“The process of engaging your celebrity is not unlike being a photographer at the Sears portrait studio. You just need a different version of a squeaky toy so their eyes follow you and they smile occasionally.”
Jancee Dunn grew up in suburban Jersey, with two little sisters, a former Southern beauty queen for a mother and a JC Penney exec for a father. She somehow stumbled into a job writing for Rolling Stone, and ended up traveling around the world as she interviewed celebrity after celebrity. This book is the story of how that happened.
But Enough About Me alternates between Dunn’s advice for interviewing rock stars and actors (keeping their attention, not pissing them off, getting them to show you the insides of their purses) and her experiences growing up (flipping through JC Penney catalogs, trolling the mall, various loser boyfriends). She walso worked as an MTV2 VJ for about 5 years. There’s a constant theme of “Oh my god, I am so unqualified for this”, but judging by her excellent writing, that is simply untrue!
As much as I loved the little bits of information about the multitude of celebrities that she’s met, my favorite parts dealt with her childhood, especially her parents. Her type-A dad and laidback mom cracked me up. I also loved how enamored with it all Dunn remains — she’s not trying to appear jaded or above it all. She about had a panic attack when she met Madonna, and she saved a piece of Velveeta that Dolly Parton gave her. Hysterical.
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