J a n c e e D u n n

Review in Publishers Weekly

The latest issue of PW has the first review:

Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo?: And Other Questions I Wish I Never Had to Ask Jancee Dunn. Villard, $14 paper (224p) ISBN 978-0-345-50192-9

Dunn's travails will be instantly recognizable to readers in their late 30s and 40s—a generation that's shifted the family bickering about what to serve at holiday dinners to conference calls and e-mails. Her parents are a bottomless well of comedy, sending her wacky newspaper clippings and grilling her loudly about her inability to go to the bathroom during their vacation. Her circle of friends is equally familiar, like the gay buddy who invites her over for TV-movie parties and can always be counted on to make catty remarks about strangers. Several chapters are filled with transcripts of phone conversations with her best friend, Julie, flitting from topic to topic, comparing the embarrassing songs saved on their iPods and wondering why their parents haven't figured out voice mail isn't like an answering machine (“Hello? Anybody there? Hello, it's Dad”). Dunn's tone is genial, only turning serious briefly near the end when she discusses not having kids—and then inadvertently discovers she's finally pregnant. The seriousness doesn't last long, though, and soon it's back to
affectionately mocking her mom's decision to get20tattooed—although, as her sisters point out, she's secretly pleased to have something new to write about. (June 23)

New Yorker Review

There's a writeup of the book in the 'Briefly Noted' section of this week's New Yorker.

Sample excerpt: "The chapters alternate between entertaining set pieces—peeking into Madonna’s bathroom, being given Velveeta cheese by Dolly Parton (Dunn still has it in her freezer), turning down a rocker’s offer of heroin—and considerations of what it means to be an aging rock chick."

Click here for the original article

People and CNN

There's a nice mention of the book in the "Great Reads" section of today's People. "Disarmingly funny," say they.

Also, my interview on the CNN Headline News show 'Showbiz Tonight' is scheduled to run at 11 EST tonight (though I'm not sure how disarming or funny I am!)

Book Excerpt in Today's New York Daily News

The book comes out next week, and word is it's already in some stores, but if you'd like a preview the Daily News has a few small excerpts in today's paper.

Here's the first:

Jancee Dunn has been a writer for Rolling Stone since 1989. In her delightful new memoir, "But Enough About Me ... : A Suburban Jersey Girl's Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous," she writes of growing up in Jersey, making her move to Manhattan and, just like the title says, interviewing the "absurdly famous."

Jancee had the honor of being invited into Star Jones' home, where she found a woman enjoying "the fruits of her labors."

(Excerpt begins)
Star Jones' upper East Side apartment was exactly what you would expect of a glamorous TV personality. The first sight that greeted me was a capacious oil painting in the stairway of - who else? - Ms. Jones herself. Every celebrity should have a giant oil painting of themselves in their house. I frankly feel a little insulted if there isn't one.

Everything was plush, abounding in gold and cream tones, accented with animal prints, and there was a large spread on the gleaming dining room table: fruit, crudités, meats. It was all assembled by Star's personal chef. Champagne was offered. The lights were dimmed. In swept the appropriately named co-host of "The View." She was wearing her off-duty clothes: a pink rhinestoned tank top and velour sweatpants combo with a fluffy tan robe. Who doesn't love a girl in sweatpants and full makeup? Diamonds glinted from her ears, fingers, and toe ring as she happily nestled into a couch and got the ambience going by grabbing a remote control to click on video footage of fish, which flitted tranquilly around the enormous TV screen.

We paged through an album of photos of her recent trip to the Bahamas with her then-fiancé, Al Reynolds, and some friends ("What a good-looking group of black people!" she had scribbled on one). Then, after a chat, it was time for one the most beautifully thorough house tours I've ever had. "I've got a bidet!" she cried, opening the bathroom door. "And look at this shower! Ten people could fit in it!" Another glamorous photo of her rested on the bathroom counter. As, I might add, it should.

On to the office, which had spangly gold stars on the walls and a chair with a large gold "S" on it, and then the bedroom, where she opened up a couple of drawers to display her towering pile of Louis Vuitton purses. If only every famous person opened up their drawers for you, what a wonderful world it would be.

"You want to see the closet?" she asked unnecessarily, flinging it open. Rows and rows and rows of shoes lay in the light-up, floor-to-ceiling closet, and yes, there were plenty of Payless among the Manolos and the Jimmy Choos.

We trooped downstairs, where her assistant awaited. "The gift bags are here from last night," he said. "Shall I load them in?" Load? What was in those things?

She grinned. "You know it!" she said with relish.

Book Featured in Redbook's "What to do This Month"

From the June issue of Redbook:

You Too Can be a Celebrity Journalist!

From this week's New York magazine...

(Or click to read original)

You Too Can Be a Celebrity Journalist!

Jancee Dunn, grand wizard of the celebrity profile and all-around nice Jersey girl, reveals the secrets to making any star open up in her new memoir, But Enough About Me. How simple is it? Just follow these tips.

By Vanessa Grigoriadis

1.Step one: Do your research. Surf eBay “for kooky merchandise that relates to your celebrity. At the very least, you can breeze in and open with ‘Did you know that the bidding for one of your cigarette butts is up to $12.50?’ A normal person might recoil at your stalkerlike tendencies but most famous people will…light up like Times Square.”

