Ed McMahon and I first met when I was featured on the Johnny Carson Show after I won Miss Chinatown USA. I was dressed in a qi pao or cheongsam, which is a Mandarin gown, which after the Shanghainese got their hands on it, became a body-hugging number with high slits and high tight mandarin collar. You can’t eat, sit or talk in it. If you do sit, the two super high side slits creep all the way up your thighs and settle at your hips. To make the gown look right, you must stand erect with shoulders and chest out. Men were undoubtedly behind the design of this "traditional" Chinese gown.

The dress I wore for taping at the Burbank studios was a silvery gold number that my mother and I designed and had made in Hong Kong. It didn’t turn out exactly as we would have liked. The gold spangled trim looked a bit like a tacky Miami Beach palm tree during a monsoon. Nevertheless, my mother and my first foray into designing a beauty pageant dress would have to be surmounted, with….you guessed it….standing straight with shoulders back and chest out.

When I was introduced and waved to the studio audience, mid-western born Johnny quipped, “We didn’t have girls like that where I come from!” Then, Ed made that wonderfully famous chuckle.

Later, I went on to compete as the Spokesmodel contestant for the weekly TV show called “Star Search” where Ed was the Host. As Spokesmodels (this moniker was coined first here), we were allowed to select any gown we wanted to appear on the show. The racks were heavy with the finest, brightest, Vegas-esqe, Vargus-esque selections. There is something to be said for picking a gown that is too, too much. My competition grabbed the heaviest, most expensive and most elaborate beaded dress out of my grasp. I thought I had been had. But when she appeared on stage in it, she looked like a very full Christmas tree. The last dress hanging on the racks was this (relatively!) simple red dress that I ended up wearing when I won as Grand Champion. I called it my “Hyundai” dress. It cost about as much as a car and it also had to be returned.

Ed was generous with his time; he would laugh and talk with me and the other contestants back stage during the 6 weeks of filming Star Search. His wife and baby were beautiful and we all found him to be the sweetest man.  After I won the contest, he gave me a big bear hug and told me how proud he was. Flash forward to the Academy Awards when I saw him two years later, he told me that I was his favorite Spokesmodel. He might have told all the winners that. But he sure knew how to make someone feel special.

He died today at the age of 86 and I will always have the fondest memories of him.

As a moderator for the meet and greet session at Philadelphia’s Ritz Bourse Theatre for the upcoming movie, “Julie and Julia”, I was able to get a personal glimpse into this light-hearted film scheduled for release in early August. The film shows us that as women, we can do!

The movie is based on the intertwining lives of two women, Julie Powell and chef Julia Child, who never met and are both at loose ends; trying to find meaning in their married lives until they strike upon the indefatigable combination of passion, cooking, fearlessness and huge cubes of butter.

I hosted the question and answer session with Julie Powell, who was a New York City government worker who attempts to revitalize her life, her marriage and restore her soul by cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in a period of 365 days. Julie is so taken by Julia and her fearlessness and ability to wear pearls in the kitchen. She blogs about her experience; gains a huge following and becomes a published author. It goes bestseller. Then Nora Ephron turns it into a movie. Baaam! How is that for a transformational career changer, ladies? Amazon calls the book a “masterful melody of Bridget Jones’ Diary meets Like Water for Chocolate.”

In the movie, we also follow the education of Julia Child who is so brilliantly played by Madame Meryl Streep, who glows as a wife of an American diplomat who finds her way through cooking. Julia Child grew up during the conventional “marshmallows are a food” era, but her life was strikingly unconventional. She married late in life at 40, lived abroad, reportedly worked as a spy for the Americans, worked on her cookbook for 8 years before she was published, then went on to become a much loved TV star. We’ve got to admire her tenacity and her ability to transform herself, even in later age!

Hey Gal Pals, I'll be featured on the NBC 10! show on Wednesday, May 9th between 11am-12pm. I hope you can catch it! We'll be talking about SnapGlow.TV and how there's been a groundswell of support for glamour, fashion and beauty right here in Philadelphia!

