Top This

Rockefeller Center's fabulously-remodeled 70th Floor observation deck re-opens today and what a coincidence ... it's the beginning of November sweeps! We're sure that this is a coincidence, because Today just happened to have three camera crews at the "Top of the Rock", along with Anne Rice, the Rockettes, liberal use of Channel 4's helicopter and a ground crew. Brilliant. As Pharrell says, if you're gonna do something, you'd better "Warhol the situation" and Today's producers are Warholing the dayumn thing. The new eye-in-the-sky set will be a fantastic opportunity for Today gain some traction during the November book. One of the many ongoing problems that we had at Good Morning America—aside from talent, strategy, and programming—was the lack of real estate; luckily, Today has never been handicapped by most of those issues. For more beauty shots, see The Malcontent, who was capturing video while we were on the morning conference call.

As mentioned above, publishing behemoth and pop icon Anne Rice stopped by Studio 1A Humanity Plaza the Top of the Rock to chat up her latest, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. The book is a seemingly curious departure for Rice. Via the first person, she tells the story of a seven-year-old Jesus who departs Egypt with his family to return to Nazareth. "I hope to continue and tell the story of his whole life, picking up at different years," Rice told Matt Lauer. "I'd like to cover his entire life."

First, the back-story. Rice recently suffered a health scare and has returned to Catholicism. She's done the Al Green-Vanity conversion and now promises "to only write for the Lord" and is already taking heat. It's to be expected when writing almost historical fiction, let alone that of any religious significance. Apparently, her work is meticulously-documented, but critics may want to sit down and take a Valium; it's fiction Organically, the biblical stories are not a complete departure from Rice's traditional genre; this is written in the first person (albeit that of a seven year old messiah-to-be), and has familiar elements of suspense, magic (miracles), superheroes (Jesus) and vampires (do the Pharisees count?). Moreover, it's not impossible to infuse spirit and religion into pop culture, as many of our friends will tell you. So we're looking forward to the new Anne Rice, even though it means a lot less preying and a lot more praying.

• Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (Amazon)
• Anne Rice Turns to Christ (News24)
• More skyline @ The Malcontent

Comments

[boogie tonight]

i am a GMA fan for life...

[michael]

I'm actually looking forward to reading Ann Rice's latest novel, even though her last few vampire chronicles were pretty unreadable. I still think she's capable of spinning a great tale, and her recent religious conversion actually intrigues me.

[ricky]

you were at good morning america? but you seem like a today show lover! we love your site, rod!

[Bari]

Interesting. From the darkness of Goth to the extremes of the Light!