Sex and the Celebrity Profile

Completely left that out of my Kate Upton feature, now that I think of it.

 

I saw a link to this yesterday and decided I would spend the 20 minutes more productively -- like flushing $20 bills down the toilet.

 

I once slept with the cast of Friends after a bottle of Belvedere vodka.

 

A handjob from Janice does not count as sleeping with the cast of Friends.

 

I can think of two other pop culture plots that employ this trope: "Crazy Heart," the movie with Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhall; and "Squeeze Play," Jane Leavy's baseball novel.

 

21, I remain totally baffled by that whole Gawker post.

The two examples used of male writers doing this—Tad Friend "dry humping" Demi Moore and Tom Junod hanging out in Nicole Kidman's hotel room—were both clear jokes. (The Tad Friend example has been scratched since the original post went up, because Tad was like, What the hell?) There has never been, as far as I know, any profile written by a male writer in which he has sex with a celebrity during the course of writing a profile. Has it happened? Probably. Has it been written about? Find me that story. Like I wrote on Twitter, we've talked about it being the Holy Grail of profiles.

The only stories I know of that feature a writer either having or almost having sex with her subject have all been written by women, they've all appeared in GQ, and they've all appeared in the last few months.

What that means in the larger world of magazine journalism, I have no idea.

That being said, I've loved a lot of what A.J. Daulerio has done at Gawker. Watching that fucking self-important commentariat of his screaming like doused witches has given me tremendous joy.

 

Piotr, in all fairness, the Jones tweet that sent me to Gawker also said there were plenty of examples of male writers wanting sex, dreaming of sex, but none actually having it with their female subjects.

I just find it so laughable that such an issue can be made of the male/female dynamic among celebs, when sports folks deal with it every day. Although our male colleagues still handle it with far less grace than the female journos.

 

Has anybody here actually flirted with a female subject, whether it be someone you interviewed or otherwise?

 

Pat Summitt. Didn't work.

 

No but seriously... anybody?

 

Clearly, Pill, I had sex with Naomi Watts and wrote about it. You've contradicted everything I've written on this subject. Thank you for your obsessive following of my work.

21, I think if we're having an honest discussion of this, yes, women get hit on by their male subjects. But I've also seen plenty of women, many in locker rooms, use their looks or sexuality to improve their access. I would humbly suggest that it works both ways.