Vidal until recently. I took the same attitude to Krugman’s economics until recently also.
But Maureens being pumped up too high for reasons I don’t understand. So in the first instance I’m going to judge her perhaps more harshly then I should.
Graeme, never change.
She’s very funny, Comrade Graeme. I think what came out in the interview was that people don’t always realise she’s writing satire. Which is a mark of good satire!
Graeme, taking you on the surface, yes, you do need to slow down, and think about it.
Kim, yes.
Kim
Did you like MoDo in the Clinton years or do you think she’s much better now.
She was very funny pre-impeachment days.
You prefer the old red or the new white?
JC – Ha! I prefer the rose of continuity!
Perhaps the fact that she’s got a habit of being agin those in power makes righties think she’s less funny now that the Bushies rule the roost.
I thought her comments about feminism and Clinton were spot on, btw. Condoning his behaviour towards the “bimbos” was a complete disgrace, and the Hillary chorus of sledging and character assassination even more so. Having said that, there was a “vast right wing conspiracy”…
Yeah, Emma Peel was the bee’s knees alright, but personally I always got a bigger kick out of Modesty Blaise.
Transcript and video are up on the site now.
Kim
You ever watched Booknotes in CSPAN with Brian Lamb every sunday eve.
The Tony Jones interview with her reminded me of the program. He even looks a little like him.
Alright then. Looks like I’ll start reading her stuff again. Its possible to be overated and still be very good. And when I read her before it was with my arms folded I guess (figuratively speaking). I’ll try and read some of her Clinton-era work for better objectivity. Let it not be said that that I’m unwilling to give a good-looking girl a second chance.
Is her Clinton-era stuff in book form? Or on the net somewhere? I’m assuming the NYT archives are now pay for view.
What’s a complete disgrace is how hard it is to get Avengers on the DVD. There is a 20 disc thing that costs a fortune and the individual seasons are like hens teeth.
C-in-C was OK but definately West Wing lite. The Nigerian subplot was a very clumsy thing.
Also, it’s good to see Kyle Secor with a regular gig.
Mark
I don’t think she wrote a book before this one. Maybe wrong on that but I’m pretty sure she never wrote one on Clinton era.
I too love, and was raised on, Emma Peel… Shoot me, but I didn’t feel Dowd came up to that kind of standard when I heard her interviewed on Fran Kelly’s program today. she sounded more Phyllis Schafly than Emma Peel, nasally whining about how women all “wanted to be called Mrs even after people have tried to get Ms accepted” (Huh? I’m married and I always use “Ms”.) You can imagine how well that played with the always-courteous Kelly,but you could fairly hear the teeth gritting. She also went into a thing about how feminists had wasted all this time “demonising barrrrr-bee” (you had to hear this to know just how irritating her pronunciation is, but that’s a digression.) Oh, blow it out the other one, Maureen.
Well of course as soon as Mr Peel emerged unscathed from that Brazilian jungle (or wherever it was he was lost), Emma jumped in his convertable and ditched the crime fighting caper altogether …
Yep, the NYC accent is ingrained Helen. You had to see it.
Bit hard on C-in-C Amanda, methinks. The Nigerian sub-plot was OK, I thought, in the sense that it was the kinda issue a female veep would have been stuck with.
I still felt CIC had West Wing qualities based on the first episode, including the politics except it was identified more in social relationships to each other at this stage and it must be remembered the first episode was setting the premise.
Though Mackenzie S. Allen (Geena Davis) is an independent, formerly VP to a Republican seems to indicate she’s going to be another liberal/Democrat which makes me question whether television is capable of writing for a capable Republican president.
With Maureen Dowd, I found the interview interesting but did not once raise my interest in the book. Calling Clinton (Hillary) and Rice Gamma’s is what I found most interesting.
Gamma was defined as getting consensus.
We all know what Alpha is but what about Beta? Is that someone who mindlessly follows the Alpha?
I know the point they were trying to make with it but they could’ve found a less absurd example. Threatening military action against a democratic ally for the sake of one person is kinda a big deal I think. Seems like something which should have consequences (and in TWW it would) or at least a bit of discussion but it won’t because its just a mcguffin to push along her character. Which is fine, but a stupid way to do it.
I think they should have threatened military action for all the damned spam from the place, but point taken Ms A. It’ll be interesting to see how it developes, for it sure is a top cast.
Incidentally, how good is it to be able to watch West Wing without adverts!
And might add Maureen Dowd is on tonight’s insight
I don’t know whether she was joking or not, but when she said assured Tony that men are necessary not because women “need” them but because they “want” them, I felt a bit awkward. Probably similar to how women feel when their utility is judged purely from a male point of view. Except is it right if we simply flip the coin onto the other side? We do not live exclusively for women just as much they do not for us. But like I said, I don’t know if she was joking or not.
Her comments on the cultural and political barriers to a female presidential candidacy were quite informative, however.
“Is Men Necessary?” I assumed was a joke reference to the James Thurber essay of yore “Is Sex Necessary?”
Ah, Thurber, the one and the only.
And in so assuming, you would be correct, Laura.
