Tina Brown

As editor and reviver of Vanity Fair Magazine, Tina Brown got to meet gazillions of celebrities that most of us only dream of meeting let alone sharing dinner with. So reading her Diaries is a potent exercise in ENVY. Her diaries also introduce us to a bunch of celebrities we never heard of, and that makes her Diaries even more desirable.

That she sat through hundreds of these dinner without touching a drop of alcohol is incredible. By her own admission, Brown is allergic to alcohol. As one commentator put it, these diary entries couldn’t have been so detailed if alcohol was a mainstay of her diet.

Her excitement at making the “big bucks” and living in the New York-Long Island bubble is contagious. Boy, if I were in her position I would have jumped right in. Clearly, her talent has taken her far.

And that talent extended to some very funny and moving writing.

As a mother she suffered from not knowing what was keeping her son from adapting to school and normal home life. In those days, Asperger’s Syndrome was barely understood.… (more)