Grains of Rice

Most of Anne Rice's bio, in the Playbill and on the website for the new Broadway musical, LESTAT:

"The bio of an artist such as Anne Rice (b. 1941) can only be truly understood in the context of the author's personal testimony--her vast body of work. Each beloved character iridescently animated and virtually manifested before our eyes witnesses their creator's experience in triumph and in sorrow and in searching for some semblance of Happy Peace. From the pangs of Louis' utter solitude to Claudia's untimely demise to Lestat's wickedly bedazzling smile, the author's life permeates each page with such ardor one could only blush at being so exposed. But Anne Rice gives herself--her life in full--as a gift to the world in every spellbinding chapter, every carefully turned page, every meaningful word. Mere footprints of a life lived in art. Rice’s latest novel, "Christ The Lord: Out Of Egypt," is the beginning of her literary contribution to Christian Art."

Christianity may never be the same.

The website bio continues with this tacked-on bit: "Anne is grateful that these Broadway Giants have adapted her creative endeavor in such a mesmerizing and captivating musical. This adaptation stands alone as a genuine masterpiece!"

A far cry from her early, much-publicized disdain for the 1994 film INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE--"a genuine masterpiece" compared to what's onstage at the Palace. Has she really seen it? Did she really lower her sainted pen to write such a cheap endorsement?

Or, at the end of another day of hot and heavy self-exposure by way of vampires, mummies, and Christ the Lord, was she just grateful that the damn check arrived?