Too Soon? Celebrity Portraits

With Too Soon? Friedman finally (none "too soon," in fact) gets his due with this fat, beautiful collection that showcases his wide-ranging skills as a portraitist and caricaturist. Too Soon? is evenly split between political celebrities and show-business ones, ranging from Friedman's instantly iconic "Barack Obama as George Washington" New Yorker cover to brutal depictions of Britney Spears and her tabloid-filling ilk. Subjects (or targets, depending on how you look at it) for Friedman's pen on the political side include Bill and Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, John McCain, and George W. Bush (with an iconic "W. as Strangelove" image) and his gang. Entertainers include Tiny Tim, Barney Fife, Bob Dylan, Woody Allen, Oprah Winfrey, Barbra Streisand, Jerry Lewis, the Three Stooges, Ellen DeGeneres, and Conan O'Brien. And falling somewhere in the gray area between entertainers and political players (you make the call!) are Rush Limbaugh (who blasted Friedman's George W. Bush image as being of "low artistic quality"), Sarah Palin, and Michael Moore.