I'll be hanging out with super cool hosts, Bill and Lori. I see Bill all the time in my neighborhood Whole Foods. He's a looker that one, even without his on-camera makeup. (Shout out to ya, Blll!) On the other hand, he hardly recognizes me when I'm in my sweats tossing cartons of rice milk ice cream into my cart so fast it could make your head spin.

I'm looking forward to seeing them both and I hope you can join the fun!

 

 

 

LET'S TALK SWIMSUITS, FAKE TANS, BEACH SKIN CARE!

Hello all you sunshine fans! Let’s hit the beach and shore!

Join me for a live chat at 11am-12 noon on Monday, June 8th. You can find the quick sign-up area on the home page of www.philly.com in the right hand column. It's super easy, breezy sign-up!

We’ll be talking about great swim suits, taking your questions about cover-ups, chat about sunscreen and we’ll all confer on the best way to create a fake tan!

We would love to hear from you! You bet your beach body that Mai Tai’s with a paper umbrella will be served.


 

Please don’t call me cheap. I prefer the word “financially responsible” (everything extravagant but the price).

In this financially ailing world, where’s a girl who loves beauty products supposed to turn? Of course, we are department store devotees and Sephora sycophants. But if you need a quick fix to mix into your existing posse of products, get thee to the drug store, darling!

»  More Drug Store Cowgirl

The new, improved Star Trek is out. Hotter, younger and definitely better looking stars: it’s a whole new cast. I can’t wait to see it! Of course, your old SnapGlowGirl, co-starred as Romulan Ambassador, Caithlin Dar in “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier” exactly 20 years ago. How does it feel to be wholly and utterly replaced? Well, I feel Romulans, like myself, never die. We just get smaller residuals.

My fondest memories were of sitting next to Leonard Nimoy in the makeup chair for 2 hours each day. We both needed a lot of work, literally and figuratively. They shaved my eyebrows to create that quintessential Romulan arched look. My eyebrows never quite grew back. Ah, dear reader, the high price of Romulan recognition!

My lovely, silvery, flowing, metallic costume was actually a recycled look (long before it was a chic concept.) It came from the costume archives at Paramount Pictures from an old knight-in-shining-armor movie. Before I wore it for Star Trek 5, it was already 30 years old. (Yes, I am such a fashion muse. I inspire costumers to look into their dusty closets. Far, far back.) You can see the costume has that sort of gothic, man in the castle look. I believe it was one of a kind. So because there were no replacements, the head costumer used to harangue me about eating or lying down in it (long days, heavy costume/makeup. Must lie down for 10 min. nap). She was positively furious when I absconded a bicycle from lot security and took myself for a ride through Paramount. You can imagine the sight of me riding around in costume, makeup and 12 inch high hair. I was sort of E.T. looking, except the girl kind, I hope.


I don’t have that costume anymore. My mother raised me right, although I believe I was very green behind the proverbial (Romulan) ears. After 8 weeks of filming were over, I returned my glorious costume back to the costume department and the head woman gave me a very funny look. I now realize it is somewhat customary to hold on to your outfit and that it probably would have been okay if I had never returned it. Well, she took that costume off of my hands and now I found out that my same costume got auctioned off to the public. Where was I at that moment? Obviously not staying on top of my Star Trek Conventions to find out the latest memorabilia news. Later, a very cool guy named Aaron from Seattle wrote me to tell me he had my costumes in his basement  (see photo) and he was loaning them to the Seattle Sci-Fi Museum. This is a shout-out to Aaron who I know will take good care of my costumes until he feels the need to warp-speed them back in time to Caithlin Dar’s closet.  Well, being a Romulan Ambassador taught me some good lessons; stay diplomatic and stick around long enough, and you too will be a Romulan relic!

When you get asked to emcee a major foreign policy event, the first thing that goes through your mind, is God Help Me Not Screw Up Their Names. Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Zhou Wenzhong, Tung Cheewah. Say those ten times fast. The second is, what do I wear? I was asked to co-emcee the annual Committee of 100 Gala to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and the US in DC. I got to work with my fellow emcee, David Henry Hwang, who was the Tony Award-winning playwright of M. Butterfly. The palatial Andrew Mellon Auditorium, a stone’s throw away from the Washington Monument served as a dramatic backdrop for the black-tie event.

