Search Results for: TV

‘Memory.’ The Introduction to Roger Ebert’s New Memoir ‘Life Itself’

Longreads Pick

The point for now is: I had no conception of such a show and no desire to work with Siskel. The three stages of my early career (writing and editing a newspaper, becoming a film critic, beginning a television show) were initiated by others. Between college and 2006, my life continued more or less on that track. I was a movie critic and I had a TV show. It could all have been lost through alcoholism (I believe I came closer than many people realized), but in 1979 I stopped drinking and the later chapters became possible.

Source: Roger Ebert
Published: Jul 15, 2011
Length: 12 minutes (3,030 words)

Rupert Murdoch’s Wife Wendi Wields Influence at News Corp. (2000)

Longreads Pick

When News Corp. officials gathered in the Hong Kong convention center in March to unveil their latest Chinese Internet investment, a tall woman in their midst handed out a business card that read simply, “News Corporation/Wendi Deng Murdoch.” Ms. Deng is not a News Corp. employee. Once a junior executive at the company’s Star TV unit in Hong Kong, the 31-year-old Ms. Deng quit her post before marrying News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch last year. Since then, she has been portrayed—by Mr. Murdoch and the company—as a traditional housewife who attends to decorating, her husband’s diet and the like. But Ms. Deng is no homebody.

Published: Jan 1, 2000
Length: 14 minutes (3,713 words)

We Are All Teenage Werewolves

Longreads Pick

MTV’s “Teen Wolf” was conceived as a darker, sexier reimagining of the “Teen Wolf” story, and also a gorier one. Within the first few minutes of the pilot episode, for example, Posey’s character, Scott McCall, discovers the naked, dismembered body of a young woman in the woods. So it’s clear right away that this will not be a sweet, silly sports comedy, like the old “Teen Wolf.” There will also be brooding! There will probably not be triumphant werewolf-basketball montages!

Published: May 20, 2011
Length: 18 minutes (4,503 words)

Mad German Auteur, Now in 3-D!

Longreads Pick

The daring German filmmaker Werner Herzog once walked a thousand miles to propose to a woman. He once plotted to firebomb his leading man’s house and once ate his own shoe to square a bet. He once got shot in the stomach during a TV interview, then insisted on finishing. And despite it all, his latest adventure—a 3-D documentary about cave paintings—still sounds batshit crazy.

Source: GQ
Published: Apr 29, 2011
Length: 17 minutes (4,269 words)

Silicon Valley Cashes Out Selling Private Shares

Longreads Pick

Vince Thompson doesn’t appear in any accounts of Facebook’s early years. Few of the more than 2,000 employees at the company even know his name. The AOL veteran’s brief stint as Facebook’s first official ad-sales chief lasted less than six months. Even so, when Thompson left the company in early 2006, he exercised his options to buy Facebook stock, as is the custom in Silicon Valley, and took a sizable chunk of shares with him. About 18 months later he moved to Los Angeles and started consulting for media clients such as TVGuide.com on how to tap new sources of revenue, and he began to think about how to create one for himself. He set out on a quest, talking to friends in the New York investment banking world about an unorthodox idea: selling a portion of his Facebook shares, packaged with those of a colleague who left Facebook shortly after he did.

Author: Brad Stone
Source: Businessweek
Published: Apr 21, 2011
Length: 16 minutes (4,102 words)

Why Fashion Keeps Tripping Over Race

Why Fashion Keeps Tripping Over Race

Why Isn't Mike Vanderjagt Still Kicking In The NFL?

Why Isn’t Mike Vanderjagt Still Kicking In The NFL?

Why Isn’t Mike Vanderjagt Still Kicking In The NFL?

Longreads Pick

Some might think the answer comes down to two phrases: “idiot kicker” and “liquored up.” These four words were famously uttered in one sentence at the Pro Bowl in 2003 by Colts quarterback Peyton Manning. You remember: Vanderjagt had gone on Canadian TV and said he was down on his Colts team because Manning and the head coach at the time, Tony Dungy, weren’t fiery leaders. “I’m not a real big Colts fan right now, unfortunately,” Vanderjagt said. “I just don’t see us getting better.”

Source: The Post Game
Published: Jan 30, 2011
Length: 10 minutes (2,709 words)

Opium Wars: Can Afghan Farmers Really Stop Growing Poppies?

Opium Wars: Can Afghan Farmers Really Stop Growing Poppies?

Don't Look Back: Republican Congressman Darrell Issa Can Explain His Past

Don’t Look Back: Republican Congressman Darrell Issa Can Explain His Past