Word: korda
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CURTAIN by Michael Korda...
This oddly lifeless gossip novel by Michael Korda, a publishing exec whose works include the yuppie missals Success! and Power!, is the sort called a roman a clef by the French and "serving up something for the shopgirls" by the English. There is a patronizing quality to the central notion, which is that the reader is a lowbrow who will have naughty fun -- "coo, oi didn't know that about 'er" -- guessing which real-life celebrities are behaving scandalously behind aliases and sketchy disguises...
...boast its share of heavyset hunters with rifle racks in their pickups, typical members come from a more domesticated breed: white suburban men -- only 3% are women -- somewhat more affluent and better educated than the American norm. The dues-paying roster includes actor Charlton Heston, writer-editor Michael Korda and actor Jerry Mathers, the Beaver of sitcom fame...
What makes the guides unique is that they represent gastronomical democracy in action. The surveys are based on questionnaires filled in by frequent restaurantgoers, who include the likes of author-editor Michael Korda and TV chef Julia Child. They rate eateries on food quality, decor and service on a 0-to-30 scale, note the average price of a meal (including one drink and a tip) and offer a succinct judgment on the restaurant. The results, compiled by computer, are boiled down by Zagat and a team of editors into capsule ratings that can sting as well as sing...
With these tectonic shifts, the business has abandoned its pretenses of collegiality and moved closer in structure and style to Hollywood, where an oligarchy of half a dozen companies hustles for hits. Says Michael Korda, editor in chief of Simon & Schuster and a best-selling novelist himself, on the subject of big advances: "It's like stars in the movie business. If you want Cher for your movie, by God, you've got to pay Cher...