Ex-jailbird Anthony Weiner is shopping a book around. So far the interest is about as sexy as historian Robert Chernow keynoting the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Too soon?
The New York Post‘s Richard Harbus reports that Weiner is trying to turn himself into the “new Longfellow.”
“The serial sexter and former congressman — who is now living in a Bronx halfway house after doing hard time for sexting a teenager — is skulking around Manhattan’s publishing houses trying to shop a book proposal, literary sources say. So far, interest has been flaccid.”
Weiner, 54, spent 21 months in the jug. He’s also now registered as a sex offender and resides at a halfway house. He spent a decade in Congress representing New York’s 9th congressional district. He married longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The couple has since divorced. They have a son together. (RELATED: Remember Weiner? He May Be Getting Out Of Prison Early)
Weiner left Congress under a dark cloud of misery after he accidentally tweeted out a picture of his schlong. My favorite media question of all time on this topic is CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asking Weiner, “You would know if these were your underpants?”
Here in Washington, interest in a Weiner book is on the rise.
“I would be interested to read a book by Anthony Weiner — but only if he told his story honestly and really scrutinized himself,” former Weiner intern Olivia Nuzzi told The Mirror. “He is one of the most fascinating political figures and head cases in modern history. Even judged against Trump, who makes everyone else look like Mayor Pete in comparison, Weiner is still a genuinely strange and troubling and confusing person. That’s saying a lot — certainly enough to fill a book.”
And that‘s saying a lot since Weiner’s then-press secretary Barbara Morgan called Nuzzi, now a writer for New York Mag, a “slutbag, twat and cunt” for writing a few tell-all stories of her experiences as a Weiner intern for the New York Daily News. Morgan later apologized.
Another Washington journalist sounded less aroused by the concept of a traditional Weiner memoir. (RELATED: Disgraced Weiner Leaves Prison For A Halfway House)
“I would buy maybe a coffee table book with lots of pictures,” the Washington journalist told me. “But that’s only because I don’t read. If I did read and didn’t just stare at the internet, yes, I would read a book. I LOVED the Weiner documentary. I think he’s an interesting guy.”
A former creature of Washington, Jeff Poor, a radio host at WVNN that airs in Tennessee, was also not hot about the idea. Poor gravitates between Huntsville and Tallahassee and is a TV editor at Breitbart News.
“Only if it isn’t a pop-up book,” he said. “On second thought, hard pass.”
A longtime Mirror spy replied, “Memoir? More like a MEMEoir.” The person acknowledged, “I don’t too excited about much anymore.”
A longtime Washington media industry dweller, Democratic consultant and actor Elizabeth Thorp, remarked with two words on whether she’d read a book by Weiner. “Hell no,” she wrote. “I am not interested in reading, hearing or seeing anything from the creepy serial sexter and exhibitionistic narcissist.”
She’s not alone. A producer of a very high profile TV show told me, “As an executive producer of 30 years, I would not read a book by him in a million years.”
Mike Cernovich, a filmmaker and conservative activist, told The Mirror, “There might be something of news value in the book.” He wondered aloud, “Would the book be an attempt at redemption? He’s not a complex man. I suspect it would be a boring book.” He thought about it more, adding, “Maybe he’ll snitch on Huma and Hillary. It would be the least dumb act he’s taken in years.”
Upon hearing my question on whether or not he’d read a Weiner memoir, a political journo asked, “As in Anthony? Are there pics?”