Is there anyone out there who is looking forward to Edward Klein’s tell-all about Katie Couric, Katie: The Untold Story (Crown)? Anyone? Anyone?

I don’t understand why anyone would want to read or write about Katie Couric. I know that Couric has been on national TV since the late 1980s but I think my exposure to her has been limited to her playing herself on Will & Grace and Murphy Brown and a cameo as a prison guard in the third Austin Powers movie. Supposedly, she hosted the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade telecast from 1991 to 2005 but the only thing I think is more dull than watching a parade on TV is watching fireworks on TV. I guess she also co-hosted The Today Show from 1991 to 2006 but I haven’t watched a morning show since Good Morning America got rid of Erma Bombeck and Rona Barrett.

Just because I don’t know Couric, doesn’t mean I’m not sure she’s a perfectly nice person—although I have a feeling Edward Klein doesn’t share that opinion.  

Edward Klein seems to have an axe to grind against the women he writes about. PW’s review of his 2005 Hillary Clinton biography, The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President, said, “What "news" he turns up is too minor to make even Entertainment Tonight: the former First Lady drinks decaffeinated coffee, likes to sleep late in the morning (unlike her early-riser husband) and is self conscious about her thick legs. Oh, and as a Wellesley student in the 1970s, she had lesbian friends and didn't shave her legs or underarms. Klein seems intent on rehashing the rehash in this too-boring-to-even-be-execrable title.” (If that review has piqued your interest in the title, Amazon.com has 208 used hardcover copies of the book for sale—and the first four start at one cent. In fact, if you want to build your Klein library, Amazon.com is the way to go: his three other books—All Too Human: The Love Story of Jack and Jackie Kennedy, Just Jackie: Her Private Years and Farewell Jackie: A Portrait of Her Final Days are all available for a penny a piece.)

Crown’s promotional material says Klein’s book “rips away the mask that has hidden the many faces of Katie Couric: the strong, independent woman and the needy wife and lover; the grieving widow famed for her kindness to others and the fiercely competitive diva; the consummate television interviewer and the stumbling network anchor.” Sounds like a Douglas Sirk melodrama.

The American public (and I’m including myself) constantly lets themselves be sidetracked away from events that really effect their lives (like the endless war in Iraq and the dismantling of our Bill of Rights—I thought President Bush was supposed to uphold our Constitution, not upend it) in favor of schadenfreude “news” about Paris driving drunk and Lindsey entering rehab. Why is it when we see footage of Angelina working as a goodwill ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency, the photo caption is “Is she too thin?”

This new diversion—which had no advance readers copies—goes on sale Tuesday, October 28.