Paper #1

Jennifer Klotz
CMN 625
Dr. Ron Bishop
4/20/07


Fame in Conversation Paper


Conversation Setting: Chicago, IL April 2007 Family Suburban Home
Participants – Me, Grandma, Grandpa & Aunt Donna

We are all sitting around my family’s dining room table at my house after just finishing Easter brunch. I mention that while I have been in Philadelphia I accidentally bumped into this woman while I was shopping at a clothing store. I explained how I thought she was dressed a little frumpy and that she had really bright white teeth when she smiled and excused herself after bumping me. Then I added how we each continued to shop around the store for a little bit and both ended up making our way to the fitting rooms at the same time. While I wasn’t really watching her, I was still aware of her presence in the store because she was the only other customer at the time. For a woman that was dressed so frumpy, she carried herself quite regally. She had a distinct, high confidence strut to her walk and she moved as though she thought she always had an audience.
While we were in the dressing room, the sales girl periodically came back to see if we needed anything else. At one of these intervals, it was the sales girl’s mannerisms and treatment of the woman in the fitting room next to me that gave me my first clue that the woman was famous. As the sales girl passed by me carrying some clothes the alleged famous woman didn’t want she looked over at me checking my outfit in the three-way mirror and cocked her eyebrow at me if to say, “We are soooo lucky to be here today along with whomever this other woman was!” Then, the moment of truth, the alleged famous woman came out of her dressing room, to also check her appearance in the three way mirror, without her big floppy hobo hat that she had been wearing before and suddenly, it all made sense. That frumpy woman was Nicole Kidman! Now being a very facially expressive girl, was impressed at my ability to show no sign of shock at her wanting to share the mirror with me when in fact, all I could think of at the present moment was how badly I wanted to ask her if Tom Cruise was really gay and if she was really helping Katie Holmes plot her escape from Tom. Then of course, how she was doing, etc, etc.
Instead I smiled and politely moved over so we could each view how the new clothes would look on us if we decided to purchase them. I made a remark about how if I’m going to pay a little extra for nice clothes than I thought they should probably fit me a little better than this current dress was doing. She, to my surprise, answered, “Oh, I totally agree! And you definitely don’t want to be stuck all night in a dress that doesn’t fit you properly, you’ll be miserable! And dresses should be fun, not miserable.” Then it was my turn to agree, “I totally agree, there is nothing worse than wearing a dress you are tugging at all night instead of enjoying the party.” Well, that was that. Nicole Kidman and I apparently have the same dress philosophy, which quite honestly, I would have pegged her for a ‘fashion before common sense and comfort’ kind of woman, sacrificing her fun at a party to look stunning in a dress that she can’t sit in. However, I was completely wrong on all accounts.
My aunt spoke up first, “Did it look like she had work done? I think she has had botox in her forehead, did you happen to notice…Oh, and is she even skinnier in person?” After I answered her, my grandma reminded us of the story when she was Grace Kelly’s dance stand in for some movie, that she has told us a lot of times before, and got to dance with Bing Crosby as a result of this. Her experience and story are fascinating, but since I was particularly paying attention to reactions for the sake of this paper, I did notice that she seemed to be competing with me and trying to one up me!
My Grandpa just asked me who Nicole Kidman was and if she was worth his interest, so he didn’t really care all that much. My aunt wanted all the dirt on my brush with Nicole Kidman, she seemed really interested in finding her flaws. Not in a mean spirited way though, my aunt seemed to be searching, more or less, for affirmation that even big celebrity names have problems and flaws just like she did. On the other hand, my grandma didn’t care about whether Nicole Kidman had flaws, but seemed intent to prove her worth to the rest of us, by offering up one of her run in with fame stories. My grandma was a very talented dancer and part of that included demonstrating your worth through what you brought to the table, so to speak. Usually that referred to dance ability, but I’m sure after a while in a highly competitive field like dance, that competitiveness becomes part of your personality as well, if it wasn’t already!
The conversation then shifted to what we each got in our Easter baskets and when the egg hunt was going to begin. In my house, fame is important, but Easter egg hunts are far superior!