Allen Salkin

Stories input[type='submit'].minimal, button.minimal { background: #e3e3e3 !important; border: 1px solid #bbb !important; -moz-border-radius: 3px !important; -webkit-border-radius: 3px !important; border-radius: 3px !important; -moz-box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px 1px #f6f6f6 !important; -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px 1px #f6f6f6 !important; box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px 1px #f6f6f6 !important; color: #333 !important; font-family: "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important; font-weight: bold !important; line-height: 1 !important; padding: 8px 0 9px !important; text-align: center !important; text-shadow: 0 1px 0 #fff !important; width: 150px !important; } input[type='submit'].minimal:hover, button.minimal:hover { background: #d9d9d9 !important; -moz-box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px 1px #eaeaea !important; -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px 1px #eaeaea !important; box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px 1px #eaeaea !important; color: #222 !important; cursor: pointer !important; } input[type='submit'].minimal:active, button.minimal:active { background: #d0d0d0 !important; -moz-box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px 1px #e3e3e3 !important; -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px 1px #e3e3e3 !important; box-shadow: inset 0 0 1px 1px #e3e3e3 !important; color: #000 !important; } Join Allen's FUN and Fascinating email list! Email Address Close var fancyboxLoaded; try { var jqueryLoaded=jQuery; jqueryLoaded=true; //Check if a fancybox plugin is already loaded try{ fancyboxLoaded = $.fancybox } catch(err) { fancyboxLoaded=false; } } catch(err) { jqueryLoaded=false; } var head= document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0]; var script= document.createElement('script'); if (!jqueryLoaded) { script.type= 'text/javascript'; script.src= 'http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.4/jquery.min.js'; head.appendChild(script); } if (!fancyboxLoaded) { //Only load the CSS because the asynchronous JS might not load the script in time... //We'll load the script later with jQuery :) var fancystyle= document.createElement('link'); fancystyle.setAttribute("rel", "stylesheet"); fancystyle.setAttribute("type", "text/css"); //TODO: Hey MC guys, you've gotta host this somewhere! fancystyle.setAttribute("href", "http://chimplr.heroku.com/js/fancybox/jquery.fancybox-1.3.4.css"); head.appendChild(fancystyle); } var fnames = new Array();var ftypes = new Array();fnames[0]='EMAIL';ftypes[0]='email';fnames[1]='FNAME';ftypes[1]='text';fnames[2]='LNAME';ftypes[2]='text';var err_style = ''; try{ err_style = mc_custom_error_style; } catch(e){ err_style = 'margin: 1em 0 0 0; padding: 1em 0.5em 0.5em 0.5em; background: FFEEEE none repeat scroll 0% 0%; font-weight: bold; float: left; z-index: 1; width: 80%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; color: FF0000;'; } var head= document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0]; var style= document.createElement('style'); style.type= 'text/css'; if (style.styleSheet) { style.styleSheet.cssText = '.mce_inline_error {' + err_style + '}'; } else { style.appendChild(document.createTextNode('.mce_inline_error {' + err_style + '}')); } head.appendChild(style); $(document).ready( function($) { //Button below the Tumblr Controls //TODO: Hey MC guys, you've gotta host the image linked below somewhere! var newsletter_link = document.createElement('a'); newsletter_link.setAttribute('href', '#mc_embed_signup'); newsletter_link.setAttribute('id', 'mc-embedded-tumblr-signup'); newsletter_link.setAttribute('style', 'border:none; position:absolute; top:26px;right:3px; z-index:9999;'); var newsletter_image = document.createElement('img'); newsletter_image.setAttribute('src', 'http://chimplr.heroku.com/images/newsletter.png'); newsletter_image.setAttribute('style', 'border:none;'); newsletter_link.appendChild(newsletter_image); //Append Link to body $('body:first').append(newsletter_link); var options = { errorClass: 'mce_inline_error', errorElement: 'div', onkeyup: function(){}, onfocusout:function(){}, onblur:function(){}, invalidHandler: function(form, validator) { setTimeout("$.fancybox.resize();", 50); } }; var mce_validator = $("#mc-embedded-subscribe-form").validate(options); options = { url: 'http://Allen Salkin.us8.list-manage.com/subscribe/post-json?u=fb5c89e88c8664490a431ff34&id=7f41c3a396&c=?', type: 'GET', dataType: 'json', contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8", beforeSubmit: function(){ $('#mce_tmp_error_msg').remove(); $('.datefield','#mc_embed_signup').each( function(){ var txt = 'filled'; var fields = new Array(); var i = 0; $(':text', this).each( function(){ fields[i] = this; i++; }); $(':hidden', this).each( function(){ if ( fields[0].value=='MM' && fields[1].value=='DD' && fields[2].value=='YYYY' ){ this.value = ''; } else if ( fields[0].value=='' && fields[1].value=='' && fields[2].value=='' ){ this.value = ''; } else { this.value = fields[0].value+'/'+fields[1].value+'/'+fields[2].value; } }); }); return mce_validator.form(); }, success: mce_success_cb }; $('#mc-embedded-subscribe-form').ajaxForm(options); }); function mce_success_cb(resp){ $('#mce-success-response').hide(); $('#mce-error-response').hide(); if (resp.result=="success"){ $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show(); $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(resp.msg); $('#mc-embedded-subscribe-form').each(function(){ this.reset(); }); $('#mc-embedded-subscribe').hide(); $('.mc-field-group').hide(); $('#mc-embedded-lightbox-close').show().focus(); } else { var index = -1; var msg; try { var parts = resp.msg.split(' - ',2); if (parts[1]==undefined){ msg = resp.msg; } else { i = parseInt(parts[0]); if (i.toString() == parts[0]){ index = parts[0]; msg = parts[1]; } else { index = -1; msg = resp.msg; } } } catch(e){ index = -1; msg = resp.msg; } try{ if (index== -1){ $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show(); $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg); } else { err_id = 'mce_tmp_error_msg'; html = '

