I know others have expressed their dissatisfaction with the Book Babes, the Poynter Institute’s answer to Dear Abby. I find them especially irritating for some reason. Today’s column focuses on Jenna Jameson’s newly published bio How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale. The book has generated some publicity, getting lots of reviews even from the exalted NYT Book Review (there is much sarcasm in this sentence). Ellen is the Babe that annoys me the most. Margo seems sensible and even has some good opinions. Ellen, on the other hand, seems like she is way behind the times and has an very high opinion of herself. She spends a paragraph explaining how ‘normal’ ‘intelligent’ people such as herself know nothing about porn:

I should have seen this one coming. In June, at a BookExpo panel spotlighting the hottest titles for fall, the ReganBooks rep dropped one of his company’s autumn bombshells: Stop the presses! We’re publishing the autobiography of Jenna Jameson! Like me, however, most in the crowd looked decidedly underwhelmed. Who? It was the best confirmation I’ve ever had that book people aren’t just talking when they say theirs is the life of the mind.

And then she has the gall to start the next paragraph with this doozy: “By now, of course, we thoughtier types get the picture. Jameson, it turns out, is the queen of porn, a woman who has become rich and famous by doing on screen what most people reserve for the privacy of their bedrooms.” I am picturing her saying something along the lines of “well, I never!”. Of course you haven’t dear. You’re a Book Babe. You probably haven’t gotten laid since the Carter administration. Granted, this all her opinion. Margo at least has a more sensible answer—moral outrage aside, is the book any good? It’s the ‘thoughtier types’ bit that really gets me. What does she mean? It just seems so elitist. I feel bad almost, since most of my scorn is for Ellen, but somehow Margo takes some of it just by writing a column with her. She should break away and start her own gig.