Bright Lights Big Deal

I was recently watching Bright Lights, Big City (1988), which, like the source novel by Jay McInerney, now seems an artifact of the 80s. Not just the drugs and clubs, but the lavish scenes at the magazine.

There's not much to say about the movie. What's fascinating is its portrayal of fact-checking at a classy New York periodical. (McInerney had worked as a fact-checker at The New Yorker.)

As much care as magazines took those days--and as much money as they had to do it--the fact-checking department seems hilariously prehistoric. There are no computers, and all the research is done by phone calls and looking things up in books.

Whole days could be spent verifying a fact that any ten-year-old could Google in a minute. Sure, there's plenty of nonsense on the internet, but it's also pretty easy to get basic and verified information if you want.

A new version of Bright Lights, Big City is in the planning stages. Will it be updated? How could it be? It's about an era long gone.