This story was originally published on Passionfruit.
If you’re on TikTok and love celebrity gossip, you’ve probably seen New York City-based comedians Claire Parker or Ashley Hamilton on your FYP. Parker and Hamilton host the podcast Celebrity Memoir Book Club, where they “read celebrity memoirs so you don’t have to.”
“The whole premise of the podcast is like, ‘How do we talk about pop culture in an ethical way?’” Parker tells the Daily Dot. “Because we are snarky comedians. So it was this idea of, if we can hate people in their own words, if we buy the rights to the gossip, then we’re allowed to talk about it.”
When I met Parker and Hamilton outside of a Devoción coffee shop in Manhattan, Parker was carrying a copy of Miles to Go, Miley Cyrus’ 2009 autobiography. It was a Thursday, and the two of them were getting ready to record the next week’s episode. Typically, the duo has Tuesday through Thursday to read a book. Then, on Fridays, they outline plot points for the episode and record the podcast to be released the following Tuesday.
