The Rage Roll Loses To A Dead Princess

Ari Emanuel's rage memoir "Roll the Calls" will debut at No. 2 on the New York Times bestseller list, according to Page Six, outranked by a book about Princess Diana written by her brother, Charles Spencer. "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister" was announced only about a month before it hit stores.

The Rage Roll, as we're calling it, had a full PR war machine behind it. Announced in January, it launched with live Q&As alongside David Axelrod, Kara Swisher and Rachel Maddow, plus a round of interviews with David Remnick and the rest of the media circuit. The whole operation was engineered to make a number. The number it made was 2.

Not 1. 2. The best debut slot for a rage memoir is number one, and number two is just a very expensive footnote. One publishing insider called it "disappointing" per Page Six, and another pointed out that comparing the rage book to the dead princess's brother is "like comparing apples and oranges." Sure. Apples. There's a different fruit in that sentence, and it's not one you can buy at a book fair.

The guy who beat him is the brother of the most covered corpse in history, with a book claiming King Charles "sounded like a lottery winner" at the funeral. The palace responded that grief "clouds judgment." Hollywood responded by comparing apples and oranges. The dead get a rebuttal statement; the living get a "decent week one number."

The best part is the book is about rage, and the author now has a debut position to be angry about. He also told the Sunday Times Magazine he no longer has to think about representing Meghan Markle, even though his own agency says it still represents her. A rage memoir by a man his own agency contradicts in the same week. That's not a book, that's a press conference with chapters.

YOUR TURN: Do you buy the rage memoir at No. 2, or is No. 2 the whole joke?