Frank Rich | The New York Observer

Frank Rich and Tina Brown Continue to Consult for HBO

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:38:17 -0400

Recently we sat down with Sue Naegle, the president of entertainment for HBO, to talk about the state of scripted series at the premium cable network.

At one point, we asked Ms. Naegle about Frank Rich and Tina Brown's role at the network.

Last time we checked in with HBO, in the first half of 2008, both Ms. Brown, the founder and editor of the Daily Beast, and Mr. Rich,...

Aunt Mabel Suggests...

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:59:59 -0400

Ever notice that the NYTimes.com most-emailed list is slanted toward an older demographic? Maybe because only folks over a certain age—like our Aunt Mabel—still use the email tool. Here's a quick, annotated guide to what grandma and grandpa thought you might be interested in from NYTimes.com ...

1. Times editors are proud of Aunt Mabel today. Investigative journalism takes the top spot in an exhaustive look into how a Philadelphia Veterans Hopsital botched treatments for...

Aunt Mabel Suggests...

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:00:03 -0400

An Observation: Aunt Mabel decided to shake things up on Wednesday! Only one story from the top 10 list yesterday remains on the list. But don't worry: She...

Aunt Mabel Suggests....

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:15:46 -0400

An Observation: Aunt Mabel really couldn't care less about Iran. If you click on The Times' top 10 most blogged stories, you'll find five stories on the Iranian...

Our Critic's Tip Sheet on Current Reading: Lincoln 24/7; Bush and The Great Gatsby; Smith's Self-Absorption

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:21:14 -0500

Are you ready for all Lincoln all the time? Do you worry that you’ll need some help in cutting through the bicentennial blather? If you’re looking for a quick refresher (as opposed, say, to the two-part, six volume mythologizing biography Carl Sandburg completed in 1939), try The Best American History Essays on Lincoln (Palgrave Macmillan, $16.95), a selection of 11 essays from the past 60 years edited by Sean Wilentz for the Organization of...

Better Luck Next Year, HBO

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:14:23 -0400

The 60th Annual Emmy Awards nominations have been announced, and as Gillian Reagan points out on our sister blog, Culture Czar, quality television purveyor HBO was shut out of the Best Drama category. There wasn't even a spot for The Wire, which finished its final season beneath an avalanche of critical praise.

That may not be such a shame according to Time's James Poniewozik, who writes, "Maybe it's more fitting that The...

Lineup for May 28, 2008

Wed, 28 May 2008 07:58:08 -0400

Now that HBO has hired Tina Brown and Frank Rich for consulting gigs, Felix Gillette wonders, "So what’s next?" He also notes, "the truly free-range journalist-consultant—one with a broad editorial mandate to roam here and there gnawing lustfully on some projects while trampling others willy-nilly—remains a rare and exotic beast."

Speaking of television, Doree Shafrir meets Bravo's Flipping Out host Jeff Lewis, "a deeply neurotic man who treats his staff like a...

The Hire

Tue, 27 May 2008 20:07:42 -0400

Over the past few weeks, HBO has announced a series of moves to stem the tide of speculation that the network is faltering. After canceling 12 Miles of Bad Road, a series starring Lily Tomlin, HBO announced deals with Oscar winners Alexander Payne (of Sideways and Election fame) to develop a dark comedy called Hung, about a man who divines power from his generous equipment; and Alan Ball, the creator of Six Feet Under,...

Report: Frank Rich to Join HBO as Consultant

Wed, 21 May 2008 14:00:48 -0400

Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily brings news that Frank Rich has been hired as a consultant for HBO.

Mr. Rich will continue to write his weekly New York Times op-ed column. The writer tells Ms. Finke, "It's the start of a new chapter in my life that's fun, quite frankly. I've been stage and movie struck since high school. Both have been a passion of mine. And I've always been thinking I would...

All That Glitters? Times Building Bash Guest List Unsurprises Many

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:10:54 -0500

Last night, The New York Times turned its lobby into a party space, complete with couches, at least three open bars and a band. Press was denied access, but as was most of the newsroom.

