Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Jeremy Blachman's "Anonymous Lawyer"

Jeremy Blachman is the author of Anonymous Lawyer, a novel which he has described as:
about a partner at a top-notch corporate law firm, from the outside living the perfect life, but on the inside a frustrated soul. He's fighting for the chairman's job (up against colleagues like The Jerk, The Tax Guy, and The Woman Who Missed Her Kid's Funeral) but in reality he's feeling trapped in a life he's not sure he ever wanted to lead, and taking it out on the people around him ... and all the while writing a secret weblog to vent his frustrations ... which becomes less and less of a secret as the people he's writing about start to discover it.
Here he shares his (and his associates') ideas about casting his protagonist in a film version of the novel:
A whole bunch of people have told me they see Anonymous Lawyer as Ari Gold, the Jeremy Piven character in Entourage. Alternatively, Alec Baldwin as network president Jack Donaghy in 30 Rock. And, more than a few people have mentioned Steven Weber as the network executive in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. They're all pretty much the same type. Bosses. Screamers. They throw things. And Anonymous Lawyer does too. And they're probably all fair comparisons, and of course I'd be thrilled if any of them were to play Anonymous Lawyer in a hypothetical movie version. But there's a part of me -- and maybe it's just an author's natural sympathy for his characters -- that thinks Anonymous Lawyer is a little underestimated when people make these comparisons. I'd like to think he's more tortured than these guys. With more of a conscience, even if he doesn't always act on it. Rob Lowe has sometimes been the image in my head, although he's probably a little too handsome for the part. But he has a way of radiating an intelligence that I'm not sure I necessarily see in Ari Gold. Jeremy Piven, Alec Baldwin, Steven Weber -- perhaps they're The Jerk, Anonymous Lawyer's rival in the book, a guy who'll stop at anything. Anonymous Lawyer will probably stop at anything too. But at least he'll feel a little bit guilty about it.
Read "Anonymous Lawyer: From Blog To Book" and visit Anonymous Lawyer.

Where else would the Anonymous Lawyer work but at the Anonymous Law Firm LLP?

Visit Jeremy Blachman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue