These days, it seems like the big thing is to kiss and tell, and there's no bigger audience than when it's made all the more public. The grungier, sorta B-list version of Britney and Fred, Kelly Osbourne's ex-boyfriend, Bert McCracken, lead singer of The Used, according to The Sun, says they had sex in a limo. And he says he dumped her on Valentine's Day. Bet Kelly wishes Sharon did a better job of shaking him down.
Which brings me to New York Times journalist Rick Marin's new book, Cad, which is being called the male version of Sex and the City, a memoir of his escapades with women. Marin doesn't seem different from any other person whose idea of his/her past becomes more and more revisionist. It's just the spilling it all on pages and maybe not being as funny as you think you are. Amazon.com's Brad Thomas Parsons says about Cad:
In the mildly entertaining memoir Cad: Confessions of a Toxic Bachelor, former New York Times reporter and pop-culture critic Rick Marin chronicles the years of marathon dating and shallow living that followed in the wake of his failed "starter marriage." Marin moves through a series of urbane exploits and short-lived affairs, perfecting his trademark move of whipping off his horn-rims midconversation in a "myopic gaze," holding court with his wingman Tad over the hot buffet at Billy's Topless, and regurgitating wisdom gleaned from The Godfather. Like the similarly self-indulgent How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, Cad has its memorable moments--Marin comparing his wedding video to the Zapruder film and hitting on actress Moira Kelly when she was still an ingénue living with her mom on Long Island--but the book's swinging, ring-a-ding-ding Rat Pack attitude feels noticeably forced and uninspired, leaving a flat aftertaste to the whole affair.
Salon has Marin's former girlfriend/fling Sandy Fernandez give more insight into the man behind the stories. It includes the killer line: "In fact, to friends who haven't met him, you say he looks like Bart's glasses-wearing, asthmatic friend Milhouse on 'The Simpsons.'" Hee.