'+msg+''; var input_id = '#mc_embed_signup'; var f = $(input_id); if (ftypes[index]=='address'){ input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index]+'-addr1'; f = $(input_id).parent().parent().get(0); } else if (ftypes[index]=='date'){ input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index]+'-month'; f = $(input_id).parent().parent().get(0); } else { input_id = '#mce-'+fnames[index]; f = $().parent(input_id).get(0); } if (f){ $(f).append(html); $(input_id).focus(); } else { $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show(); $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg); } } } catch(e){ $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').show(); $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg); } } $.fancybox.resize(); } function initFancybox(){ $("#mc-embedded-tumblr-signup").live('click', function(){ $.fancybox({ 'autoDimensions' : true, 'width' : 'auto', 'height' : 'auto', 'href' : $(this).attr('href'), 'scrolling' : 'no', 'onComplete': function(){ $('#mce-error-response').hide(); $('div.mce_inline_error').hide(); $('#mce-success-response').hide(); $('#mce_tmp_error_msg').remove(); $(':input','#mc-embedded-subscribe-form') .not(':button, :submit, :reset, :hidden') .val('') .removeAttr('checked') .removeAttr('selected'); //focus first input field $("#mc-embedded-subscribe-form:not(.filter) :input:visible:enabled:first").focus(); $('#mc-embedded-subscribe').show(); $('.mc-field-group').show(); $('#mc-embedded-lightbox-close').hide(); } }); return false; }); } //Check wether Fancybox is loaded or not, and if not, load the sucker and initialize it if (!fancyboxLoaded){ //TODO: Hey MC guys, you've gotta host this somewhere! $.getScript("http://chimplr.heroku.com/js/fancybox/jquery.fancybox-1.3.4.pack.js", function(){ initFancybox(); }); } if (fancyboxLoaded) { initFancybox(); }

125 posts

[allen-salkin]

My 2006 article on Matthew Kenney's notoriously awful business practices. This is how I met Sarma Melngailis. In the light of this and, 18 years later now, the New York Times article on Kenney (following the LA Times article), perhaps you should wonder, who is actually the "Bad Vegan" who stiffs employees and investors and does not pay them back? FYI, In the grips of a con-man, Sarma's restaurant missed payroll for a month and she used the money from the Netflix show to pay them all back. To my knowledge, none of Kenney's ex-employees have ever been paid their unpaid wages.

[allen-salkin]

Visit Original Link

Allen Salkin interviewed about Festivus 2023 on WJR- Detroit Talk Radio by Chris Fenwick

[allen-salkin]

I'm in a new HBO / MAX doc by Erin Lee Carr about the never-before interviewed leader of The Bling Ring. Premieres Sunday October 1. I covered the group (also known at the time as "the burglar bunch" for the New York Times, largely because I attended Calabasas High School and understood the milieu. I was always bothered by a lot of the coverage of the group because these were not, in my view, a bunch of spoiled kids doing things for fun and greed, but were teenagers struggling with numerous issues who found a unique way to act out, thanks to the rise of social media coalescing with their adolescence. I have yet to see a full screener of Erin's doc, but from today's Vanity Fair article and the screener (where you can see yours truly in a suit that fits better than my Bad Vegan suit), it looks like she nails it. 

