Saturday, May 23, 2026

Sean Penn Launches Novel on Colbert on Ambien, Smoking: Book Not Selling, Reviews are Not Great

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Sean Penn does a lot of things very well: act, direct, help Haiti. But writing fiction may not fall in that category. He launched his first novel, “Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff,” on Colbert last night. He told the host he was still feeling the Ambien he’d taken on his overnight flight, and then he started smoking. Penn was pretty cogent, however (he’s very articulate). Alas, Colbert didn’t seem to care much for the book. Reviews are coming in now and they’re not too good. Neither are sales. “Bob Honey” is at number 174 on amazon. Maybe people will buy it as a collector’s item. Too bad Sean didn’t write a serious novel about his work in Haiti, etc. Now that this is out of his system, that would be an interesting real second novel.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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