FASHION & STYLE    Full screen version   Back to Fashion Page   Back to Home Page   (Check back soon for more updates!)

May 26, 2006 :   "Stars and Me," and the star in me.

When I was shopping for clothes with Sharon Stone, it hit the rumor mill like Angelina Jolie decided to have her NEXT child with George Clooney! For Gods sake I was JUST shopping and so was she! We were in an upper line boutique, just the two of us, so gawkers did not bother us. NO ONE was there, save the owner, working with Sharon, and a salesclerk, whom I knew, who had her own drama going on. ** (see below)

We tried clothing on, this and that. I had come for a black shiny silk suit, with somewhat low cut pant’s that were slim on the leg and a jacket that was JUST the right cut. I had a tour coming up that was big, Prince and Glam Slam, the next night in Chicago, it was a real run with meetings with studios and engineers, such as Prince’s own. Sharon was shopping while trying to recover from shooting that silly western, and staying in one of the many resorts we have, that are called with affection, "fat farms." She had promptly, as I would, crossed off the menu they give you when you check in, ALL exercise classes, ALL desert hikes and circled ALL massages, ALL beauty treatments and ALL nice dinners. We WERE, as they gossip mill said, "a lot alike’" in that action. HELL NO, I didn’t’ need exercise, I’m an athlete! Sharon was a size 10 at the time, but she wore it quite well. We were pleased to discover that not only were we the same astrological sign, but the same height too! (5’8") I was a six at the time, but I’ve seen an eight, certainly! My DANCE weight is quite thin, but I don’t like to walk around that thin, I look like I need to be fed! I, like Sharon, slim down for a show, or a shoot, but I don’t fit in a 10 at my natural weight, I am small boned and she is not. Sharon has freckles and I do not. She has straight hair, I do not, my hair is wavy. There is also the fact that she is blond and I am not.

The rumor mill said this: "You SHOULD HAVE SEEN Annalisa and Sharon Stone shopping!" "Two Diva’s trying on this and that and posing this way and that." B.S.! Total B.S.! Neither of us are or would be "Diva’s." Posing? Why would we do that? It was just WE in the store? We were commenting on each other’s and our own choices, and we were buying clothes! Damn! EVERY where I went here, I was confronted with "I heard about you and Sharon Stone!" I’m going to tell you that this sux and you are going to think, "sure, what a LIE!" The reason I think that people think entertainers are vain and low on integrity is that it makes them feel better about themselves. In the few years I have spent getting to know those who are not artists, I have found that those people in the audience are not happier than us, nor are they more honest. I have found that the suburban folk I have met are more likely to bite you in the back and forget loyalty over something so simple as a person having a better vehicle than the other! Cat fights abound out there in the "real world," and I know why, I believe. I think it is because NO ONE IS WATCHING "SUSAN" at Wal Mart. They are too busy watching those of us who work and get watched! The knives in my back are from "normal folk,’ and not from my "tribe.’ For Shame!

I have to watch whose name I use when I talk about my life because I just don’t have many normal experiences! I do not have them and I don’t even know what normal is like! No grocery stores, no gas stations but I’m telling you here and now, the truth: Sharon Stone, others, as well as I WORK OUR AS* OFF! I did not "get lucky," I worked and work as hard or even harder than anyone I know at this time ever has! Surprise to me, I’ve found that others do not work so hard as I did and do! A 9 to 5, after studying it, could be a rest for some I know!

When Sharon and I went shopping those few days, I was staying with my X husband whom I am still friendly with. He waited and waited for Sharon to call so he could tell his friends she did! Once, my X husband, years after our divorce, turned his car around, as I heard, and went to check out a woman crossing the street! He was with his best friend, a dermatologist, and he did the single guy thing I guess, he spun around to check this chick out. That "chick," was I! He never hears the end of it, of course, from his friends. How do I feel? I feel like the sleaze that I married and had a child with is the kind of man that even when his high level hormones stopped controlling him was a man that would turn around and head over to harass a woman like myself! I hate that stuff! Of course, having a couple son’s I know men when young are pretty much driven by down below, but later, well, one would think. The last statement is only my opinion, but I am also one who does not need a lot to make my sexuality work. No, I was not flattered, but some may think I am, right? I’ll bet every woman my X-husband has dated thinks I’d be thrilled at his chasing me down and why? I submit that she thinks this of me because of her value system, and her integrity.

