Grim Reader, Dec. 24, 2009: Brittany Murphy, Hossein Ali Montazeri and Arnold Stang
by Michael Schaffer
DECEMBER 24, 2009 TAGS:
It’s a short holiday week for Grim Reader. But obituaries, alas, don’t take a Christmas vacation. In America, the news focused on the surprising death of Brittany Murphy. Murphy’s was, in many ways, a classic postmodern celebrity death: Never a first-tier Hollywood figure, she became a bigger story this week due to her passing than she had been while alive — with a frenzy of speculation, leaks, and scoops about how the 32-year-old actress managed to go into cardiac arrest in her shower. In classic 2009 fashion, the news was first reported by TMZ.com, which stayed ahead of the story all week.
In the major-media obit sections, Murphy is remembered as “perpetually perky and slightly quirky” (the New York Times), a “troubled starlet” (New York Daily News), a “bubbly, free-spirited actress” (CNN), and a “jolie laide” (the Independent). The Los Angeles Times goes into its familiar Hollywood-is-stunned pose, including Tinseltown breast-beating while also snagging an interview with Murphy’s apparently estranged father, who describes himself as a “retired mobster.” Elsewhere, the newspapers mainly feature Murphy’s acting resume — a beloved ugly-duckling role in Clueless, darker roles in Girl, Interrupted and 8 Mile, waning star-power but recent hints of a revival.
In the old-school dailies, the troubled-starlet pieces of her story are mainly just hinted at, as when the Times of London notes that the once-cherubic redhead “reinvented herself as a thin blonde, in 2006 denying reports that she had an eating disorder.” It also mentions her “difficult” reputation. Of course, that piece of the story is front and center in the networked, online, gossip-heavy new media universe where Murphy’s death represents a big, developing story. US Weekly grabs a scoop about her last meal — Gatorade and Noodles, according to coroners’ notes — and offers a slideshow about her changing appearance over the years.
But even as authorities are apparently investigating how TMZ came to publish toxicology reports, the death is spun as a celebrity morality tale. “Did Brittany Murphy die of Hollywood?,” asks Psychology Today’s Wednesday Martin. Some people who had previous fun with Murphy’s troubles seemed eager to stop the laughing: On Hulu and Youtube, a recent Saturday Night Live skit lampooning Murphy abruptly vanished this week.
In a blog post, Washington Post obituary editor Adam Bernstein argues that Murphy’s “promise was largely unfulfilled and she never said anything particularly memorable about her craft.” But, he says, people like her and the late DJ AM get outsize obit attention “because those who care about their lives are young social networkers who drive tremendous traffic online.” And yet, for those who care about our culture, that status is itself fascinating. Which is why the best Murphy material didn’t come from CV-reciting obits, but from websites like Gawker: “In the final years … Murphy was all saucer eyes and nervous energy, a toothy grin on the arm of one shady movie industry boyfriend after another,” the story says, with a degree of certainty Grim Reader couldn’t find anywhere else in the Obitosphere.
**
In the Western media, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri is remembered as an architect of the 1979 Iranian revolution who later became a dissident. But the death is first and foremost a news story. Immediately after Montazeri’s death, allies including the former presidential candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi called on supporters to travel to the holy city of Qom for a funeral that is being played like a protest against the country’s hard-line government. As pro-Montazeri crowds took to the streets, the government banned foreign reporters from the city.
Montazeri was “Iran’s bravest cleric,” writes Abbas Milani in the New Republic. The obits all take stabs at explaining how he went from being a pillar of the Islamic Republic to a thorn in the clerics’ side. In one of the few foreign obits with a Tehran dateline, the Los Angeles Times’ Ramin Mostaghim recalls that Montazeri “was slated to take over as the country’s supreme leader until a falling out with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founding father of the Islamic Republic, over killings of political prisoners in the late 1980s. Montazeri became a harsh and defiant critic.” He eventually served six years of house arrest. Earlier this year, he apologized for the 1979 capture of American diplomats as hostages.
But a Guardian obit, which begins with an anecdote about a polite, gentle Montazeri entertaining foreign reporters after the 1979 revolution, suggests he was always a skeptic: “There were two deep-seated tendencies in Montazeri. He was an anti-imperialist, committed to the cause of downtrodden people and nations. For that he saw the Islamic republic as a friend to developing and Muslim countries, including the Palestinians. On the other hand, having experienced imprisonment and torture, he was absolutely committed to justice and human rights.”