I wore a Just Cavalli slinky dress that had architectural detailings throughout; mermaid-style with a lively animal-slash-graphic print. A gay architect at the event said “Wow, that is some dress!” Now, coming from him, that’s a great compliment.

Mr. Kissinger and I took pictures backstage, but his secret service minder insisted that there be no flash since “Mr. K.” didn’t want to exacerbate his recent eye trouble, so that’s my excuse for the grainy photo.

The Ambassador from the People’s Republic of China, Zhou Wenzhong, was presented an award at the event. It was an honor to meet him since he has been China’s top representative in Washington, Australia, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

We stayed at the St Regis Hotel and what caught my eye was what appeared to be a normal looking bathroom mirror, until you turned the remote on, and presto-chango, a TV magically appears inside the mirror. Watch the mirror while applying mascara and CNN, without ever having to turn your head. Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the scariest multi-tasker of them all? Missed a spot!

Downstairs, the St Regis had a lovely and surprisingly swanky looking bar: all deep purples, grays and silvers. It inspired me. Wouldn’t that be a lovely outfit?

Al the bartender told me Mariah Carey and Nick Cave were the latest guests in a whirl of celebs who stay here. He also told me with great enthusiasm and intrigue that there are trysts-a-plenty that go on between “countless” Congressman and Senators and their mistresses. He refused to divulge everything, but certainly said enough to whet the carnivorous appetite. But he did fess up to many obligatory secret back doors and entrances throughout the building and how all the staff knew about all the shenanigans.

All this talk of Capitol capers made me take a little gulp. Wouldn’t you know it? My husband and I had hectic schedules that day so we checked in separately and checked out separately. Yup…I’m sure we had the staff  all a-twitter and all a-wondering. After all, it is DC: a hotbed of hot beds.
 

One of my girlfriends called and literally shrieked, “I just got 500 bucks!”  My eardrums were pierced by the sheer volume of her voice, but they perked up, as well. She told me about an amazing website, not something trendy, mind you, but one that was entirely ho-hum and bureaucratic. What’s the magic? Money, baby. Cold, hard cash.

It’s the website for the State of Pennsylvania’s Treasury Department’s Bureau of Unclaimed Property. You literally type in your name, and voila (!), any unclaimed property that belongs to you pops up on the screen. You might have moved and changed your address and that check never made it to you. If you lived out-of-state, the website has some links to other states that you can try as well.  I typed in my name, and alas, fair viewer, I got nada. But it certainly was worth the try!

Coincidentally, Rob McCord is a wonderfully exuberant guy and is always thinking about how he can make our fine state a better place to live. He heads up the Eastern Technology Council and is our newly elected State Treasurer. We went to the outdoor Beyonce/Bono concert for President Obama’s Inauguration back in January. It was blustery cold day in the bone-chilling 20's and he didn’t have a hat. It’s a miracle he didn’t get sick for his own Inauguration. We had so much fun singing “We are the world” together, that he simply “forgot” to tell me about his “little” cash-give-away website. I had to hear it from one of my trusty girlfriends. Men!

Go to: http://www.patreasury.org/Unclaimed/Search.html

Dear viewer, check it out. Did it work for you? Where are we going for lunch?

Our latest video, "Beauty at 30" was a blast to shoot. Our model, Oskana, from Expressions Models and Talent Agency is such, well, a stunner. The camera doesn’t do her justice! Greer Lange, of Expressions Models (www.expressionsmodels.com) in Philadelphia hooked us up with the location. We were able to shoot at Mike Lemon Casting (www.mikelemoncasting.com), one of the top agencies of its kind in Philadelphia. There were many large and impressive movie posters which adorned their waiting room. They've cast all the M. Night Shyamalan movies there. We were supposed to shoot in their studios, but found this cool, post-industrial staircase in the building as a background instead. The peeling and cracking paint in the corridor was a perfect foil for Oskana's flawless skin. Beauty is not only in the realm of women in their 30's, but for women in their 40's, 50's and 60's and beyond. We've found some incredible models for future stories. You won't believe how young they look. We stopped just short of asking where they stowed that portrait of Dorian Grey, but we did manage to pry out their amazing beauty secrets.  Here's to beauty at any age!