The Celebrity Prying Game: Guilty Pleasures

For Arts First, we’ve asked some of Harvard’s most famous professors and arguably its most beloved alum about their favorite guilty pleasures. Take a look at what skeletons are buried in their pop culture closets...

Conan O’Brien ’85

“My pop culture guilty pleasure is an MTV show called ‘My Super Sweet Sixteen.’ It follows incredibly wealthy, self-absorbed girls as they plan spectacularly decadent birthday parties for themselves. If your idea of fun is watching a fifteen year old girl scream at her Israeli father because her white Range Rover arrived a day late, this is the show for you.”

Steven Pinker (Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology)

“Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Greatest Hits.’”

Stephen P. Rosen ’74 (Harvard College Professor and Beton Michael Kaneb Professor of National Security and Military Affairs)

“Since you asked, Detroit Heavy Metal: the new V-8 Mustang, Cadillacs with Corvette engines. I’m through with the Germans.”

Harvey C. Mansfield ’53 (William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Government)

“I certainly watch ‘The Simpsons’ guiltlessly for its wit and all-around satire that spares no one and especially not pop culture. A truly guilty pleasure is one that’s bad for you, however. For me that would be too much sports-watching. Women I watch in the right amount.”