Except for those who were invited. A press release said that the building opened before a "glittering crowd" and here's who they consider glittering: Thomas Friedman was there, along with reporter Helene Cooper, Maureen Dowd, Baghdad bureau chief James...

Chuting Downmarket: Imus' Replacement Is a Jersey Buffoon

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 22:44:28 -0400

In a move akin to firing Bobby Knight and replacing him with Woody Hayes, CBS Radio has at last settled on a successor for Don Imus’s old morning drive slot.

He is Craig Carton, and his proudest moment on the New Jersey airwaves probably came in 2005, when a sitting Governor threatened to beat him up after Mr. Carton said that women like the Governor’s wife, who suffered from postpartum depression, “must be crazy...

Bennett’s Breakthrough: Dreamgirls Remembered

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 19:00:00 -0500

In all the fuss and hype over the film version of Michael Bennett’s 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls, one big, essential thing has been forgotten—the blazing achievement of the original production. At least for me, no movie could ever capture the excitement of seeing the show: I’d never seen anything like it before (nor since). Based on the story of the Supremes, Dreamgirls continued Broadway’s long love affair with backstage stories and showbiz...

Chris Matthews Is Looking for a Few Good Ideas

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 05:05:22 -0400

As a devotee of Chris Matthews, I'd point out a couple new trends on Hardball. A, he's been using profanity, saying "damn" a lot and "bastards," usually about our failed foreign policy; and B, he's trying to give the neocons their comeuppance, but isn't able to. The trends merged last week when he said to Frank Rich, "Dammit, that's what a leader's supposed to do, avoid the traps people are leading him into" (that's...

Let the Buyer Beware: Rich Rates Bush's Blarney

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Many a complacent D.C. wag insists that politics is all about numbers—as in who turns out when, presenting what margin of victory to produce which sort of mandate to govern. In a twist, New York Times columnist Frank Rich confronts one talismanic number of the Bush years—9/11—with another: 24/7. In Mr. Rich’s anatomy of the Bush governing style, all White House policy is driven by the will to manage the 24/7 cable news cycle—simply...

Let the Buyer Beware: Rich Rates Bush’s Blarney

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 20:00:00 -0400

Many a complacent D.C. wag insists that politics is all about numbers—as in who turns out when, presenting what margin of victory to produce which sort of mandate to govern. In a twist, New York Times columnist Frank Rich confronts one talismanic number of the Bush years—9/11—with another: 24/7. In Mr. Rich’s anatomy of the Bush governing style, all White House policy is driven by the will to manage the 24/7 cable news cycle—simply...

Eleventh-Hour Plea: Scrub Freedom Tower, A 1,776-Foot Blight

Sun, 12 Mar 2006 19:00:00 -0500

The hour is growing late, politicians and public officials are sleepwalking toward disaster, so forgive me if I take up, once again, my lonely crusade against the tragic folly of the so-called “Freedom Tower.” I was prompted to return to the question by a moment that dramatized the absurdity of the reassurances we have been given about the project’s super-duper new “security measures”: a report on NY1 News about Governor George Pataki’s “counterterrorism czar,”...

Oprah to Host Frey, Talese, Rich

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 11:49:00 -0500

According to the Oprah Winfrey Show Web site, tomorrow's program will revisit the questions surrounding James Frey and A Million Little Pieces. A source at Doubleday said that Frey, publisher Nan Talese and Frank Rich will be appearing on the show, which is being taped tomorrow morning for airing at 4 p.m. --Sheelah...

Tales of the Wiretap! Major Media Moments: Echelon Listens In

Sun, 22 Jan 2006 19:00:00 -0500

Let us begin this week with two recent items from the news. First there was NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, asking New York Times reporter-of-the-moment James Risen whether he had any information about the Bush administration eavesdropping on CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. In the journalism trade, this is known as “fishing.” Or, somewhat less charitably, “trying to get a rumor into print.” And then there was Frank Rich, following up on this in his Sunday column, pointing...