Thou tottering crook-pated scuts! Maureen Dowd IS Commander in Chief.
We will not hear a word said against her.
I think the difference between ‘want’ and ‘need’ is interesting, even if I’m not particularly enamored of La Dowd.
I don’t NEED a man in my life anymore than a man NEEDS a woman. But I like having a man around, even if I can do all those manly things like change the lightbulbs and check the oil in the car myself. I don’t want to be with a man who needs me to cook his dinner and iron his shirts. I like adult relationships based on mutual respect, understanding and complementary life interests and so forth: not on neediness.
For me need suggests something involuntary, whereas ‘want’ suggests something conscious.
Maureen Dowd might be making some completely different point. To be honest, the dating habits of upper-middle-class New Yorkers don’t terribly interest me, and that’s what I’ve been hearing Dowd’s book is about.
I don’t know much about her book Kate, but was struck by the fact that her feature article from it was the most net-popular of all the NYT’s pieces in 2005, which is a pretty amazing credit when you think about it …
… and which makes me think, yes, it must be on the dating habits of upper-middle-class New Yorkers.
Except that she was raised in DC, went to uni in DC and started her career in DC. And still whines about not being able to get a date.
In barely related news, Modesty Blaise has returned to the screen.
It’s a Tarantino-supervised quickie (18-day shoot in Romania for US$3
mllion with no nameworthy above the line talent) shot so Quentin and Miramax could keep the series screen options exercised and alive.
And yet it turned out rather unexpectedly damn well (as Quentin cheerfully admits in the DVD extras) with a real feel for the original vibe, not least because there was a bloody good script that filled in Modesty’s backstory – while also getting into all the mind games and triple-bluffs that were so much a theme in the books.
And it worked for me because Alexandra Staden really looks, sounds and moves how I’d imagine the 18 year old Modesty would as she takes over Louche’s gang in Tangier through a mixture of brains, courage, pyschology and then tearing off her silk gown to kick the bad guys in the balls. And it’s a bloody sexy scene when she does. Arrrggghhhh!
It’s not super great and there’s no Willie Garvin. But a surprisingly promising start to what I hope will be a Blaise franchise put together with some real wit and flair. And certainly worth a punt at your local movie store.
QT and Miramax should definitely consider keeping Alexandra in the lead as they develop the series. And I can see Sean Bean as Willie. Not to mention also creating great bad guy roles that’ll attract box office draws a la Nicholson in Batman. Like, just a placeholder here but work with me people- Leo Di Caprio really hamming it up as Gabriel without getting too Dirky.
Peter Fitzsimons calls Dowds bluff. Fabulous stuff. Little lost soul Maureen. Quick get on that steed and go save her from herself cs.
I musta missed that bit Saint (and we’ll leave Steed out of it, orright).
Ah yes cs. Forgot that Celtic warriors preferred nekkid with only a little woad to protect them.
I endured the Dowd interview, tried not to be creeped out by them both – Tony went all funny and smirky, and she was doing Veronica Lake hair and Bette Davis eyes at him, plus she sounded like Cyndi Lauper (which is good for pop music but not for intellectual credibility). The whole thing made me pine for Shere Hite flouncing out of Mike Willesee’s interview years ago
Tune in tomorrow night when I speak with Maureen Bolt on her book ’still not necessary’.
And if anyone’s seen the Celtic epic King Arthur, and recalls Keira Knightley as Guinevere in the climatic battle scene, special combat bras were worn over the woad.
Remembering that the movie advertised itself as being the first to be historically accurate
That film any good, Mark?
Battle scenes aren’t bad, Chris. If you can forget most of what you know about history, it’s a good romp. And if you’re a Keira Knightley fan, then – woohoo!
Hmm. A crap perve. I see.
It’s got a certain stirring quality to it, but it’s too long, and Arthur’s reverence for free will is a completely bastardised version of Greek philosophy and Roman theology. But you know, it’s fun.
There’s one great line from Guinevere at the start of the battle scene on the ice. Which itself is the highlight of the fillum. But I’m reluctant to post spoilers.
Arthur’s reverence for free will is a completely bastardised version of Greek philosophy and Roman theology.
You mean they knocked it off and stuffed it up? Rather than research the celtic notion of free will?
Just to get back to Emma Peel for a moment…
A crime-fighting vixen named Peel
Was skillful with pen, ink, and steel;
She could write a mean monograph,
But her sine-qua-non-agraph
Was Style. (In brief: “Real Deal.”)
“Tune in tomorrow night when I speak with Maureen Bolt on her book ’still not necessary’.”
Brownie, you’d lost me with your first paragraph, the you go and win me back with such a great line!!
Chris – I mean that he seemed to think Pelagius was some sort of liberal democrat avant la lettre.
In a nice little bit of thread knotting, the Modesty film I mentioned earlier here shows her chosing her surname from Malory’s Le Morte de Arthur – Blaise, Merlin’s Master.
What’s Pelagius doing in the story? Sounds like christian propaganda. It should be Merlin, of course Nabs (or Morgan, Igraine and the other pagan priestesses).
