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Kurt Andersen and Nora Ephron

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from: Kurt Andersen

Down With the Pro-Clinton Popular Front

Posted Tuesday, Sept. 14, 1999, at 1:04 PM ET

I certainly wasn’t suggesting that only conventionally handsome men should get laid. (Take me, for instance—I should definitely get laid, frequently and regardless of financial means.) No, I was just wondering about the thought processes of 1) men who know or ought to know that their most profoundly and disproportionately attractive quality is their net worth and 2) women who marry men to whom they wouldn’t deign to speak if the men in question were mere wage-earners.

Yes, the conventionally handsome Tom Brokaw should run for president … especially now that every American over 65 owns a copy of The Greatest Generation and loves him like a son. (If not more than they love their actual sons.) He, like your friend Tom Hanks, could be the Democrats’ Ronald Reagan. Also, Brokaw has never taken drugs or had sex, at least not in my presence.

So you’re "stunned" that all your "women-who-are-Democrats-and-successful friends have no enthusiasm" for Hillary? Well, I’m frankly heartened by the emerging disapproval of that demographic. Hillary is a disingenuous weirdo (not that that disqualifies her to serve in the Senate) and, even before her pathetic interview in Talk, kind of a bad idea as an icon. And even though I didn’t want Bill Clinton thrown out of office, the cultural elite’s reflexive and vigorous defense of him to the bitter end made me queasy. So if the popular-front pro-Clintonism of the Manhattan affluentials is now disintegrating, I’m pleased. (By the way, did you vote for Giuliani for mayor? I did, twice. Could you conceivably vote for him for Senator? I don’t think I could. I may have to vote for the Reform or Libertarian candidate.)

Do we need to discuss East Timor, to prove we’re not just frivolous New York idiots?

Or should we just go with the frivolous New York idiot thing, and discuss the renaissance in cinematic supernaturalism—Blair Witch, Sixth Sense, and now Stigmata? Are there going to be ghosts and/or satanic possessions in your next movie?

Sincerely, fondly, etc.,
Kurt

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516171819202122
from: Kurt Andersen

Down With the Pro-Clinton Popular Front

Posted Tuesday, Sept. 14, 1999, at 1:04 PM ET
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Kurt Andersen was architecture critic for Time, co-founder of Spy, and editor of New York magazine. He now writes for The New Yorker, and his best-selling first novel, Turn of the Century, was published in May (click here to buy it). Nora Ephron is a screenwriter and director. Her films include Sleepless in Seattle, Michael and, most recently, You’ve Got Mail.
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