It is not that I mind the media band wagon-but I have grown weary of the constant over selling of every single element of a celebrity’s life…..wait, on anyonewhodoes anything that warrants a story’s life.  That PR machine always on the oneupmanship of down and dirty.  When does the real person stop and the fabrication start. Where is the person underneath all that what has been created to get a mention, a line, a notice, a nod?   I’ll admit it right here and now:  I tasted the water of PR-and about choked on it.   I was in my sophomore year of not knowing what to delcare- when an internship came up and I took it.  PR assistant for a company that labels and creates buzz for cosmetics.  Like any other sophomore-I thought it would be exciting and glamorous and a way to get free make-up.  Besides- it would be a great way to spend the winter months-surrounded by beauty.  Granted, this was not in a major city-but in a fairly large city in the Peidmont area of North Carolina.  I prepped for my internship-by shopping and going over notes from my communications class…..got my eyebrow waxed into two neat and slightly arched forms, hand my first manicure, signed all the paper work and got ready to show up on my first day of interning.

The office was a converted historic house-with a giant lion mouth of a door knocker….I knocked.  Two of the most perfectly coiffed women I have ever seen greeted me at the same time.  These two women were grown up versions of some of the women I went to school with at a very prestigious womens college…..Both greeted me at the same time-speaking the same sentence with the same cadence and southern drawl….”You must be our intern!!!!!!”   YEA!!!”……..They were both dressed in more color than I had and to this day have ever worn in my life.  AND it was perfectly assembled.  They were Barbie and Madge- the southern pr Barbies-.  I was in black.  Head to toe black.  Thank God I had enough sense to get my eyebrow waxed. One glance at their hands and I instantly knew I had chosen the wrong nail color……both of them were sporting the same slightly rounded manicured nails with a touch of ballet slipper on each and every short,butnotsoshort nail.  I, of course, was under the impression a ballet slipper was something one wore, like in the class I was once asked to leave:  “maybe you should try jazz…..” and that was that.   I am quite sure I had some shade of blue red on my nails.  And they were NOT slightly rounded-short-but not slighty rounded.  That should have been my first clue.

I was ushered in and show around in tandem. The house into office was stunning.  Something out of Southern Living, Ralph Lauren and any southern gay mans house I had ever visited…( and there were several; was into theater-and many a cast party were held at some swanky homosexuals house who had “done everything myself”).  I was so damned impressed.

I was given a schedule-went over my day to day expectations and we were off to a day of interning.  Barbie, Madge and me. 

After two weeks of being told how to “convince someone” of something even if it was not true-and having to create names for each product-which I actually liked-(though I was told my names were just a “scoach” in the wrong direction)- and after being told I was not bending the truth enough and seeing things are they were and not how they should be- Barbie and Madge sat me down in the employee kitchen- which was way, way bigger than my dorm room- and with hand on chin(s) and sweet sighs of regret( as only a southern woman  can do) I was told this was not going to work.  “We” were not a right fit.  I was too truthful and the world of PR prefers to create a truth that appeals to the masses. Barbie, who was the big boss looked at me with just a hint of a pout and said “People pay good money for us to create lies that make them look good…even if they don’t”   Wag the dog do we?…….

From there I went on to finish up my winter session by creating an independant study in New York.  My women studies professor suggested the idea and my mentor signed off on the plan.   I packed all my black and set off on my journey:    “The Influence of PR/Media on Women and the Search for Truth.   I got an A.  I went into acting and never looked back….if Barbie and Madge could see me now.