So yeah, post, consume, enjoy, think.  -- Allen 

P.S. since you'll ask: I think this is my 11th documentary, depending if you count E True Hollywood Story as a doc. 

[allen-salkin]

Visit Original Link

Well on the 50th anniversary of M*A*S*H I am unearthing my historic cover of Suicide is Painless.

[allen-salkin]

Sheraton Mexico City

These pages left blank

Unintentionally

Someone always meant to fill them

     The dog’s water bowl is empty

     A word of encouragement via the miracle of international cell coverage to the partner

     Signature required, faucet cylinder arrived, I can’t give it

     It was a gift someone gave themself

     Time not included

[allen-salkin]

Sarma Melngailis Was Torn Apart by Journalists. Here’s What They Got Wrong

Her public image is the kind people love to hate, but after reporting on her story for months, I know that’s not who she really is.

For Tudum, the Netflix-run website that allows viewers to go deep on their favorite shows, I wrote this opinion piece about the horrors of intimate partner abuse — and the ways in which the media was complicit in assigning guilt to Sarma Melngailis long before she’d been convicted of anything.

[allen-salkin]

Has it occurred to anyone that Shane/Anthony Strangis actually has made Leon the pit bull immortal in a way? 

[allen-salkin]

Sarma Melngailis, Netflix’s “Bad Vegan,” Stares Down Her Past—And Future

The founder of Manhattan clean-eating hot spot Pure Food and Wine was a tabloid fixture in 2016 after she defrauded investors, stiffed staffers, and went on the lam, under what she says was the bizarre spell of a man she met online and went on to marry. As a new docuseries looks at the scandal with fresh eyes, Melngailis speaks on what happened then and where she is now.

My latest Vanity Fair article on Sarma Melngailis, the “Bad Vegan.” 

[allen-salkin]

#1 on Netflix!?!?

[allen-salkin]

New Cover for the book. By Edel Rodriguez 

[allen-salkin]

Allen Salkin Headshot 2 Copyright Allen Salkin

[allen-salkin]

Allen Salkin Headshot 2 

[allen-salkin]

Allen Salkin headshot 1. Copyright ALLEN SALKIN

[allen-salkin]

Danyelle. Corona Poem for 10/24/2020

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Danyelle. A Corona Poem by Allen Salkin. Read more about this project: allensalkin.com/poems. 

[allen-salkin]

Danyelle. A Corona Poem by Allen Salkin. Read more about this project: allensalkin.com/poems. This is the original handwritten draft.

[allen-salkin]

Corona Poems Project

Hi, I’m writing one poem a day, each for a different person in my life. I’m calling these “Corona Poems.”

The word “Corona” has many definitions, one referring to halos around the sun and moon. Another is “the glow around a conductor at high potential.” Also: “a part of the body resembling or likened to a crown;” “the cup-shaped or trumpet-shaped outgrowth at the center of a daffodil or narcissus flower;” and, a web search shows, “a circular chandelier in a church.”

Generally, corona refers to something good, something enlightening — even in better times the Mexican beer in the beautiful clear bottles.

I am scared of the creeping disease that is keeping us indoors. I have asthma and don’t want to test my body against the virus. But these poems are not about sickness. They are an outgrowth of the turning inwards that this moment has created.

I’m a writer who has generally made my living in journalism. But I started out writing poetry and bits of memoir and have been meaning for a long time to get back to that and to the novel that’s been percolating on my desk for nearly two decades. 

Now is the time to tend to this inner glow.

I am composing each poem using a fountain pen dipped in ink, written on beautiful thick paper in a large blank journal my mother gave me as a college graduation gift. I’ve been waiting for decades for the right time to use this journal. There may be cross-outs and imperfections in my scrawled handwriting, and final edits only in the clean “typed” version.

Each poem will be sent directly to the subject and posted on my website allensalkin.com If you prefer your poem not be posted online, I will remove it. You are free to share your poem.

I am also available to write a custom poem for a person you would like to honor with one. I am starting out charging $100 for these, and I will email the poem and later follow up by snail-mailing you the handwritten poem. Write to me and I will you send a brief questionnaire about that person to provide me with details I’ll need.

I am starting this on March 24, 2020.

Sincerely,

Allen

[allen-salkin]

My headshots and resume for acting work.

Here is my casting page if you'd like to engage me as an actor. My "type" is probably a writer, slightly eccentric (curly-haired) professor or skeptical news reporter -- maybe tempestuous chef, scheming scientist or mad criminal. But here you will see a range of looks -- including deranged camper and office nerd. Headshots by Theo Juliet. For commercial work I am represented by Aqua Talent.