Links

Sophia Loren on of the cover of the 2007 Pirelli Calendar.

Imitation is the finest form of flattery even at 72. Like the ubiquitous Louis Vuitton bucket bag knock-offs, Sophia Loren’s imitators are many, but few deliver the exquisite, subtle beauty of the real thing. Variety bloggers caught a glimpse of one of Ms. Loren’s latest drag-doppelgangers amidst champagne sipping celebs at the Entertainment Tonight Emmy Party on Sunday night in LA.

…with her convincing cleavage-and-glasses ensemble… The impersonator, who was accompanied by a less convincing Dolly Parton lookalike, was spotted wandering around Walt Disney Concert Hall where the post-Emmy bash was held. There were murmurs and double-takes among the crowd as she stood chit-chatting with “Dolly”, watching Billy Idol perform. [Stylephile]

David Foster Wallace, whose prodigiously observant, exuberantly plotted, grammatically and etymologically challenging, philosophically probing and culturally hyper-contemporary novels, stories and essays made him an heir to modern virtuosos like Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo, an experimental contemporary of William T. Vollmann, Mark Leyner and Nicholson Baker and a clear influence on younger tour-de-force stylists like Dave Eggers and Jonathan Safran Foer, died on Friday at his home in Claremont, Calif. He was 46. [New York Times]

• Another brilliant article by Stephen Marche about our obsession with coming -of-age-celebrities, their very public meltdowns, and the blurry line between adolescence and adulthood. [Esquire]
• Japanese author Haruki Murakami on Billie Holiday et al in the latest issue of The Believer. Murakami’s memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running was published last month. [The Believer]
• A quick review of William Shakespeare and modern culture. More Kenneth Branagh than Hamlet 2 — both equally smart. [LA Times]
• How long can you go without having sex? A couple falls into an unintentional love-making marathon. I smell a book deal. [Nerve]