BOOK
$24
Gossip geek tells all
Back when being a dotcom pioneer meant building a solid Web site rather than making millions, there was Harry Knowles. The self-proclaimed geek staked his claim with Ain't It Cool News, a tell-all site about the film industry. But instead of stock options and dollars, the opinionated Texan cashed in on Hollywood clout and mainstream media buzz.
Now he's written Ain't It Cool?, a book that combines personal stories, essays, and self-congratulatory accounts of how his site came to be All That.
What Knowles knows - and what he writes about with zeal and rhythm - is movies. In a musing style that sometimes veers into rant, he offers thoughtful commentary about media's changing influence on film since the Internet explosion. The Net, he explains, expands the general public's interest in casting tidbits and weekend box office returns. His site proves that one dedicated soul with a modem can influence a mediascape dominated by big studios and megacorporations.
Sadly, what makes aintitcoolnews.com so great is what makes Ain't It Cool? so flawed: Insider dirt and name-dropping lend spice to tasty online snippets, but when it comes to book-length material, Knowles can't spin a yarn - despite help from two coauthors. He stumbles even with dramatic material like his crippling accident (he slipped at a memorabilia fair) that kept him homebound and ultimately led to the creation of his infamous site.
Not that he notices. He seems proud of his ascension in a world he'd previously adored as an anonymous fanboy. "Now, suddenly, the media was crediting me with Titanic's success, just like they had blamed me for Batman & Robin's failure," he writes. "People wanted to know everything about me - a fat cartoony guy with a bright-red beard.... "Thanks to Ain't It Cool?, they can know All That and more.
Warner Books: www.twbookmark.com.
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