Taschen | 264 pages | $39.99
By SHARON STEEL | December 3, 2007
Alison Jackson’s photo book Confidential couldn’t have been published at a better time. Our culture has never been so enamored by its own obsession with celebrity. Using look-alikes — some shockingly good, some merely passable — Jackson stages and shoots scenes of exuberant voyeurism that catch both viewer and subject unaware. Jackson is no paparazzi, nor does her work vaguely channel inspirations of the various cults of Hollyweird. Confidential is direct, snarky, and brazen; a coffee-table gift book dipped in superstar grime. She fearlessly tugs away at the curtain that separates what we assume we know and what we really know about our icons and movers-and-shakers, and the result is stunning. Does anyone still give a shit about that new sit-com they’re plugging? Their latest fashion line? The book they had ghostwritten? Why bother glossing over what people really want to know, their base desire for information? In Confidential, Jackson gives us exactly that: the Queen of England taking a shit, Madonna bathing herself in bottles of Kaballah water, Paris Hilton taking digital pictures of her own vagina. After a few hundred pages, nothing feels controversial anymore, and it’s hard to tell what’s more bizarre — that fact, or the images themselves.
Related:
Hate club, Music mismatch, Aesthetic genius, More 
- Hate club
We lurve being Lily Allen’s friend on MySpace. Does that mean we have to post lies in her comments section and declare that “Smile” really is catchier than “Stars Are Blind?” America's next musical genius: Paris Hilton serves up a sonic bitchslap
- Music mismatch
Coming off break-up life support has rendered me incapable of common sense, which is why I volunteer to participate in foolish “single girl” activities that I will likely look back on for a chuckle when I’m craggier than Mick Jagger and sporting orthopedic Chuck Taylors.
- Aesthetic genius
When I saw Marisha Pessl in the New York Times Style Section, meticulously posed on an antique chair wearing a pair of high heels and a coy smile, I cringed.
- R.I.P., Godfather of Soul
Regular readers of the Cool, Cool World obviously recognize the musical genius of James Brown.
- Crossword: 'Best of the Worst'
38 Across: "Axel F" ringtone character on About.com's "Top 10 Most Annoying Pop Songs of 2005"
- Out of this world
If comedienne and singer Sandra Bernhard hadn’t invented herself, a hovering mothership beaming her down might have been acceptable.
- Explicitly yours
The easiest way out with R. Kelly — as with Bill Clinton or Paris Hilton — is sex jokes.
- Escape claws
Wolverine may be a dark, tormented character, but Hugh Jackman is anything but. “I'm boring,” he says, “which is terrific.”
- Show fetish
Ever since Salvatore Ferragamo designed the first stiletto heel in 1955, podiatrists have faced a steady stream of female patients seeking physical relief from their devotion to fashion over function.
- One more time . . .
The editors of Time and Spin made the executive decision that You were Person and Artist, respectively, of the year 2006.
- Worst in breed: Newsmakers
Who are the unsexiest newsmaking men of 2007?
- Less
Topics:
Books
, Celebrity News, Entertainment, Paris Hilton
