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Slate Books

Political Gabfest - Gabfest Reads: The Classic Hollywood Romance Gets a Makeover

Slate Books

Slate Podcasts

Arts

3.8546 Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2023

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Emily Bazelon talks with author author Curtis Sittenfeld about her new book Romantic Comedy

 

They discuss why ordinary guys get to be with famous women, but usually not the other way around, the fun of writing a fictional version of Saturday Night Live, and how to write witty email exchanges.  


Tweet us your questions @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages could be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)


Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to GabFest Reeds for the month of May.

0:09.9

I'm Emily Badlon, one of the hosts of Slaves Political GabFest.

0:14.5

I'm here today with a wonderful fiction writer Curtis Sittenfeld.

0:19.5

Hey, Curtis.

0:20.3

Hey, Emily. Curtis is the author of

0:23.8

excellent New York Times bestselling books, the novels that include eligible and prep an American

0:30.7

wife. She has also written for The New Yorker and the New York Times, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair.

0:36.6

She's been on This American Life.

0:38.7

She deserves to be everywhere. And she is the author of a new novel called Romantic Comedy,

0:44.8

which of course is a romantic comedy. Could you just tell us a little bit about the premise of

0:50.2

this novel and the main characters? Yes. So the main character is a woman named Sally,

0:56.7

who's in her late 30s and works for a late night sketch comedy show in New York

1:02.8

that bears a significant resemblance to Saturday Night Live.

1:06.8

And she's worked there for nine years.

1:09.1

She writes a sketch, kind of making fun of the phenomenon of men dating up generally,

1:17.2

like sort of talented but ordinary-looking men dating, super gorgeous, super successful world-famous women,

1:25.9

which happens at the show and also, of course, happens in real

1:28.4

life. And she's mocking how this wouldn't really happen with an ordinary woman and a super

1:35.4

hot, famous male celebrity. And then that week's guest host and musical guest are one and the

1:42.6

same are a charming, smoking hot pop singer named Noah.

1:47.7

And she thinks there might be chemistry, but is it all in her head or is it real?

1:53.9

And what intrigued you about this setup?

...

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