When I was in high school, I was also a reporter for the NY Post. The tabloid, owned by Rupert Murdoch, was known for being salacious and tacky. I loved it. My dad was friends with one of murdoch’s former VPs. He got me a coveted internship in the summer of 2001. This was right before 9/11. I worked in the features department, covering arts and entertainment. I had just turned 18 and had taken an AP journalism class in high school. Our teacher was a miserable woman. She told my entire class that none of us could write worth a damn. We weren’t even good enough for the school newspaper. We hung out heads in shame. But then I got a internship at the NY Post! One day I got asked to change because my skirt was too short. Other than that, I felt pretty professional. I wore a khaki trench coat from theory. It felt very reporter chic. The other intern with me was from the very wealthy, tisch family that owns the giants and loews. We went to barney’s to report on summer sales and her personal shopper came and took us around. We both got our picture in the paper that day. I thought my butt looked a little big. I loved the other writers. V.A. Musetto, who was famous for writing the headline “Headless body found in topless bar” became my buddy. He was an older, hippie type who had lived in Woodstock. He took me to films and premieres. He let me interview the director Irwin Winkler, about his movie “Life as a House.” I even got to interview Peter Boyle, star of Young Frankenstein, in his apartment. He had pictures of him and his best friend, John Lennon. He was in a movie with Halle Berry called Monster’s Ball. I went to a screening and prepared for the interview. When I got there, the publicist saw how young I was, and seemed nervous about my experience. I wrote up the story, but our rival paper, the daily News, published it first. I was disappointed mine never got to be read. The summer was ending and so was my time at the Post. I had to start my senior year of high school. I was a vocal major at laguardia high school, also known as the fame school. We had a long list of accomplished alumni. Jennifer aniston had gone there and her acting teacher was still there too! He never believed she had talent and told everyone so. Dancers, artists, musicians, singer, actors...we all graced the halls of laguardia HS. It was incredible. The talent. My parents had never known about public school before. I’d only ever gone to jewish and private school. But I hated it there. I didn’t fit in and I felt stupid a lot of the time. I also felt poor. My family had money, but some of these kids had money like I’d never witnessed. Houses in the hamptons and drivers. Drug dealers on their cellphones. I had finally gotten a cell phone and I was so happy. Right after I started my senior year, 9/11 happened. No one knew what was going on. The world had become terrifying in an instant. My sister’s school was across the street, and she couldn’t go back for a month. She was also traumatized. My response was asking the NY post to take me back. I needed to be there. I wanted to write, and report. Plus, it was the arts section. No dead bodies in the street. Just fashion and fun times. They had me report on a kosher food festival at the meadowlands in jersey. It was delighful. who knew there were glatt kosher tamales?
Josh Groban was just beginning his career and came to perform for us at school. I talked to his publicist and was granted an interview with him, representing the post. I did the interview over the phone and took notes. I was so nervous. I also wanted to ask him to go to prom with me, but I resisted. My editor told me he wasn’t big enough for us to publish an article on him. The next week, he had a huge spread in People Magazine. That was one hard to swallow. It’s quite possible that I was too sensitive for the brutal world of media.
Then there was Page Six. The famous gossip column of the Post, that’s not actually on page six. Paula Forelich was one of their writers. I thought she was fantastic. Like a real carrie bradshaw. Feisty and blonde. I’d find any excuse to talk to her. I wanted to be just like her. I usually sat with the sports guys, because there was an open computer there. They were hilarious and would give me advice about men. I went over to Paula’s cubicle one day.
“Hey, I was at school today and Ellen Barkin came in,” I said.
“Oh?” said paula.
“We were both wearing seven jeans, you know those ones that cost like $150. I pointed it out, and she said to me, ‘oh these are much too expensive for little girls to wear!’ it was so rude.”
“That’s fantastic. We have to put that in page six.” Tell me more.
“She also said she’s glad her teachers at laguardia are all dead now.”
So that’s what made it to page six the next day. It didn’t have my name on it, but it was mine. But Mr Mccarthy, our student government faculty was not happy about it. I didn’t mean to cause problems for him, but I had a job to do. I was trying to be a reporter and a student at the same time and sometimes I got a little mixed up. I was enjoying working so much more than school. But I had to stop spreading gossip and focus on being a student. I had to get into college and I’d already failed gym. I was too chatty and kept getting caught exercising my mouth and not my body. Who fails gym? It was slightly embarrassing. I had my dad come in to try and talk some sense into my gym teacher. She said I could repeat gym and also write an essay titled, “the consequences of my actions.” I wrote the essay but she didn’t like it. The F remained.
I stayed at the Post until May of 2002, just before graduation. I had a recommendation letter from my editor for journalism school. Off I went to Northeastern, to begin a new chapter. I wanted to be a famous writer, and apparently that meant going to school to learn how to do it.