Reclusive author Thomas Pynchon has a cameo in Inherent Vice (but good luck trying to find him)

Thomas Pynchon is legendarily reclusive — so much so that most confirmed pictures of the author were pulled from his 1953 high school yearbook. But fans eager to catch a glimpse of Pynchon can soon head to the movie theater to play the cinematic equivalent of a Where's Waldo? game: the author reportedly makes a cameo in director Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice, which is adapted from the Pynchon novel of the same name.

Of course, turning up to film a cameo didn't necessarily mean Pynchon was dropping his reclusive tendencies. "I don't think anybody knew," said star Josh Brolin in an interview with The New York Times. "He came on as the kind of mercurial iconoclast he is. He stayed in the corner."

"I'm staying out of it!" said Paul Thomas Anderson when asked if he could confirm the cameo. "No. No. I just... Somebody spent a long time deciding not to have themselves out there. There's a reason for that. So I'm just going to step out of that."

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