B.J. Novak’s book trailer - with Mindy Kaling
B.J. Novak (aka Ryan from The Office - and a writer on the series) is following in the footsteps of his fellow alumni Steve Hely and Mindy Kaling, and has published a book. It’s a collection of humorous short stories - and the trailer for the book, starring Kaling as a snooty French girl he’s trying to impress by writing a book - is well worth a peek. Spoiler: she breaks character partway through and basically becomes herself.
Erik Jensen on The Saturday Paper
A new Australian newspaper is on the horizon - The Saturday Paper, published by Morry Schwartz and edited by former Sydney Morning Herald reporter Erik Jensen. The Conversation has just published a fascinating interview with Jensen about the paper’s intentions, its business plan and its target audience. Well worth a read.
We’re looking at a very straight up and down newspaper. The one niche that we have is long-form quality journalism, the other niche being neglected by newspapers is straight up and down reporting. I’m really not interested in putting together a left-wing newspaper, nor am I interested in putting together a right-wing one.
10 Worst Jobs in Books
Publisher’s Weekly is taking a look at the 10 worst jobs in books … and no, they don’t mean packing boxes in an Amazon warehouse, or handling customer complaints at Christmas time. Debut novelist Rachel Cantor has identified her top 10 worst jobs of fictional characters, within the pages of books. They range from the professional faster in Kafka’s A Hunger Artist to the clones harvested for body parts in Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and the concubine in A Handmaid’s Tale.
Film rights sold to Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In
In the tradition of Mean Girls (loosely based on Rosalind Wiseman’s book Queen Bees and Wannabees) and What to Expect When You’re Expecting, Sheryl Sandberg’s non-fiction advice manual Lean In has been optioned by Sony Pictures to become a film. The film won’t be about Sandberg herself, but will use the book’s themes to create a fictional story. It will be co-written by television writer Nell Scovell, who helped Sandberg write the book.
How Coke is Seducing Italian Kids
Though American soft drinks have long been available in Italy, they haven’t been consumed with meals until recently, thanks partly to a clever 2011 marketing campaign by Coca Cola to encourage the habit. ‘ In Rome some ads were designed to look as though they were from the 1950s and showed people sitting at a table drinking Coke with their food, a view of the Colosseum behind them.’