Of course, there are some dissents to the generally gushing tributes. From the right, the Jerusalem Post argues that the Iranian opposition is no great shakes. “Let’s not fool ourselves; the Iranian opposition is not Western-oriented and certainly not agnostic on Israel,” the paper notes. “Still, it is significant that [opposition members]…all latched onto Montazeri as a symbol.” And then there’s the tribute from Iran’s current top cleric, Ayatollah Khamenei. Allowing that Montazeri “was an eminent scholar and an illustrious thinker,” his statement goes on to note that “towards the end of the Imam’s life, he failed a difficult and momentous test” by criticizing the student killings.
One nice thing about the online Obitosphere: Not only can you find condolence statements from foreign brutes, but you can also find explications from experts like University of Michigan Iran-watcher Juan Cole.
Back home, there are a few obits for Ann Nixon Cooper, the 107-year-old woman who was cited by Barack Obama in his election-night victory speech. Everyone mentions what the president-elect said about her: “She was born just a generation past slavery, a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons — because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.” The shout-out seems to have inspired significant interest in the centenarian’s life story: An autobiography is scheduled to come out in a couple of months. In the Obitosphere, though, the New York Times gives her history comparatively short shrift. CNN and the Associated Press offer slightly more attention.
It was an interesting week in Hollywood deaths. Grim Reader especially likes this Washington Post lede: “Jennifer Jones, 90, an actress who won an Academy Award playing a saint in ‘The Song of Bernadette’ and became a popular sinner in Hollywood melodramas including ‘Duel in the Sun’ … died Dec. 17.” The Post’s obit focuses on Jones’ acting career, which allegedly declined because her second husband, the legendary producer David O. Selznick, tried to turn her into what one scholar mocked as “the greatest actress in the world.” In the New York Times, her personal life, including battles with mental illness and more dirt on her Selznick marriage, gets equal billing. The hometown Los Angeles Times includes a nice second piece looking at the museum she built with her third husband, the industrialist Norton Simon.
Elsewhere in entertainment: There are obits this week for Sesame Street actress Aliana Reed-Hall, and Mr. Ed costar Connie Hines. The Reed-Hall obits say little about what it was like to act opposite Big Bird, but Hines’ Associated Press obituary contains a great line from one of Hines’ costars on the show about the talking horse. “Ms. Hines had ‘a tough chore,’ Mr. Young said. ‘She was a girl married to a fellow listening to a horse,’ he explained. ‘Her biggest line was ‘Lunch is ready.’” … And there’s a nice New York Times obit for Arnold Stang, whom a headline labels “Arnold Stang, Milquetoast Actor.” The story goes on to explain that the diminutive, nasal-voiced actor “was a natural for roles requiring a milquetoast, a pest or a nerd.”
The Independent, the Guardian and the Telegraph all catch the death of Kim Peek, the Utah man who inspired Dustin Hoffman’s character from Rain Man. Peek is remembered for “his ability to memorise to the word up to 12,000 books [the Independent says 9,000], including the Bible and the Book of Mormon.” Oddly, major American outlets stick to wire-service obits for Peek, though there’s a lengthy Salt Lake Tribune piece recounting how the movie eventually lured the reclusive savant, and his parents, into a public role as advocates for more public school spending on students with disabilities.
Also making the Obitosphere this week: C.D.B. Bryan, whose 1976 Friendly Fire detailed the effects of a Vietnam soldier’s death on his Iowa family. Peg Mullen, the mourning mom he helped turn into a peace activist, died in October. … Erminio Costa, who discovered how the brain chemical seratonin worked, thereby paving the way for modern antidepressants. … And Walter Stamm, whose research into chlamydia helped control the sexually transmitted disease, which can cause infertility in women.
But Grim Reader’s favorite obit of this Christmas week has to be that of Leon Malkin, who the Washington Post shorthands as a “longtime leftist.” In this year of wild Socialist allegations, it’s refreshing to remember what a real one looks like: Malkin, 98, had been a member of the Young People’s Socialist League in the 1930s, was forced out of a federal job during the Red Scares, and started putting dog poop in his trash after learning that federal agents were pawing through it. He eventually bought a D.C. laundromat, which must have made him an unusual diplomatic dinner guest during the ’50s, when he and his wife were regulars at East Bloc embassy gatherings. “After his wife died in 1983, he moved to Leisure World in Silver Spring, where he became something of a resident character,” the piece concludes. No kidding.
