Filthy Rich

August 20, 2001
The current mania for so-called reality television and high stakes quiz shows inspired New York Times
editorial board member Samuels to make her fiction debut with a media spoof focusing on a parody of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Marcy Mallowitz, a personal life coach who developed her unique consulting job after making a living as a closet reorganizer specialist, becomes the latest victim of media madness when her stint as her orthodontist boyfriend's lifeline on the So You Want to Be Filthy Rich!
show ends up costing her their relationship. Once Marcy is dumped on national television after feeding her man the wrong answer, she becomes a media darling and is courted by every talk show host on the planet: Barbara Walters, Rosie O'Donnell, Diane Sawyer, even Oprah Winfrey make cameo appearances. Samuels ably captures the artificially charged environment of television spectacle, but amusing as the satire is initially, the name-dropping and media spoofing soon wear thin, and Marcy's stereotyped, overbearing Jewish mother, who is more caught up in her daughter's sudden stardom then the sorry circumstances of Marcy's personal life, adds a sour taste to the mix. Samuels's attempt at over-the-top humor in what might have been a searing indictment of celebrity journalism and the current state of copycat television programming falls as flat as the "cement matzo balls" that are Marcy's mother's specialties.