Susan Braudy (born Susan Orr July 8, 1941) is an American author and journalist.
Early life and education Braudy grew up in Philadelphia and later relocated to Manhattan, New York City. She received her undergraduate degree from Bryn Mawr College and attended University of Pennsylvania and Yale University graduate schools, where she studied ethics and aesthetics.Jean-Paul Sartre Essays in Aesthetics Open Road Media, January 12, 2012
Braudy's father Bernard Orr worked for the Philadelphia Housing Authority and actively supported local artists such as Dox Thrash. He was Vice President of the American Jewish Committee and his Master's thesis at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania became the book Technological Unemployment, an early look at how advances in technology were replacing human labor. He was the principal of a vocational night school whose students were largely African-American. Braudy's mother Blanche Orr taught history at Germantown High School, whose students were also largely African-American, and went back to school to become a reading supervisor because her students needed better reading skills. Braudy now lives with film editor Joe Weintraub.
Career Braudy has written for The New York Times, Newsweek, The Atlantic Monthly, The Huffington Post, Harper's Magazine, Glamour, Vanity Fair, Ms., New York Magazine, The New Journal, Jezebel and The Week. She was the first woman writer hired by Newsweek.
Braudy had been commissioned by Playboy magazine in 1969 to write an "objective" piece on the feminism movement. Her final article was viewed as controversial by male Playboy editors. The debate continued up to Hugh Hefner; who wrote in a memo (covertly distributed by female Playboy employees) that he felt the article needed to focus more on the "highly irrational, emotional, kookie trend" of feminism because "these chicks [are] the natural enemy of Playboy." He argued that radical feminists were rejecting the Playboy way of life.Watts Braudy later wrote an article published in Defiance and Glamour magazine in which she analyzed the contents of Hefner's memo and criticized his approach to women.
Braudy was an editor and writer at Ms. magazine. She edited the October 1975 men's issue of Ms. whose cover featured Robert Redford's back.
In 1977, Braudy became an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP). WIFP is an American nonprofit publishing organization. The organization works to increase communication between women and connect the public with forms of women-based media.
In 1981, Braudy was appointed Vice President of East Coast Production at Warner Brothers. She worked as Vice President of Michael Douglas's Stonebridge Production Company from 1986 to 1989.TCM Archive Materials, "Susan Braudy", No date, Accessed 10 March 2015 She was hired by Francis Ford Coppola, Jerry Bruckheimer, Martin Scorsese, and Oliver Stone to write screenplays."Susan Braudy" "Who's Who In America", Accessed 10 March 2015
Her article on paperback auctions, published in The New York Times Magazine, was used by the Federal Trade Commission for an anti-trust suit against the high-bidder in a multimillion-dollar paperback rights auction.Robert J. Cole, "U.S. Sues CBS to Undo Purchase of Fawcett Publications" The New York Times, 02 June 1978
In 2006, Braudy judged the Lukas Prize, the award from the Columbia University Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, given annually to recognize excellence in book-length investigative journalism.
Braudy's fifth book, Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Accusations against Michael Douglas On January 18, 2018, Braudy accused former colleague Michael Douglas of sexual harassment in an article for The Hollywood Reporter. She contended that during her time at Stonebridge Productions, she was "subjected to sexual harassment by Douglas that included near-constant profane and sexually charged dialogue, demeaning comments about her appearance, graphic discussions regarding his mistresses," and finally masturbating in front of her.
Douglas had published a preemptive denial of the claims in the Hollywood Star ten days earlier, saying he "felt the need to get ahead" and explain his concerns about the validity of the story. He stated: "I don't have skeletons in my closet, or anyone else who's coming out or saying this. I'm bewildered why, after 32 years, this is coming out, now."
The New York Times published an email from Braudy about her experience working for him. She wrote that Douglas "believed his power was so much greater than mine that he could pull icky/unwelcome sexual pranks without consequence and even take pleasure in my extreme discomfort.”
In popular culture In 2016, Braudy's reflection on the Playboy incident, "Up Against the Centerfold: What It Was Like to Report on Feminism for Playboy in 1969", was published in Jezebel. Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker described it as "amaaaazing."
After writing an article for The New York TimesSusan Braudy, "He's Woody Allen's Not-So-Silent Partner", The New York Times, August 21st, 1977 about Woody Allen and his writing partner Marshall Brickman, she was used as the muse for Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep's characters in Manhattan.Sheila Weller, Girls Like Us, April 8th 2008 Her jokes about the surreal twist were quoted in the New York Post gossip column "Page Six," as well as in People Magazine.
After she wrote two articles on Seinfeld for The New York Times,Susan Braudy, "Where Have You Gone, Jerry, When We Need You?" The New York Times, February 17th 2002 writer Larry David named a screaming woman character "Susan Braudy" on his HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm."Episode Summary - The Corpse Sniffing Dog", TV.com
Books Between Marriage and Divorce: A Woman's Diary. New York: William Morrow, 1975. . Old Boyfriends. New York: Jove Publications, 1979. A novelization of the screenplay for the film Old Boyfriends; published only in paperback. Who Killed Sal Mineo? A Novel. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982. . What the Movies Made Me Do: A Novel. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1985. . This Crazy Thing Called Love: The Golden World and Fatal Marriage of Ann and Billy Woodward. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1992. . Basis for two television episodes on "A Crime To Remember" and "Power, Privilege & Justice.""Susan Braudy" IMDB, Accessed 10 March 2015 Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left. New York: Alfred Knopf, 2003. .Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left Review in The New York Times Based on the story of Kathy Boudin, who was imprisoned for her part in the Brink's robbery (1981). Braudy was inspired to write the book because Kathy Boudin had been a classmate at Bryn Mawr.Family Circle got a "largely positive reception" despite being criticized by friends of Kathy Boudin. The book was nominated by Alfred A. Knopf for the Pulitzer Prize. It was later the subject of a 2014 Guardian article criticizing The New York Times and others for republishing findings on the break-in of FBI headquarters in Media, Pennsylvania that damaged J. Edgar Hoover's reputation beyond repair. The break-in's perpetrators had been revealed 11 years prior by Braudy in her nonfiction book.Michael Wolff, "How an old story was reborn in the Edward Snowden era" The Guardian January 21st 2014
Prefaces Sartre, Jean-Paul Essays in Aesthetics. Transl. Wade Baskin. Pref. Susan Braudy. Open Road Media, 2012. . Gibran, Kahlil. The Treasured Writings of Kahlil Gibran. Pref. Susan Braudy. Open Road Media, 2011. . Gibran, Kahlil. Tears and Laughter. Ed. Martin Wolf. Pref. Susan Braudy. Open Road Media, 2011. .
Articles "James Taylor, a New Troubadour"Susan Braudy's review in Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Bittersweet Story Of 1970
References
External links a Susan Braudy blog Writers Celebrate Writers a Susan Braudy blog Susan Braudy Huffington Post author page
Susan Braudy The Leonard Lopate Show Susan Braudy on Amazon.com Michael Wolff "Hell's Kitchen" GQ