Michael Schaffer’s Grim Reader appears Friday in Obit. He is the author of One Nation Under Dog, about culture and the American pet industry.
In the major-media obit sections, Murphy is remembered as “perpetually perky and slightly quirky” (the New York Times), a “troubled starlet” (New York Daily News), a “bubbly, free-spirited actress” (CNN), and a “jolie laide” (the Independent). The Los Angeles Times goes into its familiar Hollywood-is-stunned pose, including Tinseltown breast-beating while also snagging an interview with Murphy’s apparently estranged father, who describes himself as a “retired mobster.” Elsewhere, the newspapers mainly feature Murphy’s acting resume — a beloved ugly-duckling role in Clueless, darker roles in Girl, Interrupted and 8 Mile, waning star-power but recent hints of a revival. In the old-school dailies, the troubled-starlet pieces of her story are mainly just hinted at, as when the Times of London notes that the once-cherubic redhead “reinvented herself as a thin blonde, in 2006 denying reports that she had an eating disorder.” It also mentions her “difficult” reputation. Of course, that piece of the story is front and center in the networked, online, gossip-heavy new media universe where Murphy’s death represents a big, developing story. US Weekly grabs a scoop about her last meal — Gatorade and Noodles, according to coroners’ notes — and offers a slideshow about her changing appearance over the years.
But even as authorities are apparently investigating how TMZ came to publish toxicology reports, the death is spun as a celebrity morality tale. “Did Brittany Murphy die of Hollywood?,” asks Psychology Today’s Wednesday Martin. Some people who had previous fun with Murphy’s troubles seemed eager to stop the laughing: On Hulu and Youtube, a recent Saturday Night Live skit lampooning Murphy abruptly vanished this week.
In a blog post, Washington Post obituary editor Adam Bernstein argues that Murphy’s “promise was largely unfulfilled and she never said anything particularly memorable about her craft.” But, he says, people like her and the late DJ AM get outsize obit attention “because those who care about their lives are young social networkers who drive tremendous traffic online.” And yet, for those who care about our culture, that status is itself fascinating. Which is why the best Murphy material didn’t come from CV-reciting obits, but from websites like Gawker: “In the final years … Murphy was all saucer eyes and nervous energy, a toothy grin on the arm of one shady movie industry boyfriend after another,” the story says, with a degree of certainty Grim Reader couldn’t find anywhere else in the Obitosphere.
**
In the Western media, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri is remembered as an architect of the 1979 Iranian revolution who later became a dissident. But the death is first and foremost a news story. Immediately after Montazeri’s death, allies including the former presidential candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi called on supporters to travel to the holy city of Qom for a funeral that is being played like a protest against the country’s hard-line government. As pro-Montazeri crowds took to the streets, the government banned foreign reporters from the city.
Montazeri was “Iran’s bravest cleric,” writes Abbas Milani in the New Republic. The obits all take stabs at explaining how he went from being a pillar of the Islamic Republic to a thorn in the clerics’ side. In one of the few foreign obits with a Tehran dateline, the Los Angeles Times’ Ramin Mostaghim recalls that Montazeri “was slated to take over as the country’s supreme leader until a falling out with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founding father of the Islamic Republic, over killings of political prisoners in the late 1980s. Montazeri became a harsh and defiant critic.” He eventually served six years of house arrest. Earlier this year, he apologized for the 1979 capture of American diplomats as hostages.
But a Guardian obit, which begins with an anecdote about a polite, gentle Montazeri entertaining foreign reporters after the 1979 revolution, suggests he was always a skeptic: “There were two deep-seated tendencies in Montazeri. He was an anti-imperialist, committed to the cause of downtrodden people and nations. For that he saw the Islamic republic as a friend to developing and Muslim countries, including the Palestinians. On the other hand, having experienced imprisonment and torture, he was absolutely committed to justice and human rights.”
