Rachel Cusk's new novel Life of M has drawn attention less for its literary qualities than for its protagonist M, widely believed to be based on the actor Natalie Portman, reigniting debate about the enduring appeal of "biogossip" — fiction that thinly veils real public figures. Details such as M's breakout childhood role and a later film about an obsessive ballerina point unmistakably to Léon: The Professional and Black Swan, while unconfirmed rumours that Portman is unhappy with her portrayal have spread from literary circles into tabloid coverage, prompting Page Six to dub it a "literary scandal".

The article situates Cusk's novel within a long tradition of romans à clef, tracing the genre from Virginia Woolf's Orlando, which the Daily Mail treated as confirmation of her affair with Vita Sackville-West, through Lauren Weisberger's The Devil Wears Prada, widely read as a portrait of Anna Wintour despite Weisberger's denials, and Lisa Halliday's Asymmetry, which fictionalised her relationship with Philip Roth. It argues the genre thrives on readers' voyeuristic pleasure of recognising real people just enough to feel "in on it" without genuine intimacy, citing Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story as a further example of art inviting speculation about its real-life basis.