Sifton to Kantor: Goodbye and Thanks for the Furniture

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 08:17:00 -0400

To: XXXX@nytimes.com From: XXXXX@nytimes.com Subject: News from Culture TO THE STAFF: Jodi Kantor came to The Times in early 2003 with a mandate to remake the Arts & Leisure section. Now, having accomplished this task with great skill, spirit and aplomb, and having helped in the process to remake the entire Culture Department, bringing new reporters, critics, editors and many, many new columns of news and opinion into its report, she has asked to take on a new...

How Frank Rich Came Back From His Times Elba

Sun, 20 Mar 2005 19:00:00 -0500

"I am someone who's always changed my career a lot," Frank Rich said. It was a substantial understatement-yet, in its own way, an overstatement too. Mr. Rich was on the phone from the New York Times Building, discussing his latest reassignment: At the end of this month, Mr. Rich will go from writing a showpiece Sunday column to writing a showpiece Sunday column.

Two years ago, when The Times needed an anchor for its redesigned...

The 2004 John Heilpern Awards-And the Envelope, Puh-leeeeze!

Sun, 26 Dec 2004 19:00:00 -0500

And so, to the moment the nation has been waiting for! Before announcing the winners of our 2004 Theater Awards, here is Mrs. Kockenlocker, the beloved matriarch of our distinguished firm of accountants, Kockenlocker, Kockenlocker and Kockenlocker, to explain the rules.

"Good evening, everybody. Here are the rules as set out in subsection 2(b), paragraph 52(g) of the Awards Committee Constitution. To avoid disappointment, let it be noted that the Committee is not duty-bound to...

Power Punk: Jodi Kantor

Sun, 14 Dec 2003 19:00:00 -0500

The Times' li'l culture czarina; what an audition! what mentors! but where are pieces on Eugene O'Neill?

A year ago, there was a consensus inside and outside The New York Times that Sunday Arts and Leisure was in a major funk-the section was a bore, digestive rather than energetic, let alone contentious. A search began for a new editor. At the time, Jodi Kantor was in her fourth year as an editor at the...

Is Bill Frist as Phony as a Three-Dollar Bill?

Sun, 02 Mar 2003 19:00:00 -0500

The Republican Party no doubt figured it had gotten rid of a nasty problem when its U.S. Senators elected William Frist of Tennessee as majority leader to replace the disgraced Trent Lott. After all, Senator Frist has been declared, by himself and by friends in the media, as nothing less than the Beltway's answer to the Good Samaritan. A surgeon before turning his attention to politics, Mr. Frist-er, Dr. Frist-has won praise for his...

Howell Raines: May a Thousand Critics Bloom

Sun, 19 Jan 2003 19:00:00 -0500

When there was a Soviet Union, there were cultural commissars to give directives: Shostakovich good; Shostakovich bad. And, of course, China had Madame Mao. And for decades, New York City had The New York Times .

But lately, the city has culturally been on its own, more or less. The newspaper's grip on the cultural life of the city has loosened. New Yorkers have been allowed to operate under less assertive direction. However, Howell...

Portrait of the Drama Critic As a Stage-Struck Boy

Sun, 22 Oct 2000 20:00:00 -0400

Ghost Light: A Memoir , by Frank Rich. Random House, 315 pages, $24.95.

The theater, Moss Hart explained, is the "inevitable refuge of the unhappy child." Hart, one of the most successful playwrights and directors of the 20th century, endured severe poverty in his Bronx childhood before he reached the heights of Broadway success. Once his celebrated autobiography, Act One , had achieved cult status, Hart became the patron saint of the stage-struck; his ghost...

Toward a Sexier Street News

Sun, 04 Apr 1999 20:00:00 -0400

A Sexier Street News ?

The influence of the successful laddie-mag Maxim on the magazine market is obvious: Peruse the racks for Esquire , GQ , Details , etc., and you'll find some well-developed racks. But is cleavage culture so pervasive that it has infiltrated the innocent journalism of the homeless? "Models Wanted," blared a flier taped to a bus shelter recently on Broadway near West 96th Street. "Be a centerfold in the Street...