George Plimpton

This is sad. Edward Said yesterday and now Plimpton. I met him at a party for Tina Brown's talk show a couple of weeks ago. I asked him what he thought "Topic A" (the title of the show) was for most people right now. He said "Iraq and the economy." I asked him what was being over-covered--"Topic Z," so to speak. "Both of those," he laughed. Then he talked a bit about the upcoming fireworks in Central Park and how gunpowder was used in China for festival celebrations long before it was appropriated to weaponry. I got an on-the-spot history lesson. (By contrast, Alec Baldwin, at the same party: "what do you call men who are gay, but want to sleep with women?")

In last month's issue of Black Book Magazine, the editor sent requests to 50 or so celebrities and influential figures, asking them to contribute "letters of protest" for their protest-themed issue. Plimpton wrote a hysterical letter protesting his lack of subscribers. He mentioned that The Paris Review got (if I remember correctly) nearly 25,000 submissions a year, and he guessed that none of those people were subscribers, so he sent subscription forms out with the rejection letters. He also had a subscription form printed on the back of his business card.

Plimpton had just started penning his memoirs.

The Page Six account:

GEORGE PLIMPTON that pioneer of participatory journalism who has talked his way into pitching at Yankee Stadium, quarterbacking for the Detroit Lions, playing goalie for the Boston Bruins and shooting hoops with the Celtics - is finally penning his memoirs. The Upper East Side-based editor and co-founder of the Paris Review, the literary journal he launched 50 years ago, also wrestled the gun out of assassin Sirhan Sirhan's hands while covering Robert Kennedy's presidential campaign, played the triangle for the New York Philharmonic in 1968, and has had cameos in more than 50 films, ranging from "Reds" to "Lawrence of Arabia" to "Pumping Iron II: The Women." Plimpton tells Variety's Jonathan Bing that publishers have been begging him for years to write up his amazing experiences. "I finally succumbed," he said.

Posted by Elizabeth Spiers at September 26, 2003 08:28 AM