August 27, 2004
Reservoir Blogs: Quentin Tarantino Launches a Personal Diary on the Web, But is it Real?
Pulp fact or pulp fiction: hyperactive cinéaste and film director Quentin Tarantino has a blog. When the new weblog, called QT's Diary, launched earlier this month on a standard Blogger account, many presumed at first that the homepage was a hoax. But if the content of the site is to be believed, then it is indeed the real thing--an online journal by Tarantino himself.
The acclaimed director of the popular films Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill Vol.1 and 2 has neither confirmed nor denied in an interview, nor made any public statement, that the blog is real--that is, aside from written comments posted on QT's Diary itself, which repeatedly state that the site is not a hoax and is actually written by Tarantino. The studio with which the director is so closely associated for his film projects, Miramax, has not issued a statement about the veracity of the web site's authorship.
According to a news item published on the ZDNet web site Thursday, however, a publicist for Tarantino issued a brief comment saying that QT's Diary was not Tarantino's. But something about the short and simple comment doesn't sit right. No further explanation was offered by the publicist. The quote didn't explicitly refer to Tarantino by name--the reporter filled in the name in parentheses, which is common practice, but which leaves some wiggle room for the truth without further quotes and context.
Why didn't the publicist qualify the statement? Or why didn't the reporter or the editor include more of comments from the publicist? Was it a matter of space and style or a matter of content--either any additional quaifying quotes not being good enough or non-existent?
Skeptics have suggested that the writing on QT's Diary is what gives the site away as a fake. Tarantino is a notoriously bad speller. Doubters contend that the diary is too well written to be from his hand. (Though it has been reported often that Tarantino has a high IQ, he dropped out of high school at age 16.)
In a recent post addressing the hoax claim, however, QT (or his online imposter) reminded readers that he has hired an editrix (she is refrred to as "Stacy") to clean up and manage the site's content. Stacy's job includes screening the many comments and emails sent to the director and selecting those worthy of his reply. QT doesn't actually type his blog entries, but dictates them for transcription instead.
One way or the other, QT's Diary is a good read. The details and content seem true and as if the source could only be Tarantino or someone who is either very close to his circle or knows his current work or daily life extremely well. Some of these details, however, could also be utterly false. We'd like to buy into the idea that the blog is real. But the reported facts, so far, suggest it is anything but.
"QT" has said in a recent post that he hasn't anounced the blog to the press because he didn't want it to turn into a publicity stunt. But it could be the best and slyest form of publicity there is--the kind that creeps out of nowhere from the geeky fringes of the Internet and explodes as gossip and speculation, whetting the appetites of media insiders and trickling into water-cooler chatter everywhere.
Tarantino doesn't have a new movie of his own to plug, but has loaned his name to the new Jet Li martial-arts epic, "Hero," which may get a small--very small, if any--bounce from any publicity generated by this otherwise oridnary-looking blog. Welcome to the Blogosphere, Quentin. Or QT. Or whoever you are!
RELATED LINKS
QT's Diary
Quentin Tarantino Bio [IMDb]
Fan fakes Tarantino diary [ZDNet News]
Tarantino or a Fake? [JoBlo's]
Hero Movie Official Web Site
Posted by at August 27, 2004 10:46 PM
