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If Meryl Streep wins the Oscar that many have already predicted for her portrayal of Julia Child in Julie and Julia, Nora Ephron’s terrific new movie http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/julieandjulia/site/
inspired by Julie Powell’s equally terrific blook of the same name, then we’re grown-up enough to realize that she’s unlikely to start her acceptance speech by thanking the Blooker Prize for making it all possible by naming Powell’s book its first winner back in 2006.
And nor should she, since by the time Julie and Julia won the inaugural Blooker Prize back in 2006 it was already a bestselling blook in North America, based on Julie Powell’s hugely popular blog, chronicling her bid to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s book in her tiny apartment kitchen.
Even so, that doesn’t mean that we’re not allowed to point out that the global coverage that Julie and Julia gained on winning the first Blooker… well, at least didn’t do it any harm.
But it is thanks to Nora Ephron’s movie – already a notable success in North America, before hitting European screens this month – more than to the Blooker that Julie and Julia is not just the world’s most famous blook but also now it’s first fully-fledged “flook” – as in a film based on a blook. (We thought of calling it a “mlook”, as in a movie based on a blook, but… well, that’s a lot harder to say.)
It might be the first fully-fledged flook – at least in the English-speaking world, since there have been some in Japan – but it is not the first blook, or even the first Blooker nominee to hit the screen.
Indeed, when Julie and Julia outscored another Blooker nominee, The Intimate Adventures of A London Call Girl: Belle de Jour, to win the first Blooker, one headline declared, “Cooker Beats Hooker To Win Blooker”.
Yet, Belle de Jour, then beat Julie and Julia, to the screen, albeit the small screen of British TV, starring Billie Piper. It is now due to see its third series hit British TV screens this autumn. Meanwhile, The Washingtonienne, another Blooker entrant, is currently being made into an American TV series by HBO.
But the flook of the moment is undoubtedly Julie and Julia.
Julie Powell is still very much an active blogger at http://juliepowell.blogspot.com/ and the author of a forthcoming new book, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession – that is, when she isn’t giving TV interviews promoting the movie. See her interview on ABC’s Nightline here: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerindex?id=8254397, or another good clip of her http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7R-O5Aj6n8, courtesy of moviesandshakers.com.
But above all, see the movie of Julie and Julia.
Keep checking the Blooker blog for news and updates on the next Blooker Prize.
