Off the Grid Index
Posts by Simon Dumenco

OFF THE GRID is about why the news is the news. Here are the real motivations of both media and newsmakers. Here's the backstory. This is a look at the inner workings of desperate media, the inner life of the publicity crazed, and the true meaning of the news of the day.

Octu-Mom Pregnant AGAIN?!
Off the Grid | Mar 20, 09 12:31 PM CDT
Simon Dumenco - OK, not actually—not yet, at least—unless you believe Jimmy Kimmel. But let’s all admit that this is what we’re anticipating here, this is what we’re waiting for: that the trainwreck that is Nadya “Octuplet Mom” Suleman will get trainwreckier in the trainwreckiest way possible. She’ll get pregnant...

Leave Madonna Alone!!!
Off the Grid | Feb 27, 09 9:30 AM CST
Simon Dumenco - Poor Madonna. The master marketer, who's thrived as an entertainment powerhouse, on good press and bad, for longer than just about anybody—her first album came out in 1983—is now getting press that's mostly... pitiable. She's always alternated between goddess and pop-cultural punching bag, but lately she can't catch a break. And we...

Who Really Gave Birth to the Octuplet Mom?
Off the Grid | Feb 17, 09 5:29 AM CST
Simon Dumenco - It all got so ugly, so fast. Last Monday, octuplet mom Nadya Suleman was attempting to soften her media image with a carefully stage-managed Today show appearance—but by the end of the week she was even more of a national pariah, having gone into hiding after receiving death threats. And over the weekend, her unnerved publicists—a husband/wife...