THE CULTURE INDUSTRY: Kurt Andersen at the Booksmith Thursday 3/15

Our obsession with Radar (now in its third print incarnation thanks to yet another relaunch) notwithstanding, we know the voice of its Fresh Intelligence blog, or Gawker, for that matter, couldn’t have existed without Spy. KURT ANDERSEN co-founded the original media/celebrity/politics satire rag, but he’s written a surprisingly serious historical novel called Heyday. The book’s protagonist? A 19th-century English aristocrat whose fascination with all things American includes a prostitute named Polly. Yeah, well, no one having anything to do with those “Separated at Birth” and “Celebrity Math” features could ever be too serious. Andersen reads and signs at Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St, Brookline | 7 pm | free | 617.566.6660.