Coming to a theater near you: Dumb arguments

After Lori Gottlieb wrote that "Settling for Mr. Good Enough" story in the Atlantic a few months ago -- you remember, that irritating piece about how single women should admit their terrifying desperation and settle up already -- it practically stank of book deal. Like, you could smell it from the page.

So it was not surprising to hear that Gottlieb is turning the article into a book for Dutton with the title "Marry Him! Finding Mr. Real." (An interesting tweak of the title, by the way. Not "Mr. Good Enough," which speaks of deflated compromise, but "Mr. Real," which speaks of sober triumph.) However, I was surprised to hear that Gottlieb also scored a movie deal for the article. Tuesday, Variety reported that Tobey Maguire has acquired the movie rights to Gottlieb's story. I responded to this news by stabbing myself with a fork. (Lucky for me, it was plastic.)

I've talked about my problems with the Gottlieb article before, but you know, the story just keeps coming up. Just yesterday, a friend expressed her frustration that Gottlieb is basically positing a "grass-is-greener" argument -- it's not as if she settled, and is writing us from the blissful other side. She's just telling us that her situation is miserable, and therefore, the opposite must be desirable.

Gottlieb, a former Salon contributor, is a good writer with a compelling personal story -- about choosing single motherhood in her 30s and the painful regrets that followed. I just wish she'd left it at that, instead of making an in-your-face, grabby argument about what all the rest of us sad-sack single women should do. What was wrong with simply telling her story? I don't know. But Tobey Maguire might not be so interested in that.

-- Sarah Hepola