The Free Press
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Joan Didion Knew What Hollywood Would Become
Posted
March 12, 2026
Views
12,724
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425
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4.23%
March 12, 2026
12,724
425
113
4.23%
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53:28Now PlayingThe perfect book to read before the Oscars this weekend? Joan Didion’s "Play It as It Lays."
In this episode, Shilo sits down with Peter Savodnik to discuss Didion’s 1970 novel—a book that seemed to anticipate everything ugly about Hollywood, celebrity culture, and the spiritual emptiness that we now take for granted on the red carpet and on social media.
They break down why Didion’s story of an actress drifting through 1960s Los Angeles feels like it could have been written in 2026, how she saw the darker underside of feminist “liberation” long before it was fashionable to question it, and why the real problem with today’s young stars is that we hear from them constantly, leaving little of the mystique that once defined celebrity.
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