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Too Famous by Michael Wolff review – a sneering apologist for the notorious

In this collection of his essays and columns, the American journalist takes pride in being as ruthless as some of those he writes about – from Jeffrey Epstein to Steve Bannon

Fame, according to Milton’s poem, spurs “the clear spirit... To scorn delights, and live laborious days”. For Milton, that quest for lasting renown was an aristocratic pursuit, an “infirmity of noble mind”. Michael Wolff’s new book begins by lamenting “the democratisation of fame”: no achievement is required of today’s self-promoting wannabes, and all that counts is visibility on social media. Yet the celebrities Wolff examines retain a status that he calls “semi-heroic” because they suffer the penalties of fame or infamy, which include “humiliation, prosecution, jail, even death”. Too Famous begins with Hugh Grant dodging the inevitable blitz of selfies by retreating into defensive privacy; it ends as Jeffrey Epstein dies in the solitude of his prison cell.

Wolff himself became famous by writing three books of inflammatory gossip about the Trump administration. To capitalise on that success, he now recycles some early journalism, adding an unpublished account of time apparently spent in Epstein’s Manhattan mansion, where – although he doesn’t say how or why he obtained such indiscreet access – he eavesdrops as the predator’s cronies put him through a course of “media training” in the hope of palliating his crimes.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3br1yhB
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