CELBRITY DETOX - A LETTER FROM A PEN PAL

(This entry has been editted since it was originally posted)
Did you ever have a pen pal?

Pen Pals were peculiarly kind of cool back in the early to mid seventies. They were almost like reading the private messages in a bottle that floated on the waves of the ocean, eventually opened and read by complete strangers - today it would be the equivalent of internet buddies - but more anonymous.

My Grandma Willi encouraged me went I was a preteen to correspond with a distant cousin in Germany. I cannot remember her name now, but there was a brief period of correspondence between my Michigan home and Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Back in the day pen pal letters were like receiving a one person monologue, written by someone you most likely would never meet. This being the case you could be completely honest and let the real you show. You may even have exchanged photographs also, but even so, you never felt like your pen pal was a real person who could ever turn on you and spill your secrets to the world.

Writing those letters was like writing in your journal or diary except that you mailed it off and several weeks later you would receive a response - and the response may be about something you wrote, but more than likely you received a one sided monologue like the one you sent, explaining your trivial life - either several states away or oceans away.

This is my take on “Celebrity Detox – The Fame Game” written by Rosie O’Donnell (along with ghost writer Lauren Slater) and published by Grand Central Publishing.

Celebrity Detox is not intended to be Hemingway or Poe. It is an intimate glimpse into the every day life of an American Pop-Culture Exclamation Point.

I will tell you up front - I am biased. I love Rosie O’Donnell but I am not in awe of her celebrity or fame. I see Rosie as a peer - as the chunky, loud mouthed girl next door (although she was not chunky back then) who could have been my childhood friend. I had a few chunky, loud mouth girl friends growing up.

Rosie, however, was never just the girl next door. She was the class president and homecoming queen who grew up to be the Queen of Nice, and for a few years was loved and watched my millions.

When I first saw Rosie in the movies I was struck at how my attention was always drawn to her - more so than the stars of the movie like Tom Hanks, Gena Davis, Meg Ryan or Madonna. She truly has the “IT” factor that everyone talks about but few people have.

Still…I am reading Celebrity Detox like it is a personal letter sent just to me. In it she explains (to me) what she has gone through over the past few years and exactly what she has felt at every turn – from deciding to give up her popular television show, spending time with her children and shopping at Target, to reentering the limelight out of respect for Barbara Walters and longing for a mother figure. She discusses the tumultuous times on The View, including the arguments with Elizabeth Hasselbeck (Elizabitch), and her admiration for Joy Behar who felt threatened when she joined with show.

I am currently on page 79 of 209 and I enjoy how Rosie is true to herself, and the reader. She explains in raw detail just what it is like to be a celebrity in this star obsessed culture. She gives a glimpse into the life, and lifestyles, of the rich and famous, and unlike ALL other celebrity written books, she doesn't try to make herself out to be greater or bigger or more special than she really is!

And for that I give the book a HELL YEAH.

I admire and love ya Ro and I can't wait to finish the rest of the book and see where your next step takes you!