Let me clarify that: my husband’s book–Poetry, An Introduction (fifth edition), published by Bedford/St. Martins–appears briefly but decidedly in the scene where Spider-Man first shows up at her bedroom window. As the good high school student Stone plays, she has a couple of books displayed prominently on the bedspread and TA-DA! Michael’s is one of them.
I was delighted by the prospect of seeing this shot the moment a friend from marketing told us about it; I dragged us both to an early show. I believe we were the only adults there unaccompanied by a teen-aged boy, but that was fine: I was on a mission.
We were going to see the book.
The other time we’d seen Michael’s book proudly displayed on camera was on a television screen, where Michael’s biggest edition of the book–the full-fledged Bedford Introduction to Literature, coming in at around 2,000 pages–was right there next to Larry David’s head when he was being interviewed by 20/20 or 60 Minutes or some other news show with numbers in it.
Michael had asked for permission to use “The Pitch” from Seinfeld in the section on drama. Permission was granted. Larry David then also asked for a copy of the book itself so he could see how it looked when the piece was included. We’re real fans of Larry David’s work, and so when we watched the interview with him, imagine Michael’s big grin and laugh when he noticed, as no one else would, that right behind Larry on the bookcase and therefore next to him in most shots was BLIT.
The shot in Spider-Man was so brief Michael wasn’t quite sure he saw it, but I did. I saw it. I yelled “YIPPPEE!” and the rest of audience thought I was simply happy Emma Stone was opening the window to let her new Spidy Guy into her room. I was, instead, happy to see that NOT every free book you send people gets put in the basement. Turns out that some books end up on Hollywood bookcases. And some end up in bed with Emma Stone.
Some books get very lucky.
I have a whole new casting call for where I’d like to see my own titles, and I’m getting them ready for auditions. Can’t somebody from Girls be reading an old copy of Sweet Revenge or I’m With Stupid? In what movies should your books appear?
