May 9, 2005

Huffington-related hopes elevated for two seconds.

On The Huffington Post, Larry David's wife, Laurie, begins her first post like this:
Here is a dirty little secret: Larry David watches American Idol. In fact, it’s one of his favorite shows…well, maybe if he didn’t have two daughters to watch it with him, he wouldn’t be as interested, but nonetheless he is the first to plant himself in front of that TV come Tuesday night.

All right! I'm ready! Tell me what Larry says when he's watching "American Idol"! But the next line is:
Which brings me to the reason for this post: Detroit still doesn’t get it.

Aw, damn.... And the rest of the post is about how SUVs are bad. It's not a complete non sequitur: Ford advertises on "American Idol." But, damn... You got my hopes up there for about two seconds.

Click on the "bio" link:
Laurie David is devoted to political and environmental activism. She is principally focused on global warming and fuel economy issues.

A trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Board and a founding member of the Detroit Project, Ms. David has spear-headed numerous...

Arrrggghhh....

Can Larry please post? Does Larry find this sort of thing amusing? What does Larry think of the verb "spear-head" as applied to his wife's activities?

UPDATE: Larry David is posting now. Not about "American Idol." About John Bolton. Bolton's mean. But Larry likes him because Larry's mean too. Try to imagine Larry's cranky-guy voice when reading it. I can't really tell if it's funny at the moment, because I have a pretty cranky attitude about the Huffington Post. Hmmm... I accidentally typo'd "Huffington Pose."

14 comments:

Contributors said...

Wow. That's strange. I clicked on Laurie David's bio first thing this morning and it read:

"Laurie David is the rich wife of a celebrity with too much time on her hands and no known talents of her own. Her specialties include telling people what to do from an Ivory Tower and wishing she were half as smart and charming as Larry's television wife."

Someone must've got to it! Or, it was a different site. Whatever.

Ann Althouse said...

Dirty Harry: Very funny! What gets me is that Larry David himself seems like someone who would make fun of a person like that.

Contributors said...

There's a great liberal paper out here -- no, not the L.A. Times -- a well written one -- The L.A. Weekly. And they did a cover story about Ms. David that could've been titled; "Shallow and Narcissistic For Dummies." Anyway, they interviewed Larry as well and when it comes to Laurie he's dutiful, dry, loses his sense of humor, and irony. A shame really, because rich celebrity activist wives could be a comedy goldmine.

purple_kangaroo said...

I hope Laurie David wrote the "new" bio herself. If she by any chance actually wrote that bio and posted it, I suspect many of her blog entries will be worth reading. Anyone with a sense of humor and an ability to poke fun at themselves like that definitely has potential.

Ron said...

Larry David (and maybe Richard Lewis as well) making cruel fun of a "Laurie David" -- maybe by deliberately driving the biggest Ford Expedition he can rent to an eco-friendly, save-the-baby-seals kind of concert --

while the TV wife gives him hell.

Now that's an episode I'd watch!

Ron said...

Larry David (and maybe Richard Lewis as well) making cruel fun of a "Laurie David" -- maybe by deliberately driving the biggest Ford Expedition he can rent to an eco-friendly, save-the-baby-seals kind of concert --

while the TV wife gives him hell.

Now that's an episode I'd watch!

The Commercial Traveller said...

It seems to me that "Curb Your Enthusiasm" has contained subtle digs at his real-life wife (her cancelling their membership in AAA because they support highway development and then having it bite Larry in the ass and her obessive refusal to live in a house where you can see powerlines.)

But, it'll be interesting to see if anyone of these people can poke fun at themselves the way a great number of bloggers can. So far, it's been a fairly humourless site, with really lame stabs at conservatives and none at themselves.

Anonymous said...

Or maybe an episode where Larry sells the Gulfstream V and Laurie has to use a clapped-out old King Air to get to the big environmental rally in Washington.

Contributors said...

Here's where I could've gotten that bio from: http://huffington.isfullofcrap.com/

Funny stuff. I love the blogosphere. What an equalizer.

And Tina Brown IS posting at Arianna's site. Dammit, all the beautiful people in one spot and me without a sockful of manure.

Mark Daniels said...

I had three major reactions to the new Huffington Celeb blog. But I'd rather siphon off some of your audience by encouraging the interested to check them out on my blog.

In response to some of the reactions I've seen to the Huffington blog, contending that none of the writers wrote in some contrived, hipper-than-thou blog mode, I'll say this, though: I don't hold it against anyone for writing in an essay style, complete with actual sentences containing nouns and verbs. I actually find it sort of refreshing.

PS: Who is Larry David and why should I care?

Ann Althouse said...

Mark: Larry David is the creator and star of the best comedy on television now and possibly ever.

Contributors said...

Ann: Amen.

Larry David is a genius. A one of a kind. And he's topped "Seinfeld." Who in their wildest imagination ever would've imagined that possible?

I think you've said, for as long as I've read you, that he'd make a good blogger, and I'd say his first post, while short on focus and link-use-challenged, supports that. It's funny, and more important; self deprecating. That's refreshing and not unexpected.

I don't mind being insulted by a genius. It's when MoDolt's do it, I get offended. Woody Allen, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, and Larry David can have at it.

Thank you sir, may I have another.

Here's hoping he doesn't get bored with it. I'm sure, more than a few will. (Hopefully, the resume- challenged Mrs. David to start.)

Mark Daniels said...

Sorry for being so uninformed. I just Googled Larry David's name and saw that he does an HBO show. I don't get HBO on basic cable.

I guess he also worked with Jerry Seinfeld on the development of his show. I never saw that either, just grazed a few scenes while channel-surfing over the years.

It'll do no good to ask me how this can be so. It just is. As the years have gone by, I've found it increasingly difficult to sit in front of the TV set for anything longer than fifteen to twenty minutes at a time.

My theory as to why this is so is all those nursing home visits I've had to do as a pastor. Once dimentia or physical inertia fully set in, the elderly sit around TV sets in wheelchairs with the sound raised to the max. This is so pathetically sad and gratingly annoying to me that I guess I try to elude such a fate by walking, reading, writing, and anything else as much as I can.

Please don't confuse my attitude for snobbery. How could someone who didn't remember the name of Larry David--I had read interviews with him about the development of 'Seinfeld,' the show about nothing, so I had heard of him--pose as a snob? Terminally unhip, maybe. Unlikely to win on 'Jeopardy' if boffo sitcoms from the '90s is a category. But no snob.

Joan said...

I clicked, I read Larry's post, I laughed. It helps enormously that I can "hear" it in Larry's own voice and in my mind's eye, see his expressions. I'm not sure how well it will go over with people who are unfamiliar with him.

I'll rely on the rest of the blogosphere to let me know what he posts again, though. No way am I going to be wading through the Huffingtonwhatever to find him. Both Lileks and Vodkapundit went to town on this little endeavor today as well.