BuzzSugar

Diablo Cody to Attend Sweet Valley High

BuzzSugar — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:30:20 -0700

She's tackled pregnant teens, monster teens, and now Diablo Cody is going for . . . sweet teens? Yes, the dialogue diva herself has been tapped to produce and direct an adaptation of the Sweet Valley High books.

Even though the manufactured slang in Jennifer's Body started to get to me, I'm interested to see what Cody does with the beloved books. I read a lot of the series (and even watched the TV show), and I'm happy to see the books get revived in the pop-culture domain, even if it does involve Jessica telling Elizabeth that she's "Jello, so lime-green Jello."

UPDATE: Diablo herself replied to my tweet about made-up slang with "Thinking I might play it straight." There ya have it!

Should Older Books Be Updated For a Modern Audience?

BuzzSugar — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 05:30:00 -0700

I spent a good portion of Thursday afternoon being horrified by the fact that, in the newly updated versions of the Sweet Valley High books, the gorgeous Wakefield twins' oft-referenced clothing size has been reduced from a "perfect" six to a "perfect" four - a fact the publisher proudly trumpeted in a press release. It's as though Random House sat down with the '80s editions and thought, "huh, these unrealistic expectations just aren't quite unrealistic enough!"

The Wakefield waistline isn't the only thing they've changed: Instead of a red Fiat, the girls now drive a red Jeep Wrangler (I thought they said 2008, not 1998!), and brainy Elizabeth edits her school's website and blogs rather than working for those boring dead tree things we used to call "newspapers."

This reminded me of an interview with Judy Blume I heard last Fall, where she talked about deleting some of the menstruation "equipment" from updated editions of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret (and taking a mimeograph machine out of Fudge). She said she didn't want to confuse kids and make them ask their parents to explain how things were back in the day.

Do you think it's necessary to update references in older books so they make sense to a younger crowd? Or is the tinkering just unnecessary?

Source

Young Kristen Stewart Practices Her Twilight Gaze, Ben Affleck's Striptease, and Diablo Takes on Sweet Valley High

Molly — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:45:10 -0700

A pre-Twilight Kristen Stewart looks adorable in a Porsche commercial - check out how she was unknowingly already preparing for her big hit. Plus, hot Ben Affleck on set, and Diablo Cody gives us the scoop on how she's planning on adapting Sweet Valley High. All that and more, so watch PopSugar Rush now!