Well, Arthur is half Roman or something. The rest of his mob are Celts from Carpathia (?) – I forget, somewhere vaguely Central European. Merlin’s in it, but on the other side (Arthur works for the Romans, apparently under the direction of a Bishop), until Arthur discovers Pelagius is dead, Romans are evil, Guinevere is cute, and then they’re on the same side against the Saxons. All this takes place in the 5th century when Rome is pulling out of Britain. Like I said, you have to forget everything you know about history.
You’re selling it to me Mark you really are. Also, Keira Knightly just doesn’t do it for me as a kick ass warrior queen ala Boadicea.
To be honest, Kate, it’s shite, but some of the action scenes are ok.
Have you watched Serenity yet? Now that had some kick ass wommyns in it.
Male readers may be interested to know, according to tim, Ms Dowd is in Australia lookin for lerve.
“Have you watched Serenity yet? Now that had some kick ass wommyns in it.”
Didn’t it just? That Joss Whedon sure does like his women beautiful and with the ability to kill.
Goddess love him…
Just saw Serenity on DVD the other day. Never been a Buffy/Angel/Firefly aficionado but I have to say it wasn’t too shabby at all.
It was full of very predictable setpieces, plot twists utterly familiar to anyone who’s watched a lot of Westerns and SF films and hordes of hoary old movie archetypes but it was all delivered with great gusto, wit, charm and some classic screwball comedy lines. Plus excellent casting from the world-weary roguish captain to the beautifully underplayed bad guy to the cheerfully gung-ho ship’s meathead.
And yeah the dames were pretty damn hot, throwing punchlines, pouts and punches with mucho elan.
It was sorta like what Stars Wars set out to do before Lucas started communicating with everyone else by laser pointer. However the funniest line in the film is not in the film. It’s in the outakes/deleted scenes when the Captain ad libs a line while ordering them to fake Serenity up as a reiver ship. I won’t give it away but it was so good even the corpses were corpsing.
An interesting exercise would be to compare and contrast Serenity with Ang Lee’s ‘Ride With The Devil’, which was all about the wild young men on the losing side of the American Civil War.
Damn Nabs, I was hoping this thread would conclude on the previous number. Kim, where do I get in line?
Chris, rather unromantically, you can “apply” by posting a comment on this news.com.au website.
Or, maybe you could get her number off Tony Jones and interview her for that fine and widely read Australian blog, LP!
By the looks of the contenders so far, it looks like you’d be in with a very good chance, cs.
‘Single-handedly raising feminism from the dead,’ eh?
Well, she would say that, wouldn’t she.
I’ve been trying to stay neutral about Dowd, particularly as she is so intelligent and incisive on all issues but those of sex and gender — but about those, she is, alas, clearly barking. Surely a woman who self-describes as ’sassy’ has no business holding forth on the subject of feminism.
Yikes, I’d be tempted to describe myself as “sassy”!
Kim, I’m probably just pig-ignorant about American shades of meaning. Pay me no mind.
I’ve adopted my hard-to-get pose, Kim.
*visions of cs standing, legs apart, semi side on, chest puffed, arms slightly away from his body, fists clenched. Head petulantly turned ever so slightly towards her*
My what wonderful woad.
*grin*
Um, well, Saint ol’ buddy … I appreciate you’re in my corner … but, look, I’m most happy to admit that I find Ms Dowd one classy intelligent interesting mature talented attractive celtic babe, with a dreadful accent and a sus book, but … um, well, I don’t think I’m quite with you in the image dept.
It was that “hard-to-get pose”. Reminded me of a cartoon subtitled “I am a Donis”
Do you think she’ll pick this up on google? (Sorry, an RH moment.)
*still trying to work out what RH is…Rio Hondo? blood disorder?*
I dunno cs, if LP replaced Popper and Foucault and the missy higgins lesbian thread with gratuitous references to Maureen Dowd, we could crank up the google ratings such that she may wander over next time she does a vanity search at which time you may strike the pose and see if you are able to ensnare her.
However, as your self-appointed spiritual advisor (yes I still live in hope that you will get yourself a bath one day you woad inscribed heathen) I need to warn you that this woman may be able to turn a phrase but is probably more famous for her life time achievement in inexcorably bad judgment when it comes to men – be it not being able to disintinguish an Aussie from a Pommie or dating the flabby-arsed womanizing Michael Douglas and then I believe, letting him dump her to eventually resort to baby-sitting the silicone-infested C-Z-J.
Now if that is not enough to convince you that sin doesn’t just make you blind, it makes you stupid, and those who cleave to you are likely to be considered just as stupid, then I don’t think you need me to tell you of all the tortured baggage that comes with a collapsed Catholic – LP should be have trained you enough for that. Can you carry that burdern? Surely if you want to remain faithful to your pagan roots, then you can’t possibly settle for a woman who engages in primal scream therapy and inexplicably disinfects and exfoliates herself after each sweaty embrace? Are you able to light your own post-coital cigarettes?
Still, if you insist on continuing your wicked ways, why even wait for Google? This woman is apparently suprisingly easy to get.
*Ron Howard? Retro helix?*