10 NEWS People
How Didion is coping
Joan Didion still doesn’t suffer fools gladly, said
Lucy Feldman in Time. The legendary journalist,
now 86, is enduring the pandemic from her home
in New York City; typically unflappable, she
dismisses it as an inconvenience. “I feel fine,” she
says. “Slightly bored, but fine,” adding, “I miss
having my friends to dinner. On the other hand,
my wine bills have gone down.” Famously clear-
eyed and unsparing in her writing—first for magazines and later
in books such as the 2005 National Book Award winner The Year
of Magical Thinking, about the death of her husband of 41 years,
the writer John Gregory Dunne—Didion re-emerged in 2015 to
star in a Céline fashion ad. She bristles when asked what it’s like
to be called the voice of a generation (“I don’t have the slightest
idea”) or a fashion icon (“I don’t know that I am one”). Given her
experience with grief, does Didion have any advice for the millions
of people who’ve lost loved ones over the past year? “I don’t know
that there’s anything to say,” she says. Didion does have one unful-
filled goal: “Figuring out how to work my television.”
The life of a celebrity gamer
Tyler Blevins makes millions of dollars playing video games day
and night, said David Marchese in The New York Times Magazine.
Blevins, or Ninja, as he’s known to gamers, is a bona fide super-
star, with 14 million followers on Instagram, 6 million on Twitter,
24 million on YouTube, and 16 million on Twitch, the popular
streaming service that lets people watch others playing video games.
With his colorful dyed hair, Ninja has a huge following, mostly of
young men, for his skills playing Fortnite and the puckish commen-
tary he offers while playing. He says he makes $500,000 a month
from streaming. But a career of gaming at home isn’t always a
picnic. “Physically, sitting and streaming in one spot for eight hours
a day, it’s a lot,” says Blevins, 29. He also has to contend with the
relentless trash-talking from the audience on Twitch, including
“You suck!” and much worse. “You reply to them, they’re like,
‘He said my name!’ Their next comment after they roasted you
is them giggling like a little schoolgirl. Like, ‘You noticed me!’”
Many gamers talk to anonymous competitors, and the exchanges
often devolve into racist and sexist slurs, insults, and threats. “It’s
internet culture,” he says. “People are behind the screen. They
say what they want and can get away with it. You have complete
anonymity.” He advises parents to monitor their kids while playing
these online games. “You want to know who your kid is? Listen to
him when he’s playing video games.”
Amanda Knox resents being forever defined by a murder she did
not commit, said Rosie Kinchen in The Times (U.K.). Knox was 20
in 2007 when the fellow exchange student she lived with in Italy,
Meredith Kercher, was killed during a sexual assault. Despite a
lack of physical evidence, Knox and her Italian boyfriend were
convicted of murder, then released from prison in 2011 and acquit-
ted in 2015. A drifter, Rudy Guede, was later convicted of the
murder, and served 13 years before being released. Knox, now 33,
still doesn’t feel free. “I exist only through the lens of Meredith’s
murder in some people’s minds,” she says. “They forget that I’m a
human being.” Now living in Seattle, Knox is married, a writer, and
an activist against wrongful conviction. The trial and imprisonment
were traumatic, she says; even years later, interviewers would ask
her, “Did you kill Meredith?” Italian prosecutors had painted her as
a sex-crazed sociopath, suggesting that she killed her roommate
during an orgy. They even publicized how many sex partners she’d
had. To this day, Knox says, some people view her with a sense of
suspicion. “I was a character in a morality play,” she says. “I’m still
processing it and trying to find a sense of peace.”AP,Getty
,^ A
PWhy Knox doesn’t feel free
QTony Bennett has Alzheimer’s
disease, the legendary crooner’s
family revealed in AARP Magazine
this week. After showing memory
loss and other symptoms, Bennett,
94, received the diagnosis in 2016.
He kept performing until March;
although he was often confused
backstage, Bennett was transformed
when he began singing. His condi-
tion has deteriorated, and he no
longer leaves his home. To stave
off worsening dementia, Bennett
continues to rehearse twice a week.
Still, mundane objects like keys or a
fork can mystify Bennett, and he has
trouble conversing. “He’s not theold Tony anymore,” his wife, Susan, 54, said.
“But when he’s sings, he’s the old Tony.”
QVice President Kamala Harris’ stepdaugh-
ter, Ella Emhoff, signed with the prestigious
modeling agency IMG last week after caus-
ing a fashion stir at the inauguration with
her beaded tweed Miu Miu coat. Emhoff, 21,
joins an IMG roster that includes supermod-
el Gisele Bündchen. A fashion student who
shows off her 18 tattoos, naturally curly hair,
and unshaven armpits on Instagram, Emhoff
says she has battled “self-confidence issues”
and finds it “intimidating and scary to go
into this world that is hyperfocused on you
and the body.” But, she added, “If I can do
anything to help with that, I want to.”
QJohn Weaver, a longtime Republican
strategist who co-founded the never-Trumpgroup the Lincoln Project, has been sending
unsolicited, sexually charged messages to
young men for years, The New York Times
reported this week. In flirtatious messages,
Weaver offered to help at least 10 men get
jobs in politics, but none of his pursuits led
to physical encounters. Weaver, 61, has a
wife and two children. Several young men
described harassment from Weaver, includ-
ing one man who says Weaver began com-
ing on to him over Twitter when he was 14.
Weaver, who worked on the late Sen. John
McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, apolo-
gized for “inappropriate” messages, but said
he thought they were consensual. “The truth
is that I’m gay,” Weaver said. In a statement,
the Lincoln Project called Weaver “a preda-
tor, a liar, and an abuser” and said he was no
longer involved in the group.