NOTORIOUS

The very rich take center stage in this collection of interviews.

Veteran New York Times columnist Dowd admits from the start that these assignments are more fun than her customary political commentary (she won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for coverage of the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky liaison). Here, she harks back to her early days as a feature writer for the Washington Star. She trips lightly through talks with actors Warren Beatty, Kevin Costner, Tina Fey, Eddie Murphy, and Uma Thurman; media moguls Barry Diller, Bob Iger, and Jann Wenner; and others. She also interviews Elon Musk (“before he commandeered Twitter and transformed into a right-wing crank’’) and “Trump’s tech pal,” Peter Thiel. For the most part, Dowd does not directly challenge her sources. Throughout, her experienced journalist’s knack for colorful quotes moves her subjects beyond their talking points. She seasons the pieces with additional reporting by those in her subjects’ orbits. For the Musk profile, she chats with Mark Zuckerberg—and is served lunch by his butler, Jarvis. The menus at such gatherings are dutifully reported as a running part of the narratives, with a wink and a nod from the author. Diller’s butler, Victor, also makes a cameo—we’re a long way from mumblecore here, Dorothy. Some comments don’t age well; for example, Thiel assures her that “even if you appointed a whole series of conservative Supreme Court justices, I’m not sure that Roe v. Wade would get overturned, ever.’’ Sean Penn complains about the quality of the women in his love life, and designer Tom Ford absolves photographer Terry Richardson of #MeToo violations: “Ugh! I love Terry.” The book lacks the depth of Lillian Ross’ Picture or John Gregory Dunne’s The Studio, but it’s lively and entertaining.

A guilty pleasure, yet a pleasure nonetheless.