My New Favorite Person: Joan Didion

May 10, 2017: I confess to coming late to the Joan Didion Appreciation Society (membership: a squillion), but I’m now …

Happy (Whatever) Birthday, Doris Day

April 3, 2017: Ninety-three, nine-five—let’s not preoccupy ourselves with her age. The crucial tally here is thirty-nine, the number of …

March 22, 2017: Let me be the first to say that the ’n’ in 1972’s Pete ’n’ Tillie, the movie …

January 15, 2017: In just about my favorite assignment ever, V magazine had me write about Rosemary’s Baby, Ira Levin’s …

January 13, 2017: Remember Roseanne’s old joke about how, if her husband comes home from work to find the kids …

December 21, 2016: The Dick Van Dyke Show probably made television’s first good joke about race. In “That’s My Boy??,” …

November 7, 2016: I am the world’s worst interviewer—just ask the great Tippi Hedren. I interviewed her by telephone in …

October 22, 2016: When I was between boyfriends in the early nineties (it would actually turn out to be the …

October 19, 2016: Desi Arnaz believed that one reason for “I Love Lucy”’s galactic success was that it didn’t insult any …

October 3, 2016: “What the hell was that?” is a perfectly reasonable response to any performance by the great Geraldine …