Joe Queenan

BIO

Joe Queenan is the author of seven books and a regular contributor to The New York Times, Barron’s and The Los Angeles Times, a columnist for Chief Executive, and writes about movies and music for Great Britain’s The Guardian. Formerly an editor at Forbes and Spy, television critic at People, and a columnist at TV Guide, GQ, Smart Money, Men’s Health, Barron’s Online and Movieline, his stories have appeared in scores of national publications, including The New Republic, Time, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Daily News, the New York Observer, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Us, Golf Digest, The Weekly Standard, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Vogue, Town & Country, Allure, and New York. His work has appeared overseas in The Independent, The Spectator, The Toronto Globe & Mail, the Times of London, and Bon. Queenan has been a guest on "The Late Show with David Letterman", "The Daily Show", "Today", "Good Morning, America", "Charlie Rose" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", a frequent guest on "Imus in the Morning", and appeared more than two-dozen times on "Politically Incorrect". He regularly writes and hosts radio features for the BBC, and for three years was host of the BBC weekly radio program "Postcard from Gotham". In 2005, he won a Sports Emmy for his work on HBO’s "Inside the NFL". He is married, with two children, and lives in Tarrytown, N.Y.

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PAST INTERVIEW

April 7, 2000

Joe Queenan is a man of many talents --- he writes, edits, and often rants --- but what he seems to do best is make fun of just about everything that crosses his radar screen. Funny, sarcastic, and probably offensive to some, Queenan has recently authored two new books MY GOODNESS, an original work, and CONFESSIONS OF A CINEPLEX HECKLER, a collection of previously published essays and columns. Loyal reader and fan TBR Senior Writer Joe Hartlaub was happy to delve inside the heckler and find out the real story behind the often maniacal, usually hilarious and extremely well read writer.

TBR: Two new books of yours were published in February 2000: CONFESSIONS OF A CINEPLEX HECKLER, a collection of previously published columns and essays; the other, MY GOODNESS, is an original work. What was the impetus behind MY GOODNESS? And how did it come about that both books were published at the same time?

JQ: I was tired of being predictably mean and thought it would be interesting to take some time out to examine the life of the virtuous person from the inside. It was a sort of vacation from villainy. The simultaneous publication of the books was my publisher's idea.

TBR: Caustic satire, such as that featured in CONFESSIONS OF A CINEPLEX HECKLER and MY GOODNESS, as well as just about every word you've ever written, has historically played an integral part in American journalistic culture. What past and contemporary writers have most influenced you?

JQ: Moliere, Jonathan Swift, Marcel Ayme, Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet, Aristophanes, Rabelais, Cervantes, Oscar Wilde, Flann O'Brien, Mark Twain, H.L. Mencken, Woody Allen, Tom Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, William Shakespeare.

TBR: As your essays in CONFESSIONS OF A CINEPLEX HECKLER demonstrate, your taste in movies is...wonderfully and refreshingly discriminating, to say the least. What are some of your favorite adaptations of books into movies?

JQ: L.A. Confidential seemed to work okay, but The End of the Affair was a disaster and The Talented Mr. Ripley missed the point of the book. In recent years, I suppose the most successful adaptations have been The Sweet Hereafter and Dangerous Liaisons. Generally speaking, Hollywood makes good movies out of bad books (THE HORSE WHISPERER, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY), but butchers great books (WAR AND PEACE, THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV, LES MISERABLES.) It is also good at making unwatchable movies out of unreadable books: Angela's Ashes being the latest example.

TBR: If you had the inclination, the power, and the unlimited financial backing, what book would you adapt for film, and how would you cast it?

JQ: I would do Marguerite Yourcenar's MEMOIRS OF HADRIAN with Adam Sandler in the role of the Roman emperor. I realize it would be a stretch.

TBR: What, in your opinion, is the major cause of the decline of the quality of American cinema?

JQ: I don't think it has declined that much. It's certainly better than it was in the Eighties when they were making movies like Cocktail and Pretty in Pink. It's just that there are too many bad movies now because of video and cable.

TBR: Do you plan to regularly write a column for any specific publication in the near future?

JQ: Yes, I am regularly writing a column for GQ and will soon start a bi-monthly column for the New York Times.

TBR: Are you planning on writing any additional original books along the vein of MY GOODNESS in the near future?

JQ: No. With the exception of my first book, IMPERIAL CADDY, which dealt with Dan Quayle; all of my books have been about me. My next book will be about someone even worse.

TBR: Do you have any other projects that you are working on?

JQ: I will start a book in the next few months; but I do not want to identify the subject, as it is a secret, even to me.

TBR: What are you reading now?

JQ: I have never been able to read less than 15 books at a time. I have no idea why. Currently, I have almost finished John Keegan's HISTORY OF WARFARE, J.M. Roberts' SHORT HISTORY OF EUROPE, J.M. Roberts' SHORT HISTORY OF THE WORLD, Penelope Fitzgerald's AT FREDDIE'S, Gaston Leroux's LE FAUTEUIL HANTE and George Simenon's LA MORT DE BELLE, and am about halfway through Richard Ford's THE SPORTSWRITER, Thomas McGuane's NINETY-TWO IN THE SHADE, Gustave Flaubert's SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION, Charles Van Doren's HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE. All of these books are in some way wonderful.

TBR: What advice would you give to aspiring Joe Queenans?

JQ: Do not write anything until you are 30 as you will have absolutely nothing to say. Spend all your time reading the great writers. You can catch up on the writing part of things later, and there will always be plenty of money. At least that has been my experience.

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