Nanny Diaries

Here’s an interesting story at many different levels. A young Oregonian goes to California and ends up as a nanny for Michael Ovits (the guy who got a $100,000,000 bonus from Disney after being there one year) then Debra Winger and Danny DiVito. Her book is in the “tell almost all vein.” Dishing dirt on celebrities seems like a sure winner but this story got off to a slow start.
Suzanne Hansen and her sister partner decided to self-publish. They sold 4500 books but somehow managed to spend $100,000 doing it. As a last gasp measure they spent a few more bucks on a company that spams publishers. Who knew about this service? I sure didn’t. Surprisingly, they got lots of responses, an agent, a $100,000 advance and a booking on the Today Show. There’s already a movie coming out based on a different book called the  Nanny Diaries starring Scarlett Johansson (we pause for just a moment to contemplate Scarlett as our nanny) so there’s probably not a movie deal in the works. But the book ought to sell pretty well. The last few years having a nanny has been a pain in the ass for lots of people. I'm thinking of Bernie Kerik and Zoe Baird to name a couple. Typically the problem comes from hiring illegals. Might be a bigger problem hiring someone who likes to write.