2. Step two: Tell the celebrity you don’t believe him, and you’re likely to get evidence to the contrary, as Dunn did with Dolly Parton. “ ‘I heard you still like Velveeta,’ I said, raising a skeptical eyebrow. She was indignant. ‘I do!’ she hollered. ‘You want me to show you my apartment next door? I fried up some Spam yesterday morning!’ ”

3. Step three: Tell the celebrity you do believe him, at least when it comes to God. “ ‘God is in control of everything,’ said Beyoncé. ‘Yes he is,’ said I. At that particular point, the Creator had every right to strike me down right on that tour bus, because I had not been to church in years.”

4. Step four: If you are nervous, take something. When Dunn heard she was going to interview Madonna, “you can best believe that I hotfooted to the health food store and bought two bottles of Calms, particularly after one of the people at her record company advised me not to act afraid, because she smells fear, like a dog.”

5. Step five: But don’t take heroin, even if Scott Weiland’s offering. “ ‘I’ve got two clean needles. If you don’t want to shoot up, you can snort it,’ ” he told Dunn. “For a moment, I thought about it. If heroin happened to be on your to-do list, there would certainly be worse ways to try it than with a slinky rock star as your limo glided through the gardenia-scented canyons of the Hills.”

6. Advanced maneuver, for use in digging for dirt on film sets: “Forget the hair and makeup people . . . Ditto the crew. Production assistants and interns will flee from you in terror…You need someone nonunion. You need someone who is completely mercenary. You’ll be needing the van driver.”

7. Bonus super-duper advanced maneuver: “Pay attention only to the drummer…[H]is other bandmates, particularly the heretofore-mute sunglasses-wearing lead singer, will at first be confused, then annoyed. Finally, their competitive spirit will take over, and they will enthusiastically jockey for attention, offering amusing anecdotes about groupies and telling off-color jokes. Do not use any quotes from the drummer.”

Review in Library Journal

This from a very nice "starred" review just out in Library Journal...

“This memoir of a Jersey girl–turned–hip Manhattan writer sparkles with wry humor, touching honesty, and celebrity insight. ..Her genial family and beloved Jersey landscape provide a colorful framework for her coming of age…[Dunn’s] hilariously entertaining approach not only provides an incisive glimpse into the eclectic nature of Dunn’s subjects—who range from Madonna to Barry White—but also smoothly complements the material on her personal life.”

Book Featured in Vogue's 'best memoirs this season' Roundup

From the May, 2006 Vogue:

"From the trenches of celebrity profiling comes young culture reporter Jancee Dunn's pitch-perfect But Enough About Me...A Suburban Jersey Girl's Unlikely Adventures Among the Absurdly Famous(HarperCollins). For the madcap Rolling Stone scribe, sharing Velveeta with Dolly Parton and being mistkane for Ben Affleck's girlfriend were just a few fun stops on the way to the realization that everyone—herself included—has a story to tell."

Review in Kirkus Reviews

April 1, 2006
But Enough About Me

Jancee Dunn

Mall-rat moves to the city, becomes a Rock Chick, then rediscovers her inner nerd.
In high school, the author sported “a perm that was extreme even by mid eighties New Jersey standards, rendering my hair as dense and impenetrable as a boxwood hedge.” She dreamed of a glamorous life, but as she entered adulthood, it seemed the world had anything but glamour in store for her. After dropping out of the University of Delaware, Dunn moved in with her parents and went to work as a fact-checker for an ad agency. This was the kind of job to which a gal wore a plaid suit with giant shoulder pads, a string tie and a hairspray helmet. Bored stiff, Dunn leapt at a chance to interview for an editorial-assistant post at Rolling Stone. Charming the higher-ups with her decided lack of Ivy League polish, she got the gig and soon had her own byline. With the new job came a fantasy urban life: countless men, countless clubs, not to mention Ray Charles serenading her in an elevator and Christina Aguilera sending her a bouquet of flowers. Eventually, though, Dunn realized that this ultra-cool existence was not for her. She began hanging out with her mom and spending most nights in her apartment watching documentaries. Despite the unwieldy subtitle and the distracting how-to-interview-a-celebrity interludes, this debut memoir isn’t really about working at Rolling Stone. It’s about becoming acquainted with, and accepting, your true self. Dunn is a master of character development, capturing the essence of a person in just a few, well-chosen details, and she deftly deploys dialogue. Indeed, her prose transforms the predictable plotline of the last 100 pages – as her sisters and friends churn out babies, Dunn dates many losers, and her biological clock ticks ever louder- into something magical. Funny, frothy and fabulous.

Review in Publishers Weekly

But Enough About Me
Reviewed by Publishers Weekly

Known for her celebrity profiles, journalist Dunn blends interviewing tips, dirt-digging secrets and memoir-type snippets in a mix that's tough to define, but a delight to read. As a frequent writer for Rolling Stone and contributor to Vanity Fair, GQ and Vogue, Dunn can reach an array of stars and has the anecdotes to prove it. She details ducking the paparazzi with Mel Gibson, eating in Dolly Parton's kitchen and posing for three minutes as Ben Affleck's girlfriend to prove a point about how quickly gossip spreads. Refreshingly, she maintains an "Aw, shucks" quality that has become her work's hallmark. By providing a zesty glimpse at her New Jersey childhood and young adulthood, Dunn offers a grounded counterpoint to the breezy tales of pop idol handling. Even after rising in the ranks at Rolling Stone, Dunn is mildly astounded that a Jersey girl who still slips phrases like "Yeah, right!" into her conversation should be shaking in her ritzy hotel room after being berated by Flashdance icon Jennifer Beals for asking about her personal life. Amusing, clever and affable, Dunn shares a satisfying memoir-turned-celebrity dish.