Posted 12:47 PM by Gene

The New York Times is announcing the rise of the anti-CEO book. Could we have had the anti-CEO book without all those news hacks penning corporate hagiographies? (The actual author of the besmirched Legendary Welch's memoirs, John Byrne, is a Business Week hack who wrote a stinkweed cover valentine to GE to procure his assignment.) The Times also reports some of the hagiographies are sold in bulk lots (surprise). Where would the Amen Corner of big business have been without the nongraphic novels of one Superman after another, not to mention the immortal sycophancy of Lollipop Lou Dobbs? Yet another eyeball-rolling phenomenon for which news hacks have only themselves to blame.

Elsewhere the Great Gray Lady tells us of an actor who "has prominent roles in three big movies now playing and has made 30 films in the last 15 years, yet he practically needs to wear a name tag in public." This, in the manner of show-biz flackery, is meant as a compliment. But not too long ago Hollywood was awash with character actors with memorable faces; Walter Brennan is the least example. Even today's leading actors have generic features; George Clooney, a supremely handsome man, looks like he came straight out of the TV (which he did). The wife of the late Ambassador Annenberg allegedly remarked that too much of Hollywood looked alike. Sorry, they did have faces then.