SELBY'S REQUIEM TOUTED AS BEST DRUG STORY EVER

In Requiem for a Dream, a film about addictions of every stripe,
Darren Aronofsky slices and dices footage of junkies in a music-video
style.

But don't ask legendary hipster Hubert Selby Jr., who wrote the 1978
novel and created the screenplay with Aronofsky, about the MTV-like
aspects of the film. He has never seen MTV - hardly any TV at all.

"I don't have one of those things in my house," the Last Exit to
Brooklyn author tells us. "You're not going to find out anything
valuable on television. Have you noticed how people talk in
televisionese? They quote commercials together instead of
communicating."

Requiem stars Ellen Burstyn as a woman addicted to television; in
fact, just about everyone in the stunning cast - Jared Leto, Marlon
Wayans, Jennifer Connelly - has a jones. But Selby, 72, who's from
Brooklyn and never went to high school, left his alcoholic ways behind
him forever in 1969. A certified genius who was once certifiable - he
spent time at Pilgrim State Hospital - Selby has lightened up since
writing Requiem.

The movie is disturbing but some call it the best story about drug
addiction ever written.