The NY Times’ Originals

The New York Times pays tribute to people they believe are originals. ¬†Here is soon-to-be-new mom Diablo Cody – notable because it’s a really good picture of her:

Diablo Cody is in on the joke. And this stripper-turned-writer is as agile on the page as she was on the stage: among her current projects are developing the sudsy “Sweet Valley High” books into a film, while simultaneously writing an original screenplay called “Young Adult,” about a divorced author of teen fiction who returns to her hometown to chase her now-married high school boyfriend. This is the kind of career-as-meta-gag that smart young writers dream of, but almost nobody can pull off. Cody, a Los Angeles resident (who in an earlier life was Brook Busey from Chicago), made her name with the Oscar-winning screenplay for “Juno.” She followed up with the Showtime series “United States of Tara,” a writerly tour de force about a suburban mom (played by Toni Collette) with multiple personalities, now in its second season. “It’s safe to say that I need everything to be embellished, creatively or otherwise,” says Cody, 31. “Just like I’m inclined to put on too much jewelry or get too many tattoos, I need my writing to be a little over-the-top.

The only thing that frustrates me about Diablo Cody — and perplexes me at the same time — is that it’s all been a carefully cultivated identity she’s planned and executed. ¬†And it worked. ¬†I don’t blame her, nor do I blame the culture that she herself easily exploited. ¬†Like Quentin Tarantino, whose own persona has been carefully cultivated and is as much a part of his success as his writing, I wonder how long it can go on. ¬†Both are talented writers, imaginative, inventive people who create kooky worlds drenched in kitsch — my own fascination with them lingers more on how long they keep it up before they start delving into reality.

Just a little food for thought. ¬†Preparing to be attacked by the Tarantino fans in 5, 4, 3, 2 …

More originals.