Week beginning October 23 2024

Joel Brokaw – Foreword by David Geffen Driving Marilyn Life and Times of Legendary Hollywood Agent Norman Brokaw Globe Pequot|Lyons Press, October 2024.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

Joel Brokaw has woven an absorbing story of his father’s professional and domestic life. While at times giving way to concerns verging on criticism about his father’s domestic conduct Joel Brokaw’s approach is overall generous and understanding, ensuring that the book is fair to the impressive professional whose life as a successful agent to high profile figures becomes a story of a man of substance and big-heartedness towards his clients.  This is an engaging and warm story at the same time as one that provides an extraordinary insight into the world of celebrities and their agent.

Norman Brokaw’s story of three marriages, six children, desire to maintain financial control over his family, seeming lack of interest in their day to day lives, and eventual decline into dementia is one thread in this book. As a thread, woven throughout Brokaw’s professional life, it is a gentle reminder that people are not one dimensional rather than making an insistent comparison with the concern that he showed towards his clients. Joel Brokaw’s approach is such a joy, he is honest about his feelings, recognises his father’s virtues, and ensures that his reputation remains intact. In particular, the section about Bill Cosby, for whom Brokaw Senior was agent, is sensitive to the judgments about Cosby, recognises that some people believe that his agent must have known about him, but argues convincingly that this is not necessarily so.

Norman Brokaw’s beginning in the mail room of the William Morris Agency provides an example of the detail and thoughtfulness that goes into this book. Rather than leave it as a hackneyed ‘rags to riches’ event, Brokaw provides background to the way in which the mail room worked to enable senior staff to assess the young people who worked in this capacity. The advent of television, actors’ move from large screen to small screen and vice versa and the expanding role of an agent from collaborating with actors to working with political figures is another thread in the book. In the case of Norman Brokaw, attention is drawn to the ways in which an agent could expand their role to be a much-loved mentor. The latter supported by numerous of Brokaw’s clients, and in David Geffen’s introduction where he is described as a person who nurtured relationships, expecting nothing in return.

Famous figures appear on almost every page, part of the story rather than contrived appearances to demonstrate the author and his father’s own importance. Joel Brokaw ensures that each figure is relevant to the ideas he is voicing about the work of an agent, the circumstances in film, television, and political life. This is part of the charm of this book. It is a story of a sphere in which Brokaw’s father was a major figure but while it is his story, it is also a story of that world.

The acknowledgements are informative, there is an index and endnotes. Together with the accessible writing and the spirit behind the work, Driving Marilyn The Life and Times of Legendary Hollywood Agent Norman Brokaw is an engaging and professionally researched tribute.

After review: comments on the Amalfi Coast trip; meals at the hotel; Bob McMullan and American politics.

Amalfi Coast Trip

This was my second group trip and, in contrast with the first, marvellous. The group was lively, sometimes too loud, opinionated, and of course there was the person who always looked as though they would be late but managed to scramble aboard the coach at the last minute. The first people we met were Democrats who had voted before leaving America. It couldn’t have been much better for us than that. We also met some delightful British Labour supporters and members. One couple, like us, had decided on this particular tour group because it was advertised in The Guardian. This worked to a certain extent, although some of the group would certainly not be Guardian readers! Nevertheless, everyone socialised amicably and were incredibly friendly and ready to enjoy every moment. So, a perfect experience.

The company had several groups at the hotel, and our cultural group looked on in awe as the hiking groups left early in the morning with walking equipment and hearty sounds. Our group was given the opportunity to do the Walk of the Gods, which I declined. There was plenty of walking every day, after our trip down the mountain, an experience in itself.

Hotel Due Torre meals

The accommodation was 3* in a family run hotel. The chefs gave two demonstrations, one making the pasta dishes and tiramisu we were to eat for that night’s dinner, and the other making pizzas. On the latter occasion we had already eaten too much of the two choices of vegetarian pizzas so that when the five more that we had observed being made from start to finish arrived at the table attempts to eat more were sadly poor. However, the demonstrations were great fun, including seeing that the tiramisu cream included eggs, cream, mascarpone and icing sugar with a good lacing of strong coffee. A bit different from my plain whipped cream with coffee.

The meals demonstrated that Italian cooking is more than pizza and pasta, although they featured. Breakfast was the usual continental as well as some cooked items, and lovely crusty Italian bread .

Meals associated with the cooking demonstrations were pizza one night, and pasta on another. As well as the demonstration items, there were fish and artichokes on one night, giant olives, bread and balsamic with oil, and dessert. More of the tiramisu next week, as it was part of the demonstration and looks better before it is served.

