Here's the thing -- corrections are never fun for reporters or editors. But some corrections are more understandable than others, given the difficulty and obscurity of the material at hand. The names of famous actors, always a quick IMDb search away, are not exactly difficult for most journalists.
But most journalists are not Alessandra Stanley, the dizzyingly frequently-corrected New York Times television critic. Her history with the facts has been well documented online, but today, she proved she's playing it as fast and loose as ever, with humorous results. In her review of "Louie," Stanley wrote about a character from last season played by the comic Parker Posey. Well, that's where the piece ended up. Per the correction: "An earlier version of this column misstated the name of an actress who appeared on Season 3 of 'Louie.' She is Parker Posey, not Posey Parker."
Parker Posey is the star of "Waiting for Guffman" and "A Mighty Wind," as well as -- pertinent to Stanley's work as a TV critic -- a frequent guest star on comedy series including "Louie," "Parks and Recreation," and "The Big C." "Posey Parker," is, per Google, nobody -- searching the name just pulls up Parker Posey's biography. One sees how it happens, perhaps, in a time crunch (both names start with P, the eye skips right over it), but Parker Posey is a fairly well-known actress who, after all, had a major arc... on the show about which Stanley is presently writing. Posey Parker just sounds like a made-up name (which it is!).
If nothing else, we can look forward to Stanley's preview of the season finale of "Mad Men" -- we've long been fans of John Hamm and Elizabeth Moses, and think only Stanley can give them the credit they deserve.
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