Move over, Joan Rivers. There’s a new carpet critic in town. He’s absolutely glam. He’s pals with Jerry Seinfeld. And he’s … Canadian? Meet Steven Cojocaru, Today show celebrity correspondent and fashion columnist for People Magazine. Cojocaru (not to be confused with the 80s new wave band Kajagoogoo) tells the story of how he made the great leap from an itty bitty Montreal journalist to Rodeo Drive in his first book, The Red Carpet Diaries: Confessions of a Glamour Boy.
Cojocaru’s book is a fabulous pick for fashionistas because a majority of its content shows the author’s lengthy psychology behind choosing what to wear to parties and awards shows. However, somewhere over the Versace spring wardrobe rainbow and beyond the rock-star orange Alexander McQueen feather coats, Cojocaru actually had a pretty interesting life before his Jimmy Choos touched the red carpet.
He grew up in Montreal with his parents, who are Romanian immigrants. He was a nice little Jewish boy, and one of his favorite things to do was go shopping with his mother, whom he crowns a fashion goddess. (See if you trust his opinion after reading what he learned about fashion from his mom: ‘Gold lame is the new black. Big hair has a religious purpose.’) Cojocaru was a teenage outcast; he immersed himself in celebrity culture, fashion and gossip, and he wrote fan mail to Joan Rivers. Finally, his Hollywood obsession paid off, when his parents paid for him to live in Beverly Hills while he tried to make his dream of becoming a fashion writer who brushes elbows with A-list stars come true.
Needless to say, Cojocaru made it. Furthermore, he has enough bitchy opinions and glamorous anecdotes to fill an entire book. He ecstatically praises the people he loves, and wonderfully shoots down the people he cannot stand. The book will take an average reader less than two hours to zip through. You might as well take the chance if you’re looking for a humorous, yet juicy, celebrity scoop or if you want to know more behind the man of mystique who describes himself as a ‘malnourished lhasa apso.’