Of course, there are some dissents to the generally gushing tributes. From the right, the Jerusalem Post argues that the Iranian opposition is no great shakes. “Let’s not fool ourselves; the Iranian opposition is not Western-oriented and certainly not agnostic on Israel,” the paper notes. “Still, it is significant that [opposition members]…all latched onto Montazeri as a symbol.” And then there’s the tribute from Iran’s current top cleric, Ayatollah Khamenei. Allowing that Montazeri “was an eminent scholar and an illustrious thinker,” his statement goes on to note that “towards the end of the Imam’s life, he failed a difficult and momentous test” by criticizing the student killings. One nice thing about the online Obitosphere: Not only can you find condolence statements from foreign brutes, but you can also find explications from experts like University of Michigan Iran-watcher Juan Cole.
Back home, there are a few obits for Ann Nixon Cooper, the 107-year-old woman who was cited by Barack Obama in his election-night victory speech. Everyone mentions what the president-elect said about her: “She was born just a generation past slavery, a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons — because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.” The shout-out seems to have inspired significant interest in the centenarian’s life story: An autobiography is scheduled to come out in a couple of months. In the Obitosphere, though, the New York Times gives her history comparatively short shrift. CNN and the Associated Press offer slightly more attention.
It was an interesting week in Hollywood deaths. Grim Reader especially likes this Washington Post lede: “Jennifer Jones, 90, an actress who won an Academy Award playing a saint in ‘The Song of Bernadette’ and became a popular sinner in Hollywood melodramas including ‘Duel in the Sun’ … died Dec. 17.” The Post’s obit focuses on Jones’ acting career, which allegedly declined because her second husband, the legendary producer David O. Selznick, tried to turn her into what one scholar mocked as “the greatest actress in the world.” In the New York Times, her personal life, including battles with mental illness and more dirt on her Selznick marriage, gets equal billing. The hometown Los Angeles Times includes a nice second piece looking at the museum she built with her third husband, the industrialist Norton Simon.
Elsewhere in entertainment: There are obits this week for Sesame Street actress Aliana Reed-Hall, and Mr. Ed costar Connie Hines. The Reed-Hall obits say little about what it was like to act opposite Big Bird, but Hines’ Associated Press obituary contains a great line from one of Hines’ costars on the show about the talking horse. “Ms. Hines had ‘a tough chore,’ Mr. Young said. ‘She was a girl married to a fellow listening to a horse,’ he explained. ‘Her biggest line was ‘Lunch is ready.’” … And there’s a nice New York Times obit for Arnold Stang, whom a headline labels “Arnold Stang, Milquetoast Actor.” The story goes on to explain that the diminutive, nasal-voiced actor “was a natural for roles requiring a milquetoast, a pest or a nerd.” The Independent, the Guardian and the Telegraph all catch the death of Kim Peek, the Utah man who inspired Dustin Hoffman’s character from Rain Man. Peek is remembered for “his ability to memorise to the word up to 12,000 books [the Independent says 9,000], including the Bible and the Book of Mormon.” Oddly, major American outlets stick to wire-service obits for Peek, though there’s a lengthy Salt Lake Tribune piece recounting how the movie eventually lured the reclusive savant, and his parents, into a public role as advocates for more public school spending on students with disabilities.
Also making the Obitosphere this week: C.D.B. Bryan, whose 1976 Friendly Fire detailed the effects of a Vietnam soldier’s death on his Iowa family. Peg Mullen, the mourning mom he helped turn into a peace activist, died in October. … Erminio Costa, who discovered how the brain chemical seratonin worked, thereby paving the way for modern antidepressants. … And Walter Stamm, whose research into chlamydia helped control the sexually transmitted disease, which can cause infertility in women.
But Grim Reader’s favorite obit of this Christmas week has to be that of Leon Malkin, who the Washington Post shorthands as a “longtime leftist.” In this year of wild Socialist allegations, it’s refreshing to remember what a real one looks like: Malkin, 98, had been a member of the Young People’s Socialist League in the 1930s, was forced out of a federal job during the Red Scares, and started putting dog poop in his trash after learning that federal agents were pawing through it. He eventually bought a D.C. laundromat, which must have made him an unusual diplomatic dinner guest during the ’50s, when he and his wife were regulars at East Bloc embassy gatherings. “After his wife died in 1983, he moved to Leisure World in Silver Spring, where he became something of a resident character,” the piece concludes. No kidding.
Michael Schaffer’s Grim Reader appears Friday in Obit. He is the author of One Nation Under Dog, about culture and the American pet industry.
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