Five minutes with Toby Young
Toby Young’s hilarious memoir, How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, is part loser story, part coming-of-age yarn and part a revisit of De Tocqueville’s early 19th century study of American manners. Dealing with Young’s late 90s failure in New York at elite magazine Vanity Fair, the book may soon have a sequel, he tells the NZBC. But in the meantime he’s keeping himself busy, being recently reunited with Julie Burchill and as a columnist and playwright.
Q. Toby, have you ever heard from Graydon Carter since your return? Have you thought about writing a play about him too?
“He absolutely hates me now. I was recently told by a Vanity Fair staffer that even speaking to me on the phone is a sackable offence. I think he’s gone slightly nuts in the way that very successful media people do: galloping egotism combined with hypersensitivity. I call it the Larry Sanders Complex. Funnily enough, I wrote a play about him in 1997, though it never saw the light of day. Perhaps I’ll dust it off.”
At the end of How to Lose Friends & Alienate People you appeared disenchanted with the idea of celebrity. Have you changed your mind since and has it affected your championing of popular culture?
“I find that as I get older I’m inevitably turning into a bit of a curmudgeon. As such, I’m rapidly losing interest in contemporary mass culture. These days, I’d prefer to read a classic novel than see a movie.”
In a sense you went to America to stalk celebrity, and now you is one. Has it given you a different perspective?
“I wouldn’t describe myself as a celebrity. Indeed, I was recently asked to appear on Celebrity Big Brother and decided against it on the grounds that I’m not famous enough. In my mind’s eye, I could picture various newspaper articles complaining about the fact that such a total non-entity had been selected to take part in a programme supposedly featuring ‘celebrities’. I would end up being ranked somewhere below Nicole Ritchie in the micro-celebrity pecking order: I’d become famous for not being famous.”
We’ve seen some references to a novel. Can you tell us a little about it?
“I’ve put it on hold while I work on the sequel to How to Lose Friends & Alienate People. It’s called The Sound of No Hands Clapping and it’s due to be published next year. It’s about the years 2000 to 2005 and my struggle to be a responsible husband and father while still vainly pursuing a career in show business.”
“How to lose friends...” has been optioned, any sign of a film?
“No. It was optioned in 2002 by FilmFour, a British independent that went bust before the ink was dry on the contract. The company was subsequently resurrected, but on a much smaller scale, and the film is still ‘in development’.
“A couple of producers have come on board and they hired an up-and-coming writer to adapt it. I saw his first draft, which was good, and he’s currently working on a second. I hope it’ll go into production next year, but I’m not holding my breath.”
Career-wise, do you think you’ve now caught up with your friend Alex de Silva?
"No. I could beat him in a Googlefight, but then Kato Kaelin could beat both of us combined. He’s still working as a screenwriter in Hollywood at the very highest level. The last I heard, he was holding screenings of a home movie he’d made of himself hanging out with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks on a private jet.”
Can you tell us what you’re working on at the moment?
“I’m just putting the finishing touches to The Sound of No Hands Clapping. After that, I’m going to write another sex farce, this one about a gay member of the Royal Family. The working title is Queen and Country.”
For career inspiration, visit Toby Young here.
Q. Toby, have you ever heard from Graydon Carter since your return? Have you thought about writing a play about him too?
“He absolutely hates me now. I was recently told by a Vanity Fair staffer that even speaking to me on the phone is a sackable offence. I think he’s gone slightly nuts in the way that very successful media people do: galloping egotism combined with hypersensitivity. I call it the Larry Sanders Complex. Funnily enough, I wrote a play about him in 1997, though it never saw the light of day. Perhaps I’ll dust it off.”
At the end of How to Lose Friends & Alienate People you appeared disenchanted with the idea of celebrity. Have you changed your mind since and has it affected your championing of popular culture?
“I find that as I get older I’m inevitably turning into a bit of a curmudgeon. As such, I’m rapidly losing interest in contemporary mass culture. These days, I’d prefer to read a classic novel than see a movie.”
In a sense you went to America to stalk celebrity, and now you is one. Has it given you a different perspective?
“I wouldn’t describe myself as a celebrity. Indeed, I was recently asked to appear on Celebrity Big Brother and decided against it on the grounds that I’m not famous enough. In my mind’s eye, I could picture various newspaper articles complaining about the fact that such a total non-entity had been selected to take part in a programme supposedly featuring ‘celebrities’. I would end up being ranked somewhere below Nicole Ritchie in the micro-celebrity pecking order: I’d become famous for not being famous.”
We’ve seen some references to a novel. Can you tell us a little about it?
“I’ve put it on hold while I work on the sequel to How to Lose Friends & Alienate People. It’s called The Sound of No Hands Clapping and it’s due to be published next year. It’s about the years 2000 to 2005 and my struggle to be a responsible husband and father while still vainly pursuing a career in show business.”
“How to lose friends...” has been optioned, any sign of a film?
“No. It was optioned in 2002 by FilmFour, a British independent that went bust before the ink was dry on the contract. The company was subsequently resurrected, but on a much smaller scale, and the film is still ‘in development’.
“A couple of producers have come on board and they hired an up-and-coming writer to adapt it. I saw his first draft, which was good, and he’s currently working on a second. I hope it’ll go into production next year, but I’m not holding my breath.”
Career-wise, do you think you’ve now caught up with your friend Alex de Silva?
"No. I could beat him in a Googlefight, but then Kato Kaelin could beat both of us combined. He’s still working as a screenwriter in Hollywood at the very highest level. The last I heard, he was holding screenings of a home movie he’d made of himself hanging out with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks on a private jet.”
Can you tell us what you’re working on at the moment?
“I’m just putting the finishing touches to The Sound of No Hands Clapping. After that, I’m going to write another sex farce, this one about a gay member of the Royal Family. The working title is Queen and Country.”
For career inspiration, visit Toby Young here.
3 Comments:
I think I read about this guy - is he the one who (amongst other things) is the only New York journo not to have shagged Candace Bushnell? And once hired a stripper on a day that turned out to be International Bring Your Daughter to the Office day"?
Brilliant.
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That's the chap, Llew. Follow Rob's links, including the one to Toby's own site - they're all worth checking out.
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