I just got Fannie Flagg's new book on CD. She brings her books alive when she reads them. I love her Southern accent. -- The Book Club

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Date Posted: 07:18:04 08/06/02 Tue
Author: Patricia
Subject: I just got Fannie Flagg's new book on CD. She brings her books alive when she reads them. I love her Southern accent.
In reply to: Lafaux 's message, "Concern voiced about Julia Robert's reading of The Nanny Diaries." on 10:01:47 07/27/02 Sat

>
>Julia Roberts
>
>When Julia Roberts recorded "The Nanny Diaries," not
>everyone was happy.
>
>
>Roberts is among the celebrities narrating audio books
>� a job which for years has been the livelihood of
>less-famous actors.
>
>
>Sigourney Weaver, Glenn Close, Jimmy Smits, Alan
>Cumming, Laura Linney, Hilary Swank, Jeremy Irons,
>Kenneth Branagh, Eric Idle, Matt Dillon and Joan Allen
>have all recorded audio books recently.
>
>
>"We can definitively say that celebrities are being
>used more and more than in the past," said Carrie
>Kania, associate publisher of HarperAudio. "A
>recognized name can be the tipping point for a
>consumer in the store."
>
>
>But George Guidell, who has made 800 books for
>Recorded Books, including Wally Lamb's "I Know This
>Much Is True," disagrees.
>
>
>"Publishers are star-crazy," he says in his deep,
>raspy voice. "But some celebrities can't read to save
>their souls. People don't say, 'Give me a book read by
>Julia Roberts.' Longtime audio-book fans latch on to a
>favorite reader rather than a star."
>
>
>The difference? Veteran voices like Guidell, Barbara
>Rosenblatt, Sam Tsoutsouvas and Ron McClarty (who
>recently made the 12-cassette version of the Pulitzer
>Prize-winning "Empire Falls") are better prepared, one
>expert claims.
>
>
>"Professional narrators [are] not sitting in L.A.
>guessing how a small town is pronounced or a proper
>name or something British. There was the famous story
>where one actor gruffly read nearly an entire book,
>only to reach the passage, 'he said in his gentle,
>whispery voice,'" says Robin Whitten, editor of
>AudioFile magazine, which has 10,000 reviews on its
>Web site.
>
>
>Whitten, who notes that Guidell does dozens of voices
>and dialects, said of Roberts' tape, "I'm not sure she
>did the best job."
>
>
>But publishers in this sector � which is booming, as
>multitasking Americans listen while they drive, cook,
>and garden � still ask, "What's not to like?"
>
>
>Stars garner more publicity, yet are paid the same
>AFTRA scale rate as journeymen.
>
>
>"Julia Roberts really did drive both sales of the
>audio and, I think, for the book as well," says Random
>House Audio publisher Robert Allen. "But people will
>get their favorites. I don't think stars will bump
>longtime narrators out."
>
>
>Not if you've got a magic voice, Kania says. "Jeremy
>Irons could read the phone book, and I'd buy it."

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