Oh, men. Every time women do anything that they enjoy, you've got to come up with some way to reject it. It wasn't enough to do all of those Sex and the City parody videos on YouTube back when it first came out, or to blatantly refuse to buy anything pink. Now you're targeting-- or, well, at least a few of you are targeting-- one of the few "chick lit" books of the last few years that wasn't completely intolerable. Way to choose your battles, fellas.
Drink, Play, Fuck will be a male retort to Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir about a round-the-world trip she took to rediscover herself following a nasty divorce. The Hollywood Reporter says the movie is based on a parody book by Andrew Gottlieb, the comedy write behind the IFC series Z Rock> Gottlieb's story follows a man who, instead of learning language in Italy, finding spirituality in India and love in Bali, drinks in Ireland, gambles in Vegas, and has sex with prostitutes in Thailand.
Charming. Gilbert's book has also been optioned as a movie, with Julia Roberts attached to star. Presumably Drink, Play will come out first, leaving a lot of people who haven't read Gilbert's book wondering what the hell is going on. The men in the know will giggle, the women in the know will giggle if the movie is funny enough, and then the adaptation of the original book will be the one to go on to make a ton of money. Seriously. It's hard to find a book targeted at women that has a story worth telling, and Gilbert's even sucked in this avowed hater of chick lit. Maybe Gottlieb would be better off targeting one of those stories about a young woman obsessed with fashion and living in New York? But, then again, that'll probably be the target of one of those Epic Movie guys before too long.
