The article discusses the affective narrative strategies that constitute the
author Salman Rushdie’s portrait of his fourth marriage to the actress, model, and
Top Chef host, Padma Lakshmi, as expressed in Rushdie’s recent memoir, Joseph
Anton (2012), and in a representative sample of some 180 international tabloid
media news stories. Both Rushdie and the popular media use a language of affect
in covering the celebrity relationship. They demonstrate through the use of
defamiliarization and illusions (in Joseph Anton), and disbelief and comparison of
seemingly disparate physical attributes (in the media), how emotional discourse
serves to characterize Rushdie’s life both in his own words and in the words of
tabloid media. We argue that particularly the media representation surrounding
the celebrity relationship further established Rushdie’s status as a celebrity
author, but also that the publicity failed to create a celebrity power couple
because of the media’s univocal attention on the perceived grotesque discrepancy
between Rushdie and Lakshmi’s looks.