Fran Lebowitz on 'Public Speaking,' Twitter and Knowing Everything

Filed under: Reality-Free, Celebrity Interviews

There aren't a whole lot of job openings these days for philosophers, public wits and raconteurs. Fran Lebowitz pretty much has the monopoly to herself.

As recorded by no less than director Martin Scorsese in his new HBO documentary 'Public Speaking' (which debuts Nov. 22), Lebowitz is the last of a breed that once included such sparkling conversationalists as Dorothy Parker, Oscar Wilde, Oscar Levant, Jack Paar, Truman Capote, William F. Buckley, James Baldwin and others who could dine out on their witticisms and pontifications.

Though Lebowitz, 60, hasn't published a book of new essays in decades (she famously suffers from a bout of writer's block so durable that she calls it "writer's blockade"), she still makes a living as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and, as the title of the documentary implies, on the lecture circuit. For her, "public speaking" really just means "talking back," the sort of opining she got punished for as a child, but which now pays for her cigarettes and tailored suits.

 

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Source: http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/11/19/fran-lebowitz-public-speaking-hbo/

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