Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
With her debut novel, “The Singer Sisters” (out Aug. 6, 2024 from Flatiron Books), Sarah Seltzer weaves together a multi-generational story of an alt rocker and her folk legend mother. Full of fractured relationships, deceit, love and mystery, the page turner reads like a confessional full of music that readers can almost hear.
“I have filmed most in New York. The good is that New York is really its own character and that can change the shape of a project in such a beautiful way,” said “This is Me…Now” actress Ashley Versher. “But as for the bad, I mean it’s New York, so wild things can happen at any moment of the day.”
“It’s always interesting to me the weight that [some Asian Americans] carry around from not having grown up with people who look like them,” said “Quantum Leap” star Raymond Lee. “I was fortunate enough to grow up in Koreatown and Glendale, where our star quarterback was Asian and the smartest three students in our class were Asian.”
“My wife is a public defender who now works for the ACLU,” said Kevin Frazier of “Entertainment Tonight.” “I have a job that’s on TV. I remember one day I was in New Orleans and I had to wait two hours for Britney Spears, and then I had to get on a plane and go somewhere else. And I said to my wife (on the phone), “Yeah, it’s just another tough day,” and she said, “Actually, I’m standing outside of a dry cleaner, looking in a dumpster at a murdered woman.” And I was like, “OK, I’m going to shut up now.”
“While on tour, I definitely like to experience what the places we’re (playing in) have to offer,” said Dirty Honey vocalist Marc LaBell. “So there’s quite a few places that we still haven’t been able to get to post-pandemic.”
Photographer Bob Gruen says photographing John Lennon and Yoko Ono in New York City was easy, because even though people recognized them, the famous couple was left alone.
Dr. Jen Gunter has two New York Times columns dedicated to women’s health, a Canadian docuseries called “Jensplaining” and a very active social media presence where she disseminates medical fallacies in a way that the general public can understand. Her latest project is the book “The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina: Separating the Myth from the Medicine” (Citadel, $18.95) — a Publishers Weekly and New York Times bestseller.
“Face the Nation” moderator and CBS News’ chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan has seen the world. She has reported stories from Havana, Kabul, Beijing, Tehran and throughout the United States. “A lot of the traveling that I have done is for work,” says Brennan. “I’ve been to spots in Afghanistan and Iraq that are lovely, too, but I wouldn’t put those on travel itineraries.”
Veteran actor Tim Lounibos (“Hawaii Five-0,” “Criminal Minds,” “NCIS”) is best known for his portrayal of Ed Sung on Amazon’s “Bosch.” Well-traveled and always ready to explore, the actor said he learned a valuable lesson from his treks around the world. “We all might look different and have differing perspectives, but we’re all essentially the same.”
“Friends from College” star Jae Suh Park is based out of Los Angeles, where she resides with her husband, actor Randall Park, and their daughter, Ruby. But she also spends a lot of time in New York City, where her Netflix series is filmed. “I would say that New York is the seventh friend in the show,” says Park, who portrays Marianne. “The energy of the city is so inspiring. I can’t help but bring it into my role on the show.”
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Luna Blaise has been juggling her burgeoning acting career (“Concrete Kids,” “Fresh Off the Boat,” “Surviving Theater 9”) with concert dates to promote her latest single, “Camera Roll.” One of the best parts of her job, she says, is getting to travel to so many different places. “I’m pretty adventurous when it comes to trying new food while traveling,” says Blaise. “I try street cart food sometimes. I love both sweet and spicy foods. I’m very open-minded.”
“A Small Revolution” author Jimin Han says, “When I was about 10 years old, we drove to Boca Raton, Florida. My great aunt joined us, flying in from South Korea. We went to the beach a lot, but one afternoon we went with her to a cemetery. She knelt at a grave and cried. I heard later that it was the grave of her estranged son, who had been a marine biologist and died in a scuba-diving accident. I’ve developed a novel around that visit and that mysterious great aunt.”
Born in Paris, New York-based author Anka Muhlstein has written biographies of James Mayer de Rothschild, Robert Chevalier de la Salle and Queen Victoria. Winner of the Academie Francaise and the Goncourt Prize for Biography, she and her husband, Louis Begley, co-authored “Venice for Lovers.” In her latest book — “The Pen and the Brush: How Passion for Art Shaped Nineteenth-Century French Novels” (Other Press, $18.95) — Muhlstein take readers into the world of an elite artistic community that included Proust, Cezanne and Balzac.
Based out of Los Angeles and Brooklyn, where he was born, comedian and actor Tony Rock says his favorite cities include Houston, Atlanta, Miami and Washington, D.C. But like his elder brother, Chris, he says nothing can replace New York City. “New York is home,” he says. “It’s so unique that there is no other place like it.” The host of TV One’s game show, “The Game of Dating,” Rock’s previous work includes hosting Russell Simmons’ “All Def Comedy Live” and roles in “Everybody Hates Chris” and “The Redemption of a Dog.”
As one of the breakout stars of the Netflix original series “Orange Is the New Black,” Jessica Pimentel brings life to complicated inmate Maria Ruiz. The actress has another side to her as well: musician. She fronts the indie death-metal band Alekhine’s Gun. A huge fan of New York, Pimentel resides in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn.
After college, “The Devil Wears Prada” author Lauren Weisberger backpacked around various parts of the world, including Europe, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Thailand, India, Nepal and Hong Kong.
Based out of a small village 40 minutes outside of Paris, French film producer and “Mon amie americaine” author Michèle Halberstadt says, “I live in a house that used to be an old farm. Although it’s close to the city, I’m surrounded by nature. I’m 60 years old and I’ve read from an Italian writer that 50 is the old age of youth, and 60 is the youth of old age. I like that.”
“China Rich Girlfriend” author Kevin Kwan has traveled the world, but he says that London reminds him of home. “I live in Manhattan and this summer marks my 20th year as a New Yorker,” says Kwan. “But London has a strong kinship to New York. They are both cosmopolitan cities overflowing with history and culture and yet completely focused on modern life. The tea and scones are much better in London, though.”
Of the first overseas trip he made with the Ramones in 1976, Marky Ramone says, “We were with Richard Hell and toured with the Clash. It was great. London was everything that I had thought it would be. It was like what we had seen on TV, postcards and the movies.”
“For me growing up, the night sky was at the local planetarium,” says astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who resides in New York. “There’s no other way I would’ve been able to see it.” Laughing, he adds, “I want to write a novel one day where the plot will include a group of amateur astronomers. During a blackout that always seems to happen in big cities, people will go outside and be forced to look up to really see the night sky for the first time.”