Lawrence.com Podcasts: Punditocracy

Neil LaBute is not a bastard. Nor is Neil LaBute a misanthrope, a misogynist or a malcontent. Despite the repellent nature of the characters and scenarios he's conjured for stage and screen, LaBute-over the phone, anyway-is a pretty likable guy. He's not one of the soulless, woman-hating corporate assholes from is breakout film "In the Company of Men." He isn't a manipulative, callow prick like the cretins who populate his play and movie, "The Shape of Things." He's none of these things-but he's eerily good at creating these convincingly awful people and placing them in a morally repugnant fictional world. His acidic body of work also includes "Your Friends and Neighbors" and "Nurse Betty" for film, along with "Fat Pig" and "In A Dark Dark House" for theater. LaBute, in fact, is so unlike one of his sociopathic douchebags that he will be returning to KU-where he received a masters degree in theater and film in 1989-to kindly deliver a lecture on his work called "Life Onstage and on Film." Also uncocksucker