At The Millions, Nick Ripatrazone talks to Sharon Marcus about the creation of stars, Sarah Bernhardt, and her new book, The Drama of Celebrity. “In an era when celebrities can exercise a lot of influence, it’s important to understand how celebrity works; to recognize that celebrities are not simply good or bad, deserving or undeserving; and to be aware that celebrity culture is much older than the internet, People magazine, or Hollywood,” she said. “As I like to say, if you don’t like celebrity culture, don’t blame the internet: blame everyone.”
Aaron Gell remembers working for Jared Kushner at the New York Observer in 2012. “Jared’s resentment of the editorial team was always palpable,” he writes. “The Observer staff was gifted, young, underpaid, and hungry, and Jared seemed to sense that we were motivated by a force he didn’t grasp — a mysterious something that wasn’t money.”
At Bookmarks, Dual Citizens author Alix Ohlin reflects on her five favorite novels about sisters.
D.D. Guttenplan, who recently started as the editor in chief of The Nation, has hired Jeet Heer and Jane McAlevey as writers. Heer will cover national affairs, and McAlevey will be the magazine’s “strikes correspondent.”
Hmm Daily’s Tom Scocca wonders what it means to “normalize” a media figure like Bustle Digital Group’s Bryan Goldberg. “Bryan Goldberg yells at people, spins reporters, takes credit for other people’s work, runs a boorish workplace, and has made a fortune publishing dumb crap. In other words, he’s a successful media entrepreneur, on the traditional model.”