Cutting My Teeth on Celebrity Stories
I was young and didn’t ask the right questions.
Sometimes I still cringe over early interactions with famous people (click for high school Al Pacino blunder) as I climbed partway up the ladder, rung by rung, in the magazine world. But we learn from our slips as well as our reaches, so it all worked out.
1. Don Hewitt. My first job was at Woman’s Day, then owned by CBS Magazines. I wrote (for free, after work or at lunchtime) for the CBS employee newsletter and was dispatched in 1985 to the CBS Store at Black Rock, the network’s black stone skyscraper at 51 West 52nd Street. Task: Interview Mr. Hewitt, “60 Minutes” creator/producer, about his new book Minute by Minute, a look at the show’s history. I knew the ticking clock from Sunday night TV but was more of a Mademoiselle reader than a news hound and had no clue how busy he was. I also didn’t know what to ask, and Mr. Hewitt couldn’t waste time. I felt like a hayseed. I stammered out some questions. It was a lesson in being prepared as a reporter, which I was not sometimes. And who better to learn it from than the brains behind the news show? My article did run — a great caricature of Hewitt (by Stacy, another young WDer) saved it.
2. Eileen Fisher. Now, I love her pieces— from my swingy, sequined ivory tank and organic cotton shell to a slim, forgiving skirt. But then, I knew…
