Monday, August 13, 2007

Spice World

You might think that Brainiac would tire of defending pop culture productions that everyone supposedly knows are lousy. Never!

In today's Boston Globe, newly minted metro columnist Kevin Cullen reacts to David Beckham's much-ballyhooed visit to Gillette Stadium by poking fun at the Posh/Becks phenomenon. Fair enough. But why did Cullen have to sneer that "Spice World," the delightful 1997 Spice Girls vehicle, is "arguably the worst film ever made"?

Has Cullen actually seen the movie? I'm not saying that it's as good as "Hard Day's Night," or even "Help!" But Alan Cumming and Richard E. Grant are brilliant, as always, and the Girls are delightful. It's certainly true that Posh was always the least talented and attractive Spice Girl... but Cullen shouldn't throw Baby (or Scary, Sporty, or Ginger) out with the bathwater.

PS: Speaking of the Globe's new metro columnists, Yvonne Abraham had a good column about bottled water vs. tap on July 22. (Tap is better.) The New York Times finally caught up yesterday, I noticed. We can probably expect a Times Style story on backstretchers in early September.

UPDATE: Brainiac reader Damon S. writes:

You called out the Times for "finally" catching up to the bottled-water-versus-tap-water conundrum that Yvonne Abraham addressed (with customary wit) in her July 22 Metro column. Now, I'm no Times booster, especially when it comes to lifestyle matters ... but the Gray Lady actually did run a piece by Bill Marsh on the bottled-water issue in its July 15 Week in Review section. Besides, I think both Yvonne and Marsh owe a debt to Fast Company, which ran this excellent reported piece by Charles Fishman in their July issue.

UPDATE: Big Water strikes back. Thanks, Alex.

Posted by Joshua Glenn at 12:04 PM

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