The Face of Pain

From 2003: In her dazzling “Autobiography of a Face,” Lucy Grealy detailed her quest to reclaim her jaw, disfigured by cancer. Suddenly, she was the toast of literary New York, beloved for her quick wit and wild streak, saluted for her grit. But her endless surgeries left her so weak, impoverished, and dependent on drugs that even her dearest friends couldn’t save her.

Published: Jul 1, 2003
Length: 28 minutes (7,237 words)

Can CollegeHumor’s Ricky Van Veen Turn Viral Funny into the Future of TV?

Van Veen’s question for his deputies: “How do we translate network effects to original programming?” Reich thinks for a moment, then says, “What if we did a show called ‘Ransom,’ where each week you hold the next episode for ransom until the previous episode hits a certain number of viewers?” Van Veen likes this. “It’s not crazy. That could be the basis for something that really works.”

Published: Dec 13, 2010
Length: 9 minutes (2,297 words)

Planet Monocle

Tyler Brûlé ushered in a design revolution with Wallpaper magazine. His new global media strategy is equally rarefied, and only occasionally ridiculous. Listen to him for a while, and the world seems positively aglow with possibility.

Published: Dec 6, 2010
Length: 10 minutes (2,513 words)

Monetizing the Celebrity Meltdown

Tom Barrack, a billionaire investor who made his fortune in real estate, has discovered a market in distressed celebrities. With Neverland Ranch and Miramax under his belt, he’s now on a shopping spree—and bringing along his buddy Rob Lowe.

Published: Nov 29, 2010
Length: 18 minutes (4,519 words)

A Web and a Prayer

Profile of Julie Taymor and the $70 million “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” Much has transpired in the eight and a half years since Tony Adams, the original producer, having struck what some insiders say was a crippling deal with Marvel for the stage rights for Spider-Man, approached Bono and the Edge, of the rock group U2, about writing the songs. They in turn approached Taymor, then finishing her movie “Frida,” to direct. (“We were only going to do it if we could do it with Julie,” says Bono, who had loved Taymor’s “The Lion King.”) After reading through the original comic books and realizing that they offered “a mythology as authentic as any other,” she agreed. “Every age has its own myth that becomes more potent than others,” she says. “And this is ours.”

Published: Nov 22, 2010
Length: 25 minutes (6,315 words)

The Answer Is No

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is no longer just a popular governor; he has become a national Republican star. His focus on fiscal issues and his reluctance to wade into the culture wars—during his gubernatorial campaign, he declined Sarah Palin’s offer to stump for him—have endeared him to members of the GOP’s sane wing. “The breakthrough he’s scoring in New Jersey is hugely promising,” says David Frum, a conservative writer who fears that the Republican Party is being swallowed by the tea party.

Published: Nov 22, 2010
Length: 20 minutes (5,135 words)

Inside James Frey’s Fiction Factory

This is the essence of the terms being offered by Frey’s company Full Fathom Five: In exchange for delivering a finished book within a set number of months, the writer would receive $250 (some contracts allowed for another $250 upon completion), along with a percentage of all revenue generated by the project, including television, film, and merchandise rights—30 percent if the idea was originally Frey’s, 40 percent if it was originally the writer’s. The writer would be financially responsible for any legal action brought against the book but would not own its copyright.

Published: Nov 12, 2010
Length: 19 minutes (4,840 words)

Mr. Sunshine: Jimmy Fallon’s Good Humor

Nearly two years later, Lorne Michaels still watches every taping of “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” and weighs in on small details from set-dressing to individual monologue jokes. “I used to come out at the beginning and jump around and clap, really psyching everyone up,” says Fallon. “Lorne told me, ‘Too much. Just come out and stand there, plant, be confident, and deliver the joke. You command more authority when you make the audience come to you.’ “

Published: Nov 8, 2010
Length: 10 minutes (2,643 words)

Straight Outta Comp 101

I have never, to my knowledge, heard a song by 2Pac, Nas, Lil’ Kim, Lil Wayne, KRS-One, DMX, Kanye West, Cam’ron, 50 Cent, or the Wu-Tang Clan. This is why I’m so evangelically excited about The Anthology of Rap, Yale University Press’s monumental new collection of rap lyrics. It feels like it was published, exclusively for me, by the vanity press of my own subconscious.

Published: Oct 31, 2010
Length: 6 minutes (1,651 words)

Machete

Mohamed Jalloh and his family fled rebels in Sierra Leone for the relative safety of New York. Then the danger caught up with them.

Published: Nov 1, 2010
Length: 14 minutes (3,624 words)