These days, the only thing you could do to stop firecracker Wendy Williams star of VH1’s ‘Wendy Williams is on Fire’ and author of Wendy’s Got the Heat is hose her down, really hard. Still holding down her top spot in New York’s highly competitive radio market as the host of WBLS’ ‘The Wendy Williams Experience,’ this gossip guru is working overtime to overthrow Howard Stern and ascend to the status of ‘Person of All Media’ du jour. In her standard-fare memoir, Wendy seeks redemption and comes clean about her somewhat sordid past (a messy divorce, an abortion, cocaine addiction, miscarriages and battles with weight) before she blows up into the ultra hot superstar she knows is buried within her fabulously wacky mind.
The aim of the memoir is to steadily establish a connection with an ever-eager audience of like-minded, similarly experienced women, which has always been Wendy’s secret modus operandi. Rather than delving into her training at the hands of radio legends or exploring how she honed her style, she chooses to relate her most painful and poignant experiences.
Oddly, Wendy manages to tone down her inner Miss Thing as she relates the details of her troubled adolescence as an outsider and her struggles as a black woman trying to break into the radio business. The author opts for tact rather than her usual bluntness, employing blind items for the juiciest tidbits in the memoir. This self-proclaimed, full-time Gossip Queen hardly mentions names only the mouth-watering details. Wendy, don’t play us out. Who was the ‘budding R’B’ one-hit wonder that sexually assaulted you? Just how down and dirty was the catfight between you and HOT-97 deejay Angie Martinez? And who exactly are these ‘handfuls’ of gay rappers?
Though my sister-girl Wendy tries her hardest to offer pearls of wisdom (in her ‘Advice Hour’ section, she implores wives to ‘be his whore’ and maintain your attractiveness not just for him, but mainly for you. Because you’re going to find that when you feel attractive you will move more like a cat’), much of her advice comes across as trite and obvious. Perhaps her creative approach to syntax and general phrasing stands in the way of impressing that special reader who possesses high school reading skills. The second sentence of the memoir alone ‘Bitches every day are eyeing this number one spot’ demands several reads before its complicated meaning spills forth. She may wear many hats, but not surprisingly, Wendy never claimed to be a top-notch writer (her sister-in-law, Kim Hunter, acts as a co-author).
Still, her advice manages to hit home for the most unlikely of readers. Ms Williams has, in fact, inspired this critic to indulge in his own form of Advice Hour. Wendy, here’s my list of do’s and don’ts for your next literary outing:
1. I know it’s important to ‘turn on the potty mouth’ for your man, but watch the curses in your next very personal and private memoir. You can keep it clean, classy and real at the same time.
2. Check yourself when you start to get defensive. We know that, after some soul searching, you have come to terms with your current husband’s infidelity. Did we have to hear his weak excuses about needing an outlet during your difficult pregnancy? Girl, be strong, be confident. And for crying out loud, be concise.
3. Wendy’s Got the Heat? More like Wendy’s got the cleav! You made the right choice opting for the plastic surgery, and an even better choice putting the girls on display for the book cover.
4. Lastly, deliver the real goods next time. We want the gossip. We want the dirt. We want to know about Diana Ross’ temper tantrums, J. Lo’s charmed, ridiculous lifestyle and Bobby Brown’s latest run-in with the Fuzz. And most importantly, we want Wendy-on-10. We want our Wendy hot, hot, hot. Because everyone knows that the First Diva of Radio has got the heat. She just needs to fan the flames and deliver the fire.