#Authoring Episode 18: A Career Memoir About Gossip and Smart Pop Culture, From Ben Widdicombe

Ben Widdicombe is the only writer to have worked for the New York Post’s Page Six, TMZ, and The New York Times, “an unusual Triple Crown,” to say the least. It also helped him build a resume of interviewees that includes bold-faced names from Hollywood, high society, New York hotspots, and the White House. He recalls his most memorable experiences with all of them in his fun, insightful new book, Gatecrasher: How I Helped the Rich Become Famous and Ruin the World, which he talks to us about on this week’s #Authoring.

Run in with a red-faced Donald Trump? Ben had one. Breaking the story of Kim Kardashian’s career-making videotape? He did it. Gain new respect for Monica Lewinsky as he saw her refuse to allow herself to be permanently cast as a political villainess? He did that, too.

Widdicombe, who launched his media career after moving to New York from his native Australia in the ‘90s, names names and shares details of time spent with the biggest celebrities of the last 25 years. But he also turns a breezy summer read into something deeper by putting these decades of pop culture into a larger cultural context, connecting the dots on how the likes of Paris Hilton and reality TV made it possible for a Trump presidential win.

And we also get some tips on the art of dealing with a difficult interviewee from the man who’s maneuvered dozens of them.

Resources:

• Ben Widdicombe on Twitter
• Gatecrasher: How I Helped the Rich Become Famous and Ruin the World
• Avenue Magazine