Because He's Jeff Goldblum

1.

 

Goldblum, Erected

 

Look, this is going to be a strange book. I'm sorry about that, I truly am, but there's no way around it. This isn't by design. The nature of the subject simply demands such treatment. Jeff Goldblum is a strange character with a strange story. Consider his 2009 death scare. Great place to begin, right? On the day Michael Jackson actually died, Goldblum fictitiously died. In an early Internet death hoax, reports of his falling off a cliff in New Zealand while filming an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent-you know, the show that's very much set in New York City, a place that looks exactly like New Zealand-began circulating online. He, obviously, did not fall off any cliffs, much less die, and Dick Wolf did not film his show in the same place as The Lord of the Rings. The actor didn't die, but for a while, many people thought he had died. (As the Guardian insightfully noted at the time, the gag "underlined his cult status: Goldblum was obscure enough to make it believable, and loved enough to make it upsetting.") He thought the rumor was "nasty" and has discussed "the mill of information-spreading that is not based on facts," saying, "That can be alarming and poisonous, and we should be very vigilant about rejecting it." But at the same time, he appeared on The Colbert Report to goof on it. That contradiction might not make sense (yet) but it fully explains Goldblum's approach to acting and to life, which can be (and often is) paraphrased as "live truthfully under fictional circumstances." He's unknowable, strange, and enigmatic, but in the very best way. One reporter said trying to isolate the capital-T Truth about him is "like trying to nail jelly to a greased piglet." That pretty much sums it up. Only a fool would attempt such a thing, particularly as an entire book. Luckily for you, my publisher, my agent, and (maybe?) myself, I've always been a fool. A quick survey of my family and

Travis M. Andrews is a features writer for the Washington Post s Style sec­tion, where he covers the Internet, pop culture, and the ways we live now. Previously he was an associate travel and culture editor for Southern Living and a contributing pop culture reporter for Mashable and The Week. He has also written for Time, Esquire, GQ, and the Atlantic, among others. He lives in Washington, DC, where he acquiesces to the every wish of his puppy, Stevie Nix, and misses his native New Orleans.

"In Because He's Jeff Goldblum, Travis Andrews leads fans on a tour of Goldblum's unconventional career and cultural resonance with all the wit and charm of the actor himself."
Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, New York Times bestselling author of Seinfeldia

"Jeff Goldbum is the only man in Hollywood capable of selling himself as a heinous human/insect hybrid, a leather jacket-clad mathematician/dinosaur expert and the Grandmaster of the Avengers universe. Travis M. Andrews's Because He's Jeff Goldblum is a brilliant, fascinating deep dive into Goldblum's life and career, revealing that he's even smarter, funnier and weirder than we dared to hope." 
Andy Greene, New York Times bestselling author of The Office
 
"Quirky, chatty, off-the-cuff, self-mocking, and fantastically enjoyable, Travis M. Andrews Because He s Jeff Goldblum is like a book-form version of the actor and cult hero himself. It s like an extended conversation with the fantastically strange leading man from Jurassic Park and Independence Day, incorporating everything from the acting philosophy of Sanford Meisner to the competition for the world s biggest Goldblum fan. It is inside-out biography, pop-culture criticism with pizzazz, and it is, like the actor himself, nothing but sheer pleasure to encounter."
Saul Austerlitz, author of Generation Friends

"Travis Andrews takes the same, joyous approach with which Jeff Goldblum seems to live every minute of his waking life. Deeply reported, smartly analyzed and unpredictable in its own right, this book gets to the heart of what makes Goldblum a singular figure in American culture without forgetting to have fun."
Geoff Edgers, author of Walk This Way

"Travis M. Andrews colorfully and entertainingly deciphers the allure of the Jurassic Park and Independence Day star."
Yahoo, The It List

Andrews first book examines the life