Tina
Brown takes on tall subjects - Including UFOs
by
KRISTIN TILLOTSON, Star Tribune April
7, 2008 Tina
Brown had to reschedule the interview. She was in trouble with a judge. Brown,
the British-born former editor of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, finally became
a U.S. citizen in 2005. She'd pulled jury duty in Manhattan, and the judge had
already admonished her once for using her cell phone when it rang again. "Jury
duty -- this is what has made waiting all these years worth it," she said
after calling back later from a taxi. Brown
speaks tonight at Orchestra Hall on her book "The Diana Chronicles"
(paperback due out in May). The book, which was published last June, sold well
despite the many titles on the most famous woman in the world that had already
saturated the market in the decade after her death. Brown, 54, is hard at work
on her next subjects -- Bill and Hillary Clinton. That book is due in 2010.
Q
Why the continued fascination with Diana?
A
It's a story that has every possible compelling media component -- love, intrigue,
heartbreak, mystery, royalty -- that very few stories have. Q
What are some of your personal impressions of her? A
She was complicated, courageous, a little crazy, but also wonderful. The attempts
to make her into a manipulative celebrity demon are wrong. She was a romantic
heroine who had both great imperfection and great strength. Q
Regarding the state of celebrity today, you recently said that "everybody's
famous and no one's interesting." Elaborate. A
Diana at least had content. There's so little content now, just this repetitive
cycle of overexposure followed by personal crashes, then rehab. That's one reason
people are enthralled with Barack Obama -- the content. Q
For your next book, on the Clintons, you've been following Sen. Hillary Clinton
on her campaign stops. What's been your impression of Hillary, the person? A
I think Hillary is a very layered character, she's had to be. I think she's very
reserved by nature, for which people don't get any credit in today's world. It's
a time when people prefer transparency, openness, availability. In other eras
that wouldn't have mattered so much, but now people feel that if you're reserved,
you're hiding something. She's had to protect a great deal in her life. If she
hadn't already had a protective skin, she certainly would have had to grow another
several. We shouldn't regard her natural guardedness as a strike against her.
Chelsea is very similar, but with some of her father's temperament as well. Q
Has Bill been playing his role right in campaigning for her? A
In our YouTube culture, anything he says develops into something megawatt. There's
nothing you can say that doesn't get construed by someone as being radioactive.
One part of one sentence gets blown into a hurricane. But he's smart to campaign
in slightly off-the-mark places without her. She does much better when he's not
there, people feel she's her own woman. Q
You've covered both British and American politics. What's the difference? A
Americans are so much more interesting -- full of drama and gusto and money and
power. The British seem like the Little League in comparison. Here, you can have
these characters come from nowhere and run for president. Q
What magazines and blogs do you like right now? A
I just went to India and there's one there I love called Tehelka -- it means bomb
in Hindi. Of course still the New Yorker, the New Republic, the New York Review
of Books and Newsweek -- it's very intelligent, I always read it cover to cover.
As for blogs: realclearpolitics.com, smokinggun.com, Slate, politico.com and I
read Drudge every day. Q
So you'll be voting for an American president for the first time in this election? A
I've swung violently from person to person. I'm a great admirer of John McCain's.
He's made it harder for me to vote Democrat. I think both Hillary and Barack are
good. Of course, my candidate was Al Gore. Both my kids, Izzy and George, are
pro-Hillary, unlike most kids, who go toward Obama. Q
I read somewhere that as a lass, you were expelled from no less than three boarding
schools. Give us one of the reasons. A
The head teacher read my diary in which I had written that her breasts were unidentified
flying objects. I ended up at Oxford, but today I would never get in -- you have
to be such a goodie-goodie to get into any college of note now. | 
