Reel Politique: Prize Beat, Diablo Cody 2
Just what exactly is it that Entertainment Weekly has invested in Diablo Cody? It’s not just that the publication has installed the faux-pole-dance-blogger-turned-screenwriter as its new last page columnist, the second of which appears this week in issue number 974. There is some larger obsession with the writer. For example, this same issue has no less than 13 references to Cody and / or Juno. That’s excessive even for an issue dedicated to Oscar predictions.
Cody is marbled all through the issue. There is a fan letter praising her on page 6. On page 11 Juno is praised for proffering the best new ornate expletive. Allison Janney is quoted on page 28 with her parenthetical credited listed as Juno instead of, say, The West Wing. There is a picture from Juno on page 36, and on page 37 a sincere hope expressed that it winds up nominated for best picture in this year’s Oscars. On page 43, Ellen Page is touted for best actress. On page 44, J. K. Simmons is recommended for a best supporting actor nod. Page 46 brings us praise of both Jennifer Garner and of Janney again. Nor is the film’s director left out (page 48), and of course, not its writer, leading off the original screenplay candidates on page 49. Juno also turns up in the “Critical Mass” chart on page 63 and then is singled out for explanatory language in the “Chart” box office list on page 69. Finally, Juno’s soundtrack is praised in the magazine’s music section (page 80).
Cody herself finally appears on the last page with her column, “Binge Thinking.” Taking as its theme female cultural figures who represent a certain amount of strength within weakness, the best that can be said of this incoherent, self-fixated ramble is that it is no less funny than its predecessor three weeks ago.
But why EW’s fixation on Cody? Unless there is a history of intricate behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing between the magazine and Cody’s apparently aggressive business manager Mason Novick, the benefit for EW is that they have a semi-high profile columnist who is under (barely) 30 and who will appeal, presumably, to much younger readers, say, those torn between Gossip Girls and the next Hannah Montana concert. EW is no doubt facing the same crisis that plagues nearly every other publication and newspaper in the land, that is, that their core readership is aging but they are failing to acquire new readers. I wonder if in years to come we will look back at this transitional period and laugh at how much the olders clung to their expensive, slow, instantly out-of-date, environmentally-unfriendly magazines and newspapers. In any case, citing Janney for Juno instead of West Wing is simply the quietest hint that EW wants henceforth to pretend that its readers are teens and twentysomethings and not the aged wrinklies who still read some of the books covered in its ever-shrinking book review section or who actually want to see the plays that would otherwise be covered in its non-existent theater department.