Day 80 - Reconciling the Two Julies

Day 80.

From the very beginning of this little project of mine, I knew that the existence of the real Julie Powell was going to be a problem for me. After all, she is an actual human being--one who has read this blog--which was incredibly weird and surreal for me.

The real Julie Powell gave me kudos!?! Like, what the fuck?

I know what you're thinking--obviously fake--which is what I thought too, until I clicked through the profile which looks pretty legit to me (it links to the original Julie/Julia Project). She has only commented once since then. I think I might have scared her off... which makes a little sense. After all, the whole point of this thing was to make fun of her original blog/story/movie. I'm not going to lie, after I found out that the actual Julie Powell might read my blog, I became pretty uncomfortable about just shitting on this woman's life every day.

But then I got over it. I decided that I wasn't actually personally attacking Julie Powell, but rather "Julie Powell," the fictional version of her that Nora Ephron created for Julie & Julia. So that solved a lot of problems. I could feel free to yell at "Julie" all I wanted and I wouldn't have to deal with the fact that I am probably just a big internet bully. Julie Powell is a real person with emotions and feelings, but I wasn't making fun of her exactly. No harm, no foul. Right?

Wrong. Earlier today, a reader, Laural Dawn, left a comment on yesterday's post letting me know that the awful Cobb Salad lunch scene in the movie was totally fictional--and that the actual Julie Powell actually liked her friends. This notion rocked my world, for lack of a better expression. The idea that "Julie Powell" wasn't Julie Powell caught me off-guard, even though I know it shouldn't have. Maybe this is the direct result of me watching this movie 80 times, but I found myself inexplicably unable to  process and confront the fact that scenes in the movie may not have happened in real life. These dangerous thoughts led me to this youtube video of the real Julie Powell.

Check it out if you have the time/want to experience what I have in the last couple of hours. I hate to say it, but the real Julie Powell actually seems likable. For real. Later on in the interview, she makes a self-deprecating joke about Twitter! I can't handle that.

So now I shudder to think that I might tolerate and even like the real Julie Powell. How the fuck do I go back and watch this movie--watch Amy Adams being horrid, watch "Julie Powell" having meltdowns, watch her drag down each and every scene with her annoying and grating personality--without the knowledge that the real person may not actually be a monster after all?

How will I ever reconcile these two conflicting personas of Julie Powell?!?!

Oh wait, that's right. She had an affair while she was still married to her awesome husband for personal literary gain. She is a bitch.

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Julie & Julia Quote of the Day: "I am not a saint."