Esquire | SpoutBlog

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Super Secret Early Life Revealed

By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

The Playlist wonders why “almost no bloggers have chosen to write about” this Esquire story purporting to blow the lid off the secret early life of Paul Thomas Anderson. I can only speak for myself: I had no idea this story, which is dated September 22, existed. But I’ll write about it now!

Based on a skim (it’s long and I’ll go back and read it more carefully when I have time, but I wanted to pass it along regardless), it seems to be fundamentally flawed, in that it’s based on the complaints of Anderson’s high school friends and former teachers, who are all clearly bitter that their old pal no longer returns their calls, as if an acknowledged burden of success is that one must take time out of their busy modern masterpiece-making, Oscar nomination-collecting schedule to visit their old high school (does anybody actually visit their old high school?) There isn’t anything jaw-dropping here––He went to a lot of prep schools! He watched a lot of laserdisks!––but it’s an interesting read for P.T.A. completists.

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2 Girls 1 Cup Too Much For Clooney

By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

I’m fairly certain Cary Grant was never asked by an interviewer to watch internet scat porn so that his word-for-word reaction could be printed in a major magazine, but poor George Clooney lives in a different time. Presumably because there’s very little new to say about Clooney––he’s good looking! He’s liberal! He’s an Oscar winner prone to making casually derogatory gay jokes about Brad Pitt!!!––and yet, as there’s endless demand for his silver foxiness on magazine covers, Esquire’s AJ Jacobs spent a day with the actor. Surfing the internet.

Towards the end of their session, after Clooney confessed to a certain affection for a YouTube clip called “Monkey Smells Butt,” Jacobs decided it was time to move on to the harder stuff: the poo and puke internet porn sensation of late 2007, 2 Girls 1 Cup. The clip, which spawned a wave of reaction videos last fall, sent the one-time Batman running from the room in disgust. If only Jacobs had whipped out a video camera ala Joel Stein––not only would there be something simply cool about the idea of Everyone’s Favorite Movie Star participating in an online video meme, but I’m sure the document of Clooney’s squeamishness would have been a page view bonanza for the magazine. Alas. Excerpt from the Esquire story after the jump [Via Indie Eye].

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