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"Shawn didn't talk that way"
Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: Bob Balaban, Ken Auletta, movies, Roger Angell, Truman Capote, William Shawn
'Capote' figure called un-Tru
Oscar handicappers are calling Philip Seymour Hoffman the man to beat for his portrayal of writer Truman Capote in "Capote." But old hands at the New Yorker are rankled by the movie's take on the magazine's late and beloved editor William Shawn, as played by Bob Balaban.
Longtime New Yorker contributor Roger Angell notes that the film has the painfully shy Shawn holding a press conference "and talking about how to make [Capote's book] 'In Cold Blood' more newsworthy. Shawn never did anything in his life to make something more newsworthy."
In the movie, Shawn also accompanies Capote to the execution of the murderers. "He was too nervous to travel, by and large," Angell tells us.
Writer Ken Auletta likewise took exception with the brusque and terribly social Shawn of "Capote."
"I don't believe he would have had that kind of breathless quality [Balaban has]," Auletta told us yesterday at a Newhouse School panel. "Shawn didn't talk that way. He held writers' hands. He held Capote's hand, and nurtured him and supported him."
Shawn's actor son, Wallace, couldn't be reached yesterday, but we're sure he'll have some thoughts.
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Hello! We're a small band of media enthusiasts, culture addicts, and journalists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, formerly a New Yorker fan site, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, politics, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Writing on theater: reviews (for Time Out Chicago; imperfect but workable search results)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
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Comments
Angell drives me nuts - when I first started reading his memoir pieces in the NYer I thought they were satiric fiction, they were so over the top pretentious. But when I read them as satiric fiction, I kind of love them … But I also like the retrospective characterizations of Shawn that emerge now and then in the NYer. I like too the idea of a shy celebrity, or a shy boss.