Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, especially one who makes a living out of putting words together.
Freelance journalist Sara Hammel built her career covering the Hollywood red carpet for People magazine for over 20 years, traveling the world to attend the now uncoupled TomKat’s wedding, tailing Prince William and his then girlfriend Kate Middleton to catch the moment when he would propose, and sipping champagne with Roger Federer while interviewing him about sex and the perfect woman.
When Hammel wrote a young adult novel called “The Underdogs,” her one request to the magazine she devoted her working life to was to promote it, in print or online, just a short piece to spread awareness about her book.
People magazine ignored her request, which prompted Hammel to write a long, scathing letter lamenting the decline of the magazine and its flagrant disrespect for hardworking journalists like herself.
Hammel’s savage, torch-the-bridges letter immediately made news, but this wasn’t the only juicy thing to come out of her rant; the prolific celebrity writer published an e-book entitled “Red Carpet Regret: Confessions of a cynical celebrity journalist,” an entertaining, all-too-short mini-memoir about the inner machinations of Hollywood’s beautiful and powerful folks.
In “Red Carpet Regret,” Hammel writes that the adage “one should never meet one’s heroes” is absolutely true—when your heroes happen to be Hollywood celebrities, who turn out to be boring, vapid or all too human, shattering your illusions about them.
In the book, she recounts the celebs who were rude (J. Lo almost spat on her; J. Law has her snobbish moments; Angelina Jolie is as manufactured as they come) and who were great (Hugh Jackman and James McAvoy were absolute sweethearts). Hammel also peppers the book with blind items that will keep you guessing and obsessively Googling.
Hammel hopes to have the short memoir published as an expanded, full-length book. In the meantime, if you’ve ever wondered what it was like to “stalk” celebrities for a living, make sure to pick up her e-book.
“Red Carpet Regret: Confessions of a cynical celebrity journalist” is available at the Kobo bookstore (store.kobobooks.com) for P140.20. Kobo eReaders are available at National Book Store or download the Kobo app for iOS/Android at the App Store/Google Play.