I have a history with "famous people." I’ve known them all my life and I’ve dodged fame for the reason people finally do now; Fame is cheap. It is not based on talent. I felt this way very young.

Now and then when I am talking to someone, trading stories about life, love and the good and the bad, I may mention someone that person knows. It might be that person is someone that has some fame and whoever I am talking to be a "fan," or it might be that the person has some money and that may impress the person. There are times when whom I mention is, for example, my cousin, who the person I’m talking to has a crush on because he is "cute," and is the head of his class at a large university in Music Theory. I did not know, don’t know, but I mention the person because the story matches, I was with the person when I was doing what I am speaking about, or I may not even know they are "someone." This can cause all kinds of trouble. Who knew? I did not, really, I didn’t learned SO much from some people who have "fame," and I try to hide these names from conversation to appear "normal," and even "humble," although I have no pride that I was with any certain person. I am not a "fan," of anyone. Anyone but those who impress me with their friendship and love. And I started out this way.

When I was a child, my sister was a "fan." My older sister had "pin ups" and she had big fits of excitement when her "bad," which meant, "good," "stars," made a television appearance. God save you if you spoke during one of these cherished people’s performances. Not a word could be spoken until that celebrity finished their performance. She even adored Rod Stewart she said, "even though he was ugly." Well, I didn’t think he was ugly, but I didn’t like him until the release of "Maggie May." After that, well, I might not have liked this or that, but my sister worshiped his every breath as he sang on our "record player," over and over and over again! I could NOT understand this worship. I could not feel it for any performer, but I did like some things that some artists did. In fact, some things I saw thrilled me! It was not the PERSON, but the performance I loved. THAT performance at that time, I might not like the next one. Of course this does not apply to some artists, some cannot miss if they try, they are the naturals.

And so this attitude caused me great trouble when I left home after a few appearances on this show or that due to my parents putting me in situations that caused me to appear on television. These performances were NOT seen as "special," they were seen as a pain in the A**, and that is a quote from my father. So, I did not think I was special or anyone else on that damned television, or stage! This was not so in the world waiting for me, and I was in for a big surprise!

I remember when I was 16 and I met two or three "famous," people. Each I learned from, but what I learned was about life, not about how awesome they were. I was BAD at idol worship. I never expected it and I never gave it. I was LAME at these emotions.

As for Sharon and I and our shopping vacation, I bought, that one day, the black suit. I asked her if she wanted to try it, there was only one. She said no. She said, "Black makes me look hard." I said, "NO, I don’t think so! She bought, (that day,) a beige dress and some earrings.)

Later, about a week later, I saw a photo of Sharon on Johnny Carson. She had just appeared. There she was, in a black suit! Lookin’ "Hard,’ and laughing out loud!

I don’t wear beige at all. Well, almost not at all.

What did I learn from Sharon? To wear sunglasses in public places to as she said, "put up a barrier," between me and "them." That is not something I do. I find myself able to ignore easily. I can concentrate just fine.

**Her drama was that at 22 or so, and at University, she had worked and WORKED to seduce and marry a "white boy," when she was VERY Jewish, who had a BIG trust fund coming to him when he was 25. Since they were both in college and new at it, she had to put it ALL on to shamelessly catch him and marry him FAST and for CERTAIN. She made no effort to disguise her attraction to this man/boy, and for that I loved her stuck-on-herself reality! The man/boy was a party boy, so this young Jewish girl, who did work, let him go on "road trips," with his friends and smoke some weed, get dead-drunk, act out, etc. She did this she said because he would be reined in when he inherited that money, and also, his father DID visit from time to time to make sure his little boy/Man, was behaving. She didn’t mind his antics, so long as she was reassured he loved her often enough to know the money would be hers. I did not like her at all at first. I promptly gave her my ballet face, which is no _expression at all, while I was highly animated with the manager and another sales girl, my friends. This was a store where a nice woman could make about 80,000 to 100,000 a year in commission. I decided I liked this new, young addition to the staff when she openly declared herself a "bitch," and she was totally open about her upcoming nuptials and them being for money, hard, cold cash, left to her love by his "grandma." My friend, the manager had three different wedding showers to for HER wedding so as to fit everyone in, and to make sure all who went to each shower were speaking to each other, but THAT is another story of it’s own, trust me on this. Me? I only did things like fill the Jacuzzi of the health club we owned with champagne and such… Little displays like that, when I married!

(I don’t take comments unless they are in email form, please feel free to email me.)