Larry Fitzmaurice

Larry Fitzmaurice covers entertainment and pop culture with a focus on how celebrity narratives reveal the pressures and consequences of public life. His stories for BuzzFeed follow the emotional and reputational stakes behind headlines, from musicians reckoning with the toll of performance to actors and authors responding to criticism. Alongside that news-driven work, he runs the Last Donut of the Night newsletter, where he expands those interests into longer-form music writing and screen-culture criticism.

Celebrity confessions and the costs of fame

Fitzmaurice often builds his entertainment coverage around moments when performers speak candidly about their careers and well-being.

In one BuzzFeed piece, Charli XCX describes the “physical damage” she has done to her body from performing, and he frames the story around the bodily toll of constant touring rather than pure promotion. In another, Jamie Lynn Spears explains why she left Hollywood, and he presents the decision as a sad turning point grounded in personal strain instead of treating it as gossip. These stories emphasise how fame affects health, family, and long-term life plans, pushing beyond the surface of celebrity news to show what performers say they sacrifice.

Accountability and backlash in pop culture

A recurring strand in his BuzzFeed work is the way public figures respond when past behaviour is challenged.

He covers Jason Alexander’s response after Courtney Stodden calls him out for rubbing her breasts with a phone in a 2012 sketch, focusing on the language of the apology and what it does or does not address. He reports on Percy Jackson author Rick Riordan addressing criticism of Leah Jeffries’ casting as Annabeth Chase, highlighting how Riordan calls out racism directly and uses his platform to defend the actor.

In both types of stories, Fitzmaurice treats backlash and response as central, tracing how celebrities and creators navigate accountability, online outrage, and the demands of a changing audience.

Celebrities at the intersection of culture and public life

Fitzmaurice also covers moments when celebrity voices intersect with broader social issues. His piece on Arnold Schwarzenegger receiving the COVID-19 vaccine focuses on Schwarzenegger’s familiar advice and persona, but situates it within public-health messaging and the attempt to normalise vaccination through star power. Similar entertainment stories use quotes and short scenes to show how actors and musicians step into debates around health, safety, and civic behaviour, treating them as cultural figures whose statements travel far beyond promotion.

The reporting is concise and quote-driven, but it consistently links personal anecdotes from famous people to the wider conversations they shape.

Music newsletter and long-form criticism background

Outside BuzzFeed, Fitzmaurice maintains Last Donut of the Night, a newsletter built around his long-standing interest in music and screen culture. The newsletter features Baker’s Dozens posts sharing music he has been listening to, alongside critical observations on those records and the scenes they sit in. It also carries a Screen Memories column, where he writes about film and television with the same mix of enthusiasm and analysis that marks his entertainment coverage.

His professional background includes editing and writing roles at music and culture outlets such as The FADER, VICE, Pitchfork, and SPIN, which gives him a deep bench of experience in reviewing and contextualising artists’ work. That history shows up in his current output: when he writes newsy pieces about performers, he brings a critic’s habit of tying small incidents to larger careers, genres, and industry patterns.

Taken together, Fitzmaurice’s work is distinguished by its blend of quick-turn entertainment reporting and a critic’s attention to what stories mean for the people inside them. His BuzzFeed pieces centre emotional stakes, accountability, and the social impact of celebrity statements, while his newsletter and earlier roles root that coverage in years of close listening to music and watching screen culture evolve.