Dinner, Wednesday night – broccoli orecchiette, pork and potatoes in a mustard sauce, caprese salad, pumpkin risotto and panna cotta.

Lunch on Wednesday was a different sort of treat – hard bread and accompaniments. The bread was lowered into water, drained on the top of the water receptacle, and then eaten with pork sausages; tuna stuffed pentimentos, salad of lettuce, fennel and tomatoes; chickpeas; several varieties of cheese; and spinach.

Dinner Tuesday was soup (we had seen it cooking during one demonstration, and the flavour was probably the outcome of long slow cooking); chicken – very home cooked in appearance; salad; eggplant dish; and icecream.

Thursday was a free day, and much appreciated. We, as did many of the group, chose to go to Sorrento for the day. We were unaccompanied so wove our way around the city, purchasing bags, limoncello and gelato and eating in small groups. That night people chose to eat in the village, or have the barbeque, featuring meat or fish as desired. The items were brought out singly in many cases, so make for rather strange photos. Large salads with fennel, lettuce and rocket (arugula) were served, along with the delicious chips that were a real find – no talk of crisp outside and fluffy inside – just crisp, crisp, crisp! I seem to have concentrated on my fish below. However, the meat eaters also did well, with chicken, turkey, beef and sausages. Limoncello was served…and dessert.

Friday dinner ended with birthday cake for one of the group. The meal was aubergine parmigiana, a fennel lasagna with loads of creamy bechamel sauce, tomato and basil ravioli or fish in paper, and loads of fresh crisp lettuce (not a limp lettuce leaf anywhere on any of the salads – what a boon).

American Politics

Bob McMullan – US election review at 22^nd October 

Harry Enten, the CNN political analyst summed up my thinking in a report today: “…two weeks to election day, I feel more uncertain about this year’s election result than any election I have covered professionally.” 

The most recent commentator on Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a very good political analysis site from the University of Virginia said the same thing in a more colourful way: “Has any body seen our crystal ball, it seems to have gone missing.” 

It is not only that the polling in virtually all the battleground states is extremely close and, in most cases, getting closer. There are also significant shifts in voter support in both directions amongst some key voting groups. For example, white women are moving towards Harris while black men are moving towards Trump. 

Furthermore, in such a close election, the direction of polling error and its magnitude will be decisive and is entirely unpredictable. And history provides no clear indication of the likely direction of error. It is true that in 2016 and 2020 Trump outperformed the polls. However, in 2022 the Democrats proved the forecasts of a red wave to be totally wrong and on at least one occasion Obama outperformed polling expectations. 

State voting averages have always missed the mark. This is also often true about individual electorate polling in Australia. Over the last 50 years the American battleground states averages have been out by approximately 3% and sometimes by much more. 

If the averages are out by 3% in either direction the result will be a comfortable victory for the beneficiary, whoever that may be. 

What polling can tell is whether the election is likely to be close, and whether anyone is gaining ground in a marked way. 

Even these basics are not clear this time. Most analyses show Trump gaining by small increments. For example, Nate Silver reported Harris still ahead in the usual four states, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada but showed Trump gaining in all pf the battleground states except Nevada. However, the Washington Post most recent survey showed Harris gaining in Nevada and North Carolina and Trump only gaining ground in Michigan and Georgia. 

One other wild card factor in such a close election is the role of the Green Party candidate, Jill Stein. Media reports suggest that friends and family have been encouraging her to pull out for fear of helping Donald Trump, as she did in 2016. However, she has refused to do so. It would be a cruel irony if the perfect was the enemy of the good on this occasion when the consequences are so important. 

So, on balance on the polling front there is no clear evidence of significant movement over the week. It is probable that such movement as there has been was slightly in favour of Donald Trump. So far it has not been enough to shift the numbers in the four states in which Harris leads which if maintained would see her win 276 electoral college votes to 262 for Trump. But they are all perilously close. 

On the early voting front, Target Smart, which is obviously Democrat aligned, has Democrats leading 51/41 in the battleground states although some other analysts see a small improvement in the relative early voting data for the Republicans as the negative impact of Trump’s attacks on early voting wears off. There is certainly a surge of early voting in some states, notably Georgia, which is probably beneficial to the Democrats at the margin, and margins are likely to count at this election. 

On balance, it is still a very close election with the national vote still clearly going to Harris but the Electoral College potentially favouring Trump if the present trends continue. If it was today, I think Harris would win, but two weeks is a long time in a close election.