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Susan Braudy

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Susan Braudy
Born
Susan Orr

(1941-07-08) July 8, 1941 (age 83)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Alma materBryn Mawr College
Occupation(s)Author, journalist

Susan Braudy (born Susan Orr July 8, 1941) is an American author and journalist.

Early life and education

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Braudy grew up in Philadelphia and later relocated to Manhattan, New York City.[1] She received her undergraduate degree from Bryn Mawr College and attended University of Pennsylvania and Yale University graduate schools, where she studied ethics and aesthetics.[2]

Braudy's father Bernard Orr worked for the Philadelphia Housing Authority and actively supported local artists such as Dox Thrash. He was Vice President of the American Jewish Committee and his Master's thesis at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania became the book Technological Unemployment, an early look at how advances in technology were replacing human labor. He was the principal of a vocational night school whose students were largely African-American. Braudy's mother Blanche Orr taught history at Germantown High School, whose students were also largely African-American, and went back to school to become a reading supervisor because her students needed better reading skills. Braudy now lives with film editor Joe Weintraub.[3]

Career

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Braudy has written for The New York Times, Newsweek, The Atlantic Monthly, The Huffington Post, Harper's Magazine, Glamour, Vanity Fair, Ms., New York Magazine, The New Journal, Jezebel and The Week.[4] She was the first woman writer hired by Newsweek.[5][6]

Braudy had been commissioned by Playboy magazine in 1969 to write an "objective" piece on the feminism movement. Her final article was viewed as controversial by male Playboy editors.[5] The debate continued up to Hugh Hefner; who wrote in a memo (covertly distributed by female Playboy employees) that he felt the article needed to focus more on the "highly irrational, emotional, kookie trend" of feminism because "these chicks [are] the natural enemy of Playboy." He argued that radical feminists were rejecting the Playboy way of life.[7] Braudy later wrote an article published in Defiance and Glamour magazine in which she analyzed the contents of Hefner's memo and criticized his approach to women.[8][9]

Braudy was an editor and writer at Ms. magazine. She edited the October 1975 men's issue of Ms. whose cover featured Robert Redford's back.[10]

In 1977, Braudy became an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP).[11] WIFP is an American nonprofit publishing organization. The organization works to increase communication between women and connect the public with forms of women-based media.

In 1981, Braudy was appointed Vice President of East Coast Production at Warner Brothers.[12][13] She worked as Vice President of Michael Douglas's Stonebridge Production Company from 1986 to 1989.[14] She was hired by Francis Ford Coppola, Jerry Bruckheimer, Martin Scorsese, and Oliver Stone to write screenplays.[15]

Her article on paperback auctions, published in The New York Times Magazine,[16] was used by the Federal Trade Commission for an anti-trust suit against the high-bidder in a multimillion-dollar paperback rights auction.[17]

In 2006, Braudy judged the Lukas Prize, the award from the Columbia University Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, given annually to recognize excellence in book-length investigative journalism.[18]

Accusations against Michael Douglas

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On January 18, 2018, Braudy accused former colleague Michael Douglas of sexual harassment in an article for The Hollywood Reporter. She contended that during her time at Stonebridge Productions, she was "subjected to sexual harassment by Douglas that included near-constant profane and sexually charged dialogue, demeaning comments about her appearance, graphic discussions regarding his mistresses," and finally masturbating in front of her.[19]

Douglas had published a preemptive denial of the claims in the Hollywood Star ten days earlier, saying he "felt the need to get ahead" and explain his concerns about the validity of the story. He stated: "I don't have skeletons in my closet, or anyone else who's coming out or saying this. I'm bewildered why, after 32 years, this is coming out, now."[20]

The New York Times published an email from Braudy about her experience working for him. She wrote that Douglas "believed his power was so much greater than mine that he could pull icky/unwelcome sexual pranks without consequence and even take pleasure in my extreme discomfort.”[21]

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In 2016, Braudy's reflection on the Playboy incident "Up Against the Centerfold: What It Was Like to Report on Feminism for Playboy in 1969" was published in Jezebel.[5] Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker described it as "amaaaazing."[22]

After writing an article for The New York Times[23] about Woody Allen and his writing partner Marshall Brickman, she was used as the muse for Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep's characters in Manhattan.[24] Her jokes about the surreal twist were quoted in the New York Post gossip column "Page Six," as well as in People Magazine.[citation needed]

After she wrote two articles on Seinfeld for The New York Times,[25] writer Larry David named a screaming woman character "Susan Braudy" on his HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm.[26]

Books

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  • Between Marriage and Divorce: A Woman's Diary. New York: William Morrow, 1975. ISBN 978-0688029609.
  • Who Killed Sal Mineo? A Novel. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982. ISBN 978-0671610098.
  • What the Movies Made Me Do: A Novel. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1985. ISBN 978-0394532462.
  • This Crazy Thing Called Love: The Golden World and Fatal Marriage of Ann and Billy Woodward. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1992. ISBN 978-0394532479.
    • Basis for two television episodes on "A Crime To Remember" and "Power, Privilege & Justice."[27]
  • Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left. New York: Alfred Knopf, 2003. ISBN 978-0679432944.[28]
    • Based on the story of Kathy Boudin, who was imprisoned for her part in the Brink's robbery (1981). Braudy was inspired to write the book because Kathy Boudin had been a classmate at Bryn Mawr.[29]Family Circle got a "largely positive reception" despite being criticized by friends of Kathy Boudin.[30] The book was nominated by Alfred A. Knopf for the Pulitzer Prize. It was later the subject of a 2014 Guardian article criticizing The New York Times and others for republishing findings on the break-in of FBI headquarters in Media, Pennsylvania that damaged J. Edgar Hoover's reputation beyond repair. The break-in's perpetrators had been revealed 11 years prior by Braudy in her nonfiction book.[31]

