There's a new book coming out from Salman Rushdie's former bodyguard, Ron Evans, and Rushdie is
PISSED.
Her Majesty's Service apparently portrays Rushdie (or "Scruffy," as Evans claims Salman was nicknamed) as "mean, nasty, tightfisted, arrogant and extremely unpleasant" - basically, an all around d-bag. Rushdie was under police protection for nine years after the uptight peeps in Iran declared a
fatwa on him for writing
The Satanic Verses (awesome book, btw).
Instead of ignoring the "slanderous" book like most celebrities, Scruffy has decided to bring more attention to it by suing. I mean, I'm sure it has some exaggerations (or outright lies), but I think suing is probably a bad idea. I wouldn't have given this book a second look, and now I'm all, ooo, what's in there that Scruffy doesn't want me to see?
Don't get me wrong. I like Rushdie. He's a fantastic writer. And I met him once at a
PEN World Voices thing and he seemed like a cool dude. He did have a runny nose though, so I probably would have named him Snuffly if I'd been in on the nickname giving, but hey, maybe that was the exception rather than the rule. Most importantly though, the man
was married to Padma Lakshmi. As in former supermodel, hot Top Chef hostess, and
probable stoner Padma Lakshmi. And really, if a dude that looks like Rushdie can get her, well, I just think he's probably not bad enough to be
locked in a cupboard by his bodyguards.
--Ladytron
So I finally got around to watching the “Run’s House” episode that features special guest appearances by Penguin peeps. I had read that Gotham publisher Bill Shinker was going to appear, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that some of the audio people got screen time as well.