Prefaces

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  • Sartre, Jean-Paul Essays in Aesthetics. Transl. Wade Baskin. Pref. Susan Braudy. Open Road Media, 2012. ISBN 9781453228562.
  • Gibran, Kahlil. The Treasured Writings of Kahlil Gibran. Pref. Susan Braudy. Open Road Media, 2011. ISBN 9781453235539.
  • Gibran, Kahlil. Tears and Laughter. Ed. Martin Wolf. Pref. Susan Braudy. Open Road Media, 2011. ISBN 9781453228531.

Articles

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References

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  1. ^ "Susan Braudy". Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  2. ^ Jean-Paul Sartre Essays in Aesthetics Open Road Media, January 12, 2012
  3. ^ Wadler, Joyce (June 26, 2008). "The Tyranny of the Heirloom". The New York Times. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  4. ^ Sartre, Jean-Paul. Essays In Aesthetics. Open Road Media. p. Preface by Susan Braudy.
  5. ^ a b c Braudy, Susan (March 18, 2016). "Up Against the Centerfold: What It Was Like to Report on Feminism for Playboy in 1969". Jezebel. Retrieved September 28, 2017.
  6. ^ Braudy, Susan. This Crazy Thing Called Love: The Golden World and Fatal Marriage of Ann and Billy Woodward. Alfred Knopf. p. Author flap.
  7. ^ Watts
  8. ^ Pitzulo, Carrie (May 2008). "Battle in Every Man's Bed: Playboy and the Fiery Feminists". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 17 (2): 272–275. doi:10.1353/sex.0.0004. PMID 19263603. S2CID 12749121. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  9. ^ "A feminist among the centerfolds". The Week. April 17, 2016. Retrieved April 17, 2016.
  10. ^ Pogrebin, Abigail (October 28, 2011). "An Oral History of 'Ms.' Magazine". New York Magazine. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  11. ^ "Associates | The Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press". www.wifp.org. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
  12. ^ Klemesrud, Judy (January 8, 1982). "The evening hours". The New York Times. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  13. ^ "Lady in Charge". The Southeast Missourian. January 26, 1981. p. 5. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  14. ^ TCM Archive Materials, "Susan Braudy", No date, Accessed 10 March 2015
  15. ^ "Susan Braudy" "Who's Who In America", Accessed 10 March 2015
  16. ^ Braudy, Susan (May 21, 1978). "PAPERBACK AUCTION: WHAT PRICE A 'HOT' BOOK?; STAR PROPERTIES". The New York Times. Retrieved June 18, 2021. It was the winter before last that Howard Kaminsky, president of Warner Books Inc., a paperback publishing house, asked Paula Diamond, subsidiary‐rights director at Harper & Row, over a lunch of fettuccine and white wine to tell him the name of the "hot book" on her spring list.....The big question is: How high can prices for "star" properties soar? What can the market bear? Says Peter Mayer, "For better or worse, the paperback companies have a best‐seller mentality. It's the star system. Prices will continue to rise because retail prices are rising and because we all have more capital to spend."...Says one of them dolefully "The real victim in all of this is the average book and the early efforts of promising writers — and this is a great, great sadness."
  17. ^ Robert J. Cole, "U.S. Sues CBS to Undo Purchase of Fawcett Publications" The New York Times, 02 June 1978
  18. ^ "Lukas Prizes: Past Winners and Jurors". Columbia Journalism School. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  19. ^ "Michael Douglas, Alleged Harassment, Media and the #MeToo Moment". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  20. ^ "Michael Douglas issues pre-emptive denial over 'sex claim'". BBC News. Retrieved February 8, 2018.
  21. ^ Itzkoff, Dave (November 14, 2018). "Michael Douglas Refuses to Age Gracefully in 'The Kominsky Method'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  22. ^ @emilynussbaum (September 28, 2017). "Register" (Tweet). Retrieved July 26, 2023 – via Twitter.
  23. ^ Susan Braudy, "He's Woody Allen's Not-So-Silent Partner", The New York Times, August 21st, 1977
  24. ^ Sheila Weller, Girls Like Us, April 8th 2008
  25. ^ Susan Braudy, "Where Have You Gone, Jerry, When We Need You?" The New York Times, February 17th 2002
  26. ^ "Episode Summary - The Corpse Sniffing Dog", TV.com
  27. ^ "Susan Braudy" IMDB, Accessed 10 March 2015
  28. ^ Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left Review in The New York Times
  29. ^ Braudy, Susan (October 29, 2014). Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 9780804153614 – via Google Books.
  30. ^ O'Rourke, William (July–August 2004). "Review of Susan Braudy, Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left". American Book Review. 25 (5).
  31. ^ Michael Wolff, "How an old story was reborn in the Edward Snowden era" The Guardian January 21st 2014
  32. ^ Susan Braudy's review in Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Bittersweet